Pets and Cancer: What This Vet Wants You To Know

Tonight I spent ten minutes feeding Brody peanut butter on a tongue depressor so I could remove some staples from his chin. 10 days ago he had yet another mass removal.

I think we’re at four mass removals now, maybe five. Five masses and one ear. At least two of those masses represented dangerous cancers in their early stages, and according to the pathology reports, they are gone. It is one of the things you do when you have a pet, especially a Golden.

I do this willingly and gladly, because as good as I’ve gotten at hospice and palliative care, I have no desire to go down that road until I absolutely have to. Brody’s about to turn eight, and to me that means we’re still just kind of getting started. Cancer reaches its peak in dogs around ten years of age. Our vigilance as owners keeps our pets alive so they remain to steady our hands, warm our feet and melt our hearts.

I am so, so, so sick of cancer yet I know it’s always out there, an everpresent croc in the waters, floating around just under the surface. I’ve lost almost all my dogs to cancer and it’s entirely possible I will lose this one to it as well, but I’ll be damned if I’m not going to fight it off to the bitter end. We can’t catch it all, but we can catch more than we do.

In honor of pet cancer awareness month, I made a little video for you all to summarize what we know- and what we don’t- about cancer in our beloved pets. I don’t care if you pour turmeric all over your dog’s bowl, just make sure you’re also aspirating masses in the meantime, ok? If you enjoy, please do share!