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Survivor Stories
These days dealing with canine cancer can be frightening. You have statistics. You have your Veterinarian explaining what the cancer can do and what the prognosis is.
We believe at times like this, one also needs HOPE. It’s our belief that the survivor stories on these pages will give you just that, HOPE that your sweet pup can win the battle.
Together, We Are The Cure
Would you like to share your survivor story for our supporters to give them hope. If so please email us at suggestions@wearethecure.org and please send your dogs story, name, your name and a picture.
Thank you
Gary Nice
Founder and President of the NCCF
Find all of our Survivor Stores pages at these links Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6, Page 7
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Sunshine’s Story
By Heather Kelly
Sunshine was diagnosed with Lymphoma March 1,2011 after losing her eye to a tumor. She was given 4-6 weeks to live. As she was 11 years old we decided against Chemo treatment and put her on natural supplements. She is now in her 14th month remission heading into her 15th! She is the light of my life and such a fighter! She has taught me to never give up hope.
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Tucker’s Story
By Kathy Tucker
Tucker was diagnosed with Anal Sac Andenocarcinoma in May of 2010. Our vet found a tumor the size of a golf ball when expressing his anal glands. The entire left anal sac was surgically removed. I decided to forego radiation therapy due to the side effects, being separated from his family and not much difference in prognosis with or without radiation. Our holistic vet changed his diet to range-fed meats with no dairy and no grains. He eats a veggie mash from raw veggies, also. He has bloodwork and an anal exam every 6 months. So far, so good. He is 11 years old and going strong. You would never know that he had cancer. Tucker is very special to me. He brought me out of my post cancer funk. So I returned the favor of taking care of my boy. We are survivors! The photo is from two years ago at the first Canines for the Cure Texas Agility Shoot-out!
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Axel’s Story
Submitted by Alaynna Bates
Axel’s story begins over 3 years ago, when he began having collapsing episodes. He would just lay there, panting, not moving, or when he did move he would cry. Ever time i took him to the vet, i was told he just had an upset tummy. These 3 or 4 episodes passed relativity quickly, with only a few hours of down time. After countless trips to the E-vet my vet begin to think that i was being a hypochondriac. I was starting to wonder if i was myself, but i knew something was wrong. They did several blood test and X-rays and could only find a slight UTI. This was treated for months and months with antibiotics until one day on 12-12-09 Axel had another episode where he collapsed and was unresponsive. I walked in the door, he didnt get off the couch and i knew something was wrong. When he did stand up, after a lot of coaxing on my part, he immediately fell over, breathing hard and shallow, and then finally, became unresponsive. I called my E-vet, it was 130am, and he acted as if i was over reacting. After waiting an hour for the vet to get to the office, Axel was doing worse. His gums were pale and he was in complete shock. The vet had no idea what was wrong with him, ran some blood test, and found nothing out of the ordinary. I left axel overnight, not expecting to see him alive again. I got a call the next morning that axel was doing good, he was awake and responsive. They had done nothing to him except give him fluids. They did x-rays, ran more blood work and could not find any issues. The doctor thought that the UTI had went to his kidneys, even though blood work showed no infection. After a few days of recovery, Axel was back to his normal self again. A month went past before he had another small episode. At this point i was recommended to an internal specialist over an hour away from where i live. I took Axel to the specialist on March 15th, 2010 and within 15 minutes the Doctor told me that he had a tumor on his spleen. He told me that he was bleeding out occasionally, and that is why he was collapsing. He would bleed out and then reabsorb the blood, and be ok, until it was such a large rupture that he didnt recover. He also said he had a 50% chance of cancer. Axel had his spleen removed on March 15th, 2010 with no complications. He came home and was back to his normal self within a day. i got a call on March 19th from the doctor, confirming that he had stage 2 Hemangiosarcoma. I was devastated. I had been reading online about it, fearing that he would be diagnosed with it, and i knew that prognosis was very poor. We did IV chemo and oral chemo treatments, with more in the works, and i have switched over to low carb high protein and fat diet, with Fish oil, vitamin and Bone meal supplements. Axel is doing great. The chemo went well, and didnt affect him, in fact he LOVES going to the vet. It cost a lot of money and time, but its worth all of it to have him around. Axel gets bi yearly ultrasounds, the last ones which showed no signs of metastasis! He gets another one tomorrow, actually. He did have some complications from chemo and has some heart issues, which is is on sotilol for and almost back to normal. The vet did say that he would be in congestive heart failure within 6 months, and that was over a year ago as well, he is still going strong, and the meds seem to be working wonders for him. Every vet he has (and he has a lot) call him a “miracle” We’ve made it past our 2.5 year mark, which everyone said wouldnt happen. Each day is a blessing and is treated as so!
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Curzon’s Story
By Joy
On January 20th, I found a lump on my 8yo border collie boy’s ribcage. Just eleven days later, on January 31st, he had three ribs and part of his sternum removed due to a tumor that exhibited both osteosarcoma and chondrosarcoma characteristics. We declined chemotherapy, and supplemented with artemesinin and Hoxsey’s tincture. Two weeks after surgery, Curzon was cleared to swim and begin physical therapy. Four weeks after surgery, Curzon was cleared for full activity, including flyball. The surgeon said she’d never seen a recovery like his. 13 weeks after surgery, Curzon returned to flyball competition, turning in times in the 4.7 second range. We are now at 20 weeks post-op, 141 days survival when we were told that 90 days was the median survival rate that he’d be lucky to make, and Curzon is showing no signs of any metastases or recurrence. He ran in a tournament the first weekend of June, and will run in another this weekend. For those of you who are forced to deal with cancer in your canine companion, don’t give up hope – learn all you can, move as fast as you can, and keep your eye on your dog and you will make it through. ♥
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Scotter’s Story
By Lori-Ann Bruer
Scooter (chihuahua) was 9 yrs old when diagnosed with synovial cell carcinoma of the left forearm. Scooter had licked his left forearm for at least one year and I was led to believe that he had arthritis. As a result, Scooter began to receive laser therapy to the left forearm. I noticed that his joint actually began to swell. With more diagnostics,it was discoverd that my beloved little boy had cancer. Immediately the next day we headed to the University of Illinois to meet with an oncologist. Dr’s at the U of I were near certain that the cancer would be “cured” with amputation. A few days later, my strong Scooter underwent his surgery. Following his surgery,numerous pathologists could not agree on the type of cancer Scooter indeed had. Scooter’s tests were sent to a Dr at the University of California who confirmed that Scooter indeed had synovial cell cancer and that amputation gave him the best prognosis. Scooter just celebrated his 10th Birthday! He is the love of my life and gives me great inspiration. He has adapted to his “tripod” life without any problems. He is greatly independent and does not want assistance in tackling stairs or jumping.He has adapted to chewing “chewies” and uses his right forearm to actually reach for items and pull them near him. He beat that stupid cancer and is a SURVIVOR!
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Mickey’s Story
By Kathie Strella
My 6 year old toy poodle, Mickey, was diagnosed with mast cell cancer in Feb. 2012. He underwent 2 surgeries in 4days and then had an allergic reaction to the cancer which sent us to an oncologist.She told us this is a very rare reaction but gave us tons of hope. Mickey was on heavy duty meds for about a month and we were very afraid of loosing our best friend but for the grace of God and our vet Mickey is with us and was declared cancer free. There is hope and a cure will be found. Mickey will see the dr. in December but is he back to running and playing like always.God bless everyone who is helping to find a cure![/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
RCi’s Story
By Jill E. Spencer
RCi is the epitome of a blessed angel that was put in my life for a reason. My RCi left me with her precious legacy that I have been carrying out since 2003 – she has enabled me to help other fur kids and give advice to their parents on what to do, where to start, what is next, etc. RCi was diagnosed with Fibroscarcoma (January 2003) and lived an amazing 34 months of a quality of life with no tumor removal, no chemo and no radiation treatment – we just could not subject her to the radical treatments that were prescribed and would compromise her quality of life, so we went a supplemental route, high in antioxidants (which we developed into a product APA Antioxidant Booster). We were shocking the white coats off a team of university oncologists with each month that passed and RCi continued living her quality of life with no side effects. Very little information and help was available on the internet back in 2003 about canine cancer. But because of RCi and her will to live, in addition, we were also dealing with the situation with my mother-in-law who had ovarian cancer. The both of them put my persistence into overdrive to do something, be proactive and take part in giving then a quality of life and encouraged me to spread the word to others via creating a website, so that they would not feel alone, lost or stuck in depression. Thus the entity of A’Dobe Angel was created in both their honors. www.adobeangel.com is chuck full of information, advice, testimonials and positivity! What is ironic or coincidental, is when I finally finished the A’Dobe Angel website in October 2005 and released it as a domain, I remember turning to RCi hugging her and saying, “Your website is done!” Within a couple of days, she decided it was her time to Cross the Rainbow Bridge, her mission was done and mine had just begun. Had RCi left me before I had finished the website, I don’t think that I could of finish it – the pain of her loss would of been too great and she knew this. I truly believe my RCi waited – she knew helping others would be the healing therapy for myself. Fast forward to the present, RCi and I have touched many, many lives. When ever I am contacted by a fur kid parent dealing with cancer, I know my angel RCi is the one who guided them to me for advice, and her halo gleams a little brighter and her angel wings are hugging my heart! Since Rci’s passing we have kept the rest of our pet crew on the APA Antioxidant Booster as a supplement in hopes as a preventative and have happy, healthy fur kids for a long time. Please take a moment to visit: www.adobeangel.com
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Sammy’s Story
By DeAnna Pollock
I saw a lump on Sammy’s belly while giving him a belly rub one day and thought it was odd. The next day I couldn’t find it, figured it was nothing and forgot about it. Weeks later it showed up again and I was worried. I flew to the vet and they did a FNA (fine needle aspiration) and they told me they saw malignant cells- a mast cell tumor. I started crying instantly and they thought I was crazy. Little did they know I lost my first dog to breast cancer and now here I was reliving the nightmare. They told me it was a mast cell tumor and they could remove it next week maybe; they weren’t concerned. Well I sure was. I spoke with the vet that owned the practice and he was so kind- he understood I was worried and even though his surgery schedule was full, he would stay late and remove it the next day. I was so grateful. He took wide margins and they came back clean. Sammy is healthy now- 10 yrs old, full of life and spunk. I am vigilant in checking him weekly for growths, go the vet every 3 months for checks, and every lump is aspirated and removed. He has 1 brother and 2 sisters now and I am so blessed. One of his sisters is a twin for Misty who I lost to breast cancer. And I am determined to make their lives the best they can be.
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