Dog Survival, and OBTW DID YOU KNOW THERE IS A CANCER VACCINE?

I owe the authors of Oren’s War an apology; I’ve been sitting on a half-finished review for weeks now while dealing with our Lab/Pit/Shepherd mix Kaya‘s medical problems. If the $3,000 in vet bills to save the dog shot by cops in the post below seems outrageous, it’s not; it strikes me as a bargain.

A few weeks ago, our vet spotted a black mass on Kaya’s tongue. Looked like melanoma; she recommended surgery and the next week we brought Kaya in for pre-surgery prep. The ECG came back showing an irregular heart rhythm, precluding anesthesia, and possibly indicating an enlarged heart and/or congestive heart failure. Not good. Doc wanted a cardiologist consult. The one provided by the ECG company said, essentially, “no problem, if she dies on the table she dies.” Riiight. Our vet consulted a cardiologist she respects, and that one said in essence surgery was not a good idea without a more extensive ECG. So, after paying $1k for all that, off we went to the cardiologist. After the new and longer ECG, good news. Kaya does indeed have some valve leakage, but no significant enlargement, and the irregularity appears not only manageable under anesthesia, but also possibly a byproduct of the mass on her tongue. Remove the mass, and the irregularity might subside.

On the other hand, the oncologist in the same office did NOT like the look of the mass, and was worried that Kaya’s slightly swollen lymph glands might indicate that it had already spread to the lymph nodes. So, tests were taken, and I got the results today — no cancerous cells in the lymph glands, about the best news I could have hoped for. So after paying another $800, we’re back to where we started — surgery prep to remove the mass from her tongue.Which will probably cost about $2k out the door.

Now, we do have pet insurance, so 85% of those costs should be coming back to me after I make the claim. So I’m not as financially gobsmacked as the poor folks whose dog got shot.
However, here’s the interesting part of all this. As the oncologist was prepping me for what might occur if the news were bad, he told me that THERE IS A CANCER VACCINE, currently used for canine oral melanomas. According to this article, it was just in the laboratory stage when some veterinarians got wind of it and asked to try it on their canine patients, which of course was approved much more quickly than human trials. And the results in dogs have been nothing short of miraculous — our oncologist said that where they can surgically or radiologically remove the tumor, when followed by vaccination, dogs’ lifespans are — on average — triple what they would be without the vaccine.

The mechanism is intriguing: deactivated melanoma cells are infused with human DNA, which causes the dog’s body to recognize them as foreign and activate an immune-system response to destroy the cancer.

I — and my dogs — enjoy living in the 21st century!

Yes I’m an attorney. No, I am not your attorney, and nothing in this post constitutes legal advice or opinion.