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Diagnosing Cancer in Pets

I was chatting with an owner at the cats-only boarding facility about various health issues, and the topic of cancer came up. “How do you know if a cat has cancer?” he asked me. I was stumped for a moment, then managed to say that it was probably the same way we figure it out in humans. Biopsies and blood tests. Just to be sure, I did some research. Yeah, I’m the sort of person where if I don’t know the answer to a question, I’ll find it. Cancers that present as tumors on or near the surface of the … Continue reading →

Dogs Helping to Refine Human Cancer Treatments

Approximately six million dogs are diagnosed with cancer each year. Companion animals with cancer can be used by researchers as models for human cancer, to help develop new treatments for man and animal alike. Comparative oncology isn’t a new idea. Dogs were used for testing bone marrow transplant techniques in the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1980s and 1990s, dogs were used to test limb-saving treatments for bone cancer. In 2003, the National Cancer Institute formally founded the Comparative Oncology Program, which aims to use pets to learn more about cancer — and to test and refine new therapies that … Continue reading →

Common Signs of Cancer in Small Animals

I’ve been thinking a lot about canine cancer over the last few days — but dogs aren’t the only pets who can develop cancer. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, there are some common signs of cancer in small animals: Abnormal swellings that persist or continue to grow — you may not see an external tumor, but you may be able to see or feel a lump where an internal tumor is located. Sores that do not heal. These may be hard to see on a long-haired pet, but regular grooming sessions can help you stay aware of what’s … Continue reading →

Dogs Detecting Cancer: Does It Provoke Attacks?

As I wrote last week in National Pet Cancer Awareness: What You Should Know, November is Pet Cancer Awareness Month. As I also wrote in that article, pet cancer reminds me of Budly because that’s why we had to put him to sleep. But the week before Budly’s health took such a nose dive that we had to rush him to the animal ER, he got attacked. The Attack We were out for our usual morning walk and had stopped to talk with a neighbor who had just gotten a chocolate lab puppy. All of a sudden this huge dog … Continue reading →

Cancer Sniffing Dogs

Your four-legged best friend could someday save your life. Since 1989, doctors have been collecting evidence that dogs can indeed sniff out cancer. The first published case involved a woman whose dog kept sniffing at a mole on her leg. Eventually she went to her doctor to discover that the mole was a malignant skin cancer! By 2004, doctors were able to train dogs to sniff out bladder cancer in patient urine samples. In 2006, a study showed that dogs could detect lung cancer and breast cancer just by smelling a person’s breath! After working with a trainer and samples … Continue reading →

The Kanzius Machine

A former businessman named John Kanzius is working on a cure for cancer. No, he’s not a scientist or a doctor. He’s a guy who battled leukemia and spent a lot of time on the cancer ward at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Kanzius said it was the sad faces of the children that inspired him. Although he’s been through more than thirty rounds of chemotherapy for his own cancer, he started work on his radio wave machine because of the kids. During a sleepless night, Kanzius remembered the radios he built as a child. Using his wife’s … Continue reading →

Big Changes in a Little Marriage

On Wednesday March 12 my sister took my mom to Rocky Mountain Urgent Care in Aurora, Colorado, after my mom called her saying she didn’t feel right, she felt like she was going to die and could my sister please come take her somewhere, anywhere after she got off work. When they got to the urgent care center my mom’s oxygen saturation level was at 71 percent so they took some x-rays. The pneumonia she’d had last year had returned –and the nodules on her lung they’d also spotted last year had grown. The Nodules My mom was afraid of … Continue reading →

Spicing Up the Holidays with Healthy Spices

My daughter and I spent the better part of last week in the kitchen trying to get our holiday baking done. We’ve got a few more batches of cookies to go before I can collapse under the Christmas tree and start enjoying the fruits of our labor. It’s been hectic, but there’s nothing better than having your home smell like the inside of a spice factory. The mouth-watering aroma of warm spices got me thinking about the nutritional value of some of the ingredients we’ve been adding to our recipes—-namely the spices. Obviously spices make a dish taste good, but … Continue reading →