Pet, Cancer

Thank you very much. This is my first time here, so I'm glad to be here and appreciate the chance to speak to you about something that's very important to me. My sister in law now has cancer as well as lost four animals to cancer. So that's my primary topic. As you all know, most of us live with animals. In fact, many of us would never live without animals. They help our health. They help us live longer. They help reduce our stress. So I've been writing about it animals for a long time. And the incidence of cancer is growing in animals as well as in people. I'm going to start off with a case study.

Samantha is a 15 year old golden retriever who lives with an active couple, Nikka and Berry, in Vermont. She is a hiker and a traveler, an only companion animal. Like most golden retrievers, she smiles a lot. Sam has always been extremely healthy, except for developing hot spots on her skin. From time to time. As a younger dog, she always got her routine. They advised shots. She walked and ran long distances and she ate Lucille commercial petfood. In March 1999, Sam had a routine veterinary checkup and was given a combination rabies distemper shot in her neck. Four or five days later, she develops seizures, bury the husband, was so alarmed he gave her mouth to mouth resuscitation. They thought she might have epilepsy, which is also on the increase in animals. The veterinarian prescribed PRENDA zone for her. She had two or three more seizures and then they stopped. The dog took Prentiss home for about a month. By the late fall, she was lethargic and she was not eating very well. In January 2000, the couple and their dog took off for their southern route out here to the southwest. By North Carolina, Samantha wasn't doing well. Her humans took the dog to another vet who discovered she was anemic. He gave her blood tests and ultrasound and X-rays. Although he saw no mass, he saw that she wasn't producing enough red blood cells. And he told the couple that the dog had bone marrow cancer, which is a fairly common type of lymphoma in dogs and prescribed prednisone to stimulate her appetite. An avid animal lover, Micko, the wife had been reading Dr. Martin Goldstein's book, The Nature of Animal Healing, which advocates many alternative health treatments for animals. Sam's veterinarian had recommended chemotherapy as she wasn't eating well. A second vet in Florida concurred and also wanted to do a bone marrow test. Samantha was almost starving herself at this point, but the couple