Hi everybody
Today is a great day, it is Sherryl?s 12
years birthday. Always a great day with a pyr, but with Sherryl I had not
expected her to live that long, as she was diagnosed with cancer in her mouth
3½ years ago, and given a maximum of 6 month to live. I have written about it
before, so some of you may have remember her story, but I hope that maybe her
story will give a bit of hope to someone, that even with cancer things may
turn out better than expected.
When Sherryl was 8 years old, I saw a very
little growth in the front of her mouth, like a little matchstick sticking out
of the gums above the front teeth. At first I was not much worried, it
was very small and old dogs can get growth in their mouths, but I did not
like the colour ? bright angry red ? and neither did the vet when I took her
in to check on it. So he made an biopsy that showed that it was cancer, and
that it had spread in her upper jaw - behind her teeth in the roof of her mouth. There was nothing to do,
?take her home and give her a
good time?, was the advice of the vet, who said that 6 month was the most I could hope for. When I managed to
find something on the net, the articles said 3 to 5 month, so I can not accuse
my vet of being unduly pessimistic.
I did the only thing I could think of at the
time, gave her some supplement to improve her immune system and hope she would
fight it of for as long as possible, but in the beginning it grew alarmingly
fast, the visible part doubling every week. But the miracle happened the
growth slowed down and eventually stopped completely.
I wrote to one of the lists about her a year
after the diagnoses, and some of you kindly advised on medicine / supplement
that might help. I did read up on
your suggestions, but things were going so well, that I decided to leave well
alone. And today she
is 12 years. When you look at her, you can see that the muzzle is bigger (both
longer and broader) in the left side
of her head where the growth is, but otherwise there is nothing to see,
the angry red colouring has disappeared, so the growth is just black like the
rest of the gums. Somehow it does
not look so scary like that, and I have long ago stopped worrying that she
will die of the cancer. My vet tells me it should not be possible, but it is one time when he is happy to be
proved wrong.
I think
the legs will let her down in the end. She has arthritis and is on Metacam to
keep her painfree. Her daily morning walk is very short and very slow now, but
she still insist on it. At home she is still happy and bright, does her share
of guarding house and garden against dangerous hares in the field around us
and cats, bikers, tractors, other dogs, etc. that dares to pass by on the
road. She also tries to play with the younger dogs, but she is not very good
at any more.
Sorry to have been rambling on for so long,
but I guess you can all understand how I feel.
Lene
Nielsen, Denmark
sandybear@myinternet.dk
http://sandybear.hjem.wanadoo.dk