It has been almost a year to the day, that my Pup went in for surgery to have her thyroid removed. I cried every day for the month leading up to it. And I still remember waiting in the parking lot for the call she came out ok even though I wasn’t allowed to see her until tomorrow.
Around August 2023, I had been watching TV with my love by my side and I noticed she just wasn’t breathing the same as she always does, it was a little quicker than it should have been for her laying down; so the following week I had her mobile vet come do some routine bloodwork.
When I got the results, the vet made pleasant excuses saying maybe the blood didn’t mix well since the ride back to her office was a little longer than usual and I should probably get Pup into her normal vet to check the ionized calcium closer. I wasn’t satisfied with that response so I started doing my own research.
Of course, the first explanation is CANCER. I think my mind went blank. Thyroid Carcinoma. The regular vet confirmed, calcium levels are high. Anyone who’s gone through this before knows elevated calcium levels usually mean some kind of cancer. The ultrasound results showed three very large nodules on her parathyroid. (I never even heard of a parathyroid.) Usually there is one small nodule, but the fact that Pup had three, at the size they were, she was likely going to need surgery. If we left everything alone, eventually her organs would start to fail and I would have lost her. It would have taken 3 months or so before she was gone. I really had no choice.
I am PETRIFIED of surgery. For myself or my fur babies. Earlier in the summer, Pup had torn her ACL which is why we started with the mobile vet. She was coming to the house to do laser treatments. And I prayed every day then that Pup wouldn’t need surgery to repair her leg. Here we are now and she needs her throat cut open!
Four days later I was able to pick her up from the hospital but we weren’t out of the woods yet. It takes about 2 weeks for the remaining thyroid to get up to speed and start functioning for both, and during this time, Pups calcium could have dropped at any second and cost her her life. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep for one minute! She also didn’t seem the same as before. I knew she was still on meds, and she had gone through a tremendous ordeal, but she just kept looking at me like I was a stranger and we were both very uncomfortable. From the moment I picked her up, Pup looked like she aged five years. I swear her face went grey overnight. And all her innocence was gone. She looked like a helpless feeble dog who’d just been saved from the streets. It broke my heart!
Slowly but surely, her calcium levels started regulating. She weened off her meds, realized who I was and began to get her sparkle back.
Here we are a year later almost exactly, and this beautiful little angel is running around happy, waggy and well adjusted. We go every 3-4 months for follow up bloodwork, ultrasounds and xrays and so far everything has been perfect! Pup is on the highest dose of Palladia three times a week; its just a pill I’m able to give her at home, and we’re back to normal. I thank God every day that things worked out the way they did. If I had waited any longer, or brushed off her changed behavior, this story could have ended a lot differently.
I never knew about Cancer in dogs. I had no idea. Now every chance I get I try to spread the word to all animal owners. I participate in all the charity fundraisers and I donate a portion of all my online sales to the National Canine Cancer Foundation. I want to do whatever I can to help save even one life, and educate people that this disease is not only reserved for humans.