Our last Medical Case Monday of October goes out to sweet BeBe. Please read the story her amazing mom, Deborah, wrote on our blog. BeBe is another pup that might not have ended up with Mammary Cancer if she had been spayed at a younger age:
BeBe was surrendered when her owner became homeless, and they were living in the back of a van in the dead of winter. She was taken in by The Barker Shop (now Bark From the Heart Rescue) where my husband and I volunteered often.
She was six years old, not fixed and not current on shots, so she couldn’t socialize yet. However, I picked her up and took her on errands with me so she could get out and about — I was already smitten.
When she had her spay surgery, my husband and I took her home to recover, and she never left. We already had two dogs (an American bulldog and a pit mix), and everyone got along great, so why not! That was December of 2011.
About five months later, we noticed that BeBe had a lump on one of her mammary glands. It was very small, but we had it checked out right away. The vet had it removed, and it tested positive for cancer.
Not too long after, we noticed another swollen gland. After some discussions, we decided to have her whole mammary chain removed, in order to prevent continued surgeries if the cancer progressed. She recovered very nicely and was great until this year, when she was diagnosed with cancer yet again.
This time, the tumors were on her anal gland and her lung. We had the anal gland tumor removed with clear margins, but the lung tumor will just be a hope and pray, as she is now 13 and we are not putting her through a thoracic surgery, especially since she has mobility issues and is developing a bit of nighttime anxiety. I firmly believe her cancer happened because she was not spayed until she was six.
She is such a gentle dog and the sweetest girl and has visited my school as a guest at an school-wide assembly and as a guest at the Animal Advocates Club. She is Canine Good Citizen certified and truly a wonderful dog as well as amazing example of just how wonderful pit bulls are.
We are monitoring her lung mass, and it has appeared to get a bit smaller, so that is all we need! We love her so very much and hope we have much more time to be a family. We have dogs come in and out (temp for overnights until they go to rescue) and some we keep and she loves them all.
Thank you Deborah for all you do for the animal community and especially all you have done for BeBe! We hope you have many more years with her!
