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  1. Timmy the Cat’s Story of Survival

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    Michelle Raiszadeh has been involved in animal rescue since 2004, focusing on trap-neuter-return, rehab and fostering of homeless cats and kittens. She also is heavily involved in wildlife rescue and rehab. But Michelle’s involvement in animal care doesn’t stop there. She was recently accepted into an accelerated veterinary program at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) in London.

    Naturally, her time in the world of animal rescue brought her close to a few sweet felines, one of them being Timothy. They’ve been inseparable ever since.

    Through Thick and Thin

    Michelle adopted Timothy, or Timmy, in 2006 from a rescue organization that she had fostered and worked with. He was the runt of the litter and had a herpes viral infection along with his litter mates. His mom and the rest of her babies were found living in and out of a sewer in Northern Virginia until someone discovered and started fostering them. After meeting him, Michelle decided to give Timmy his forever home.

    Since then, Timmy has been a constant in Michelle’s life. He helped her survive her years in a Ph.D. program, the loss of her family home and wildlife refuge and her father’s serious illness.

    “So, he is certainly one of my best friends and is always understanding of how many foster kitties have to come in and out of our home,” Michelle says.

    She goes on to say that, “Timmy is pure love and always greets me when I come home. He must always sleep right beside me, oftentimes attached to my head in some way. I can’t imagine life without him.”

    His brother Oliver, another cat that Michelle rescued, feels the same way and misses Timmy when he has to visit the vet.

    Life Throws a Curveball

    After finding out that she was accepted to RVC in London, Michelle knew it was the best next step for her to continue to positively impact the lives of animals and follow her passion.

    However, shortly after being accepted into the program, life threw a few curveballs. A foster kitty named Ginger that Michelle was caring for recently passed over the Rainbow Bridge, and her beloved fur kid Timmy was diagnosed with cancer.

    It started with sinus infections, which was nothing too out of the norm for him. However, all of the antibiotics and antiviral drugs that vets prescribed didn’t seem to completely clear his symptoms. After several weeks with no improvement, a mass began to form on the bridge of his nose. Through extensive testing, another vet feared that it was a nasal tumor. Even more testing, including x-rays, a nasal flush and biopsy, confirmed the vet’s suspicions. At 11 years old, Timmy was diagnosed with nasal adenocarcinoma.

    Companions in Crisis

    News of Timmy’s nasal tumor was surprising, but Michelle knew she had to do everything she could to save him. A local oncologist shared what options there were based on the diagnosis. Traditional radiation could cause blindness and cataracts or damage surrounding healthy tissue. Surgery wasn’t an option due to the tumor’s location and the type of cancer. Also, this particular type of cancer had a tendency to return soon after surgery.

    Radiation was the only treatment option, it seemed. The oncologist mentioned a safer form of radiation called IMRT, which could target the tumor more accurately and minimize the amount that effected the surrounding tissue. Of course, this targeted radiation treatment didn’t come without large costs, but to Michelle, Timmy was worth it. She figured that she could somehow raise funds and still afford to follow her dreams to move and go to vet school in the UK.

     

    FETCH a Cure is thrilled to say that we were able to fund a portion of Timmy’s cancer treatment costs through our Companions in Crisis program. After a series of radiation treatments he is now cancer free! Timmy, Oliver and Michelle are safely in the UK where they will hopefully have many more happy years together.

    Our goal is to support more wonderful pets like Timmy and pet owners like Michelle. We are forever thankful for the opportunity to give the gift of quality time companions like them. For more information on how you can help our Companions in Crisis program, please join us at one of our upcoming events or consider donating to help us save more lives like Timmy’s.

  2. Answer to Cancer May Be the Family Dog

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    http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/health/Answer-to-Cancer-May-Be-the-Family-Dog_Washington-DC-434375583.html

    Researchers hope studying dogs with cancer may help in the treatment of children with similar cancers.

    Veterinary oncologist Dr. Chand Kanna treats pets who have cancer at Oncology Services in Springfield, Virginia. He also spent years at the National Cancer Institute researching the potential links between some cancers which afflict both dogs and children.

    “So if you take a human osteosarcoma, which is bone cancer, and you look at that under the microscope, the pathologist can’t tell you if it’s human or dog,” Kanna said.

    Most osteosarcomas occur in children and young adults, according to the American Cancer Society. It typically attacks the long bones of the legs or arms and sometimes the pelvis. Osteosarcoma is also the most common bone tumor occurring in dogs.

    “Those similarities are most notably where the tumor develops — the long bones of the body, the microscopic features of the tumor, the pattern of spread of that disease,” Kanna said.
    “When my son Daniel was 11, he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, and he died two years later from the disease after 15 operations, 20 rounds of high-dose chemo, over 130 nights in the hospital, clinical trials, you name it,” Theresa Beech said.

    She was horrified to learn there was only one treatment option available for her son when he became sick.

    “There’s really only one protocol approved by the FDA, and that was last approved in 1979, and it’s basically the big guns of chemotherapy,” she said.

    Frustrated at not being able to find better alternatives for her son, Beech began her own research, looking into the genetics of the disease and hoping to find drugs used to treat other cancers. She found research on canines and osteosarcoma.

    “I know of several things that they’re trying right now to see if they can try certain drugs in dogs with spontaneous osteosarcoma, and then that the idea being that they want to see if they can transition some of this over into kids because one of the issues is getting a good model for kids before you go into a clinical trial can be complicated,” she said.

    The Canines-N-Kids Foundation started last year with a mission: Tackle childhood and canine cancers and raise awareness and funds to help study the two.

    Kanna is enthusiastic about the collaboration and the studies being conducted in dogs.
    “That will determine whether new drugs improve outcomes for dogs,” he said. “And if they do, those treatments will be prioritized for evaluations in childhood cancers.”

    Osteosarcoma is just one of the cancers researchers are studying in this manner. The National Cancer Institute has a number of clinical trials looking at similarities in dogs and adults humans in cancers such as lymphoma, melanoma and soft tissue sarcoma.

    Source: Answer to Cancer May Be the Family Dog – NBC4 Washington http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/health/Answer-to-Cancer-May-Be-the-Family-Dog-434385893

  3. Meet Ranger

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    Meet Ranger, a 10 year old Beagle mix from Richmond. Ranger is one of our Companions in Crisis program recipients. Our Companions in Crisis fund helps families pay for lifesaving treatments for pets who have been diagnosed with cancer. Ranger’s story is the reason we do this work.

    Katie adopted Ranger at the Richmond SPCA her first week of college, and they quickly became best friends. This April, Ranger was diagnosed with a nasal tumor and Katie was told that treatment would be expensive, but would give Ranger more time. FETCH was able to provide Katie and Ranger with assistance that allowed him to go through treatment, and Ranger received radiation through The Oncology Service, a FETCH partner. Says Katie, “Ranger is doing well. I’ve been a nervous dog mommy but we are adjusting well to our new normal. We have been spending extra time on walks and doing other fun dog activities like the dog park. We also went to the Goochland Drive in and were able to go out on a friends boat which Ranger & I very much enjoyed. I am cherishing all the time we are spending together.” Ranger has been enjoying time with his sister Savannah, and has been a constant companion to Katie.

    At FETCH, we’re so grateful that we have the opportunity to give pets and their people more quality time together. Visit our resource library to learn more about preventing pet cancer. For more information on how you can help FETCH make a difference, check out one of our upcoming events!

  4. One Health Company balances improving biomedical research and ethical animal testing

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    Courtesy of: MedCityNews

    One Health Company balances improving biomedical research and ethical animal testing

    By STEPHANIE BAUM

    Jul 8, 2017 at 7:47 AM

    The One Health Company, a contract research organization, understands the strong connection between pets and their owners in more ways than one. It is working to make biomedical research more efficient with a business that recognizes the similarities between certain diseases experienced by dogs and humans.

    University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine Professor Dr. Nicola Mason showed that the genetic profile for osteosarcoma is indistinguishable in humans and dogs. Scientists have made similar findings for other conditions such as non-Hodgkins lymphoma, brain tumors, melanoma and other forms of cancer.

    The One Health Company is using software to retrieve data from clinical trial sites to determine what pets have naturally occurring diseases and could potentially serve as good candidates for clinical trials. In that way, it wants to change the way we think of animal studies and make them more humane and lower drug development costs.

    On its website, the company cites a study from the National Institutes of Health. It notes that the study of comparative oncology methodologies suggested that cost savings of $117 million per approved drug could be achieved by employing natural disease models as a replacement for laboratory animals.

    Earlier this year the company recruited Gerry Post as its Chief Veterinary Officer. Post founded the Veterinary Cancer Center, the Animal Cancer Foundation and Innogenics.

    The business has also embarked on a collaboration with Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine to evaluate a therapy for a condition affecting dogs and humans. The investigative agent has already been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of some human patients with a subtype of soft tissue sarcoma. The study will evaluate the drug in dogs with hemangiosarcoma — an aggressive cancer.

    “We collect data on side effects, which are very, very valuable for pharmaceutical companies,” said Cofounder and CEO Christina Lopes in an interview last year.

    Since last year, The One Health Company has increased the trial site partners it collaborates with — veterinary hospitals and animal cancer centers — from more than 35 to 110 trial sites in the U.S. and abroad, such as France, Belgium, and Brazil, according to a spokeswoman. It also has four pharma partners.

    One Health Company noted that pets remain with their families, diseases are never induced, and putting a pet down is never considered an option in any of their clinical trials. Families caring for their sick pets as they undergo these trials collect data, via smartphone, on their pets’ behavior and habits using proprietary clinical trial management software.

    Backers include Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania and the University City Science Center Digital Health Accelerator.

    “Nobody talks about animal testing because it’s so taboo. We work the same way as a human clinical trial, except we recruit sick pets instead of sick people,” says Benjamin Lewis, co-founder and chief operating officer of The One Health Company.

  5. Chloe’s Story

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    Here at FETCH, we love hearing about the lives and the stories of families we are fortunate enough to help through hard times. Chloe and her mom Colleen told us about their lives and their journey through cancer:

     

    Chloe and her litter sister Maggie were spotted at Chesterfield Animal Shelter on June 2, 2001, the day they were found wandering loose with no identification.  Rob and I fell in love and played with them until the shelter closed but not before making it known that we wanted them.  In fact while playing with them, I jokingly asked, “We don’t need two so which one?”  That got a resounding BOTH!  

    Fearful that someone would get to them on Tuesday before I did, I bolted from work and raced to Chesterfield to wait for the shelter to open.  I must admit that I may have rudely pushed my way in and announced loudly that I was there for my two pups before anyone else had a chance at them.

    These two were joined by a brother in 2007.  Kasey was a perfect gentleman letting these two set the boundaries.  Three and a half years later, Kasey was not himself.  Almost a year of going from specialist to specialist, he was diagnosed with a pituitary tumor.  All three were covered by pet insurance and Kasey had exhausted his annual limit as well as a considerable amount out of pocket.  It was recommended that I consult with a radiation oncologist for a possible treatment plan.  My thoughts were that I didn’t want him to suffer side effects but I would listen with an open mind.  That oncologist introduced me to Fetch A Cure!  After convincing me that radiation would give Kasey at least a year symptom free, she contacted Fetch and our relationship began then.  Fetch paid for the radiation and Kasey had an amazing 3 years before his symptoms and age caught up with him.


    “Fetch has helped keep our babies with us for as long as possible.”

    Maggie and Chloe charmed everyone who saw them.  Maggie was more independent with an attitude that she was the boss.  On the other hand, Chloe announced right off the bat: “I’m the cute one.”  They’ve logged more travel miles than most people. Chloe seemed to be susceptible to anything that passed by.  She was so familiar with our veterinary clinic that she thought they were family.  We often joked about getting our own personal parking space.  Maggie rarely saw a vet other than her annual visit until December 9, 2015.  She was not her usual happy self and had symptoms of pneumonia.  She was treated at Dogwood, sent home with a bag full of medication to treat multiple symptoms.  When it became obvious that she was getting worse, she was admitted to Dogwood where she was treated by ER doctors, Internal Medicine, Neurology and Cardiology.  Maggie appeared to improve a tiny bit each day with medication and oxygen until December 17 when I got a call stating that she was going into respiratory failure.  Late that afternoon, the heart-wrenching decision was made to love her enough to stop her suffering.


    “They are not ‘just dogs’ – they are our heart and soul.”

    Several years earlier, Chloe developed a tumor on her liver.  Surgery removed it along with a good portion of her liver and amazingly it was benign.  Dr. Waite felt it best to follow up with her in oncology as precaution.  Sad and shocked at losing Maggie so suddenly, I decided to take Chloe for her checkup five days later since I needed some “good news”.  This time wasn’t so good.  Dr. Waite discovered a tumor in her bladder and tests proved it was Transitional Cell Carcinoma.  The plan was to have surgery to remove it, but it was in a position that complete removal was impossible.  Next plan was for a full course of radiation therapy to reduce or destroy the tumor.  The CT scan required for the radiation treatment plan showed that there were several ‘nodes’ and the cancer had metastasized – only palliative radiation was possible.  Maggie’s hospitalization had exhausted her insurance limit as well as several thousand dollars out of pocket.  Fetch again came to the rescue and paid for the radiation with the help of friends on a fund-raising page.  Chloe and I spent a week in Leesburg for therapy and returned to Richmond where Dr. Waite said she hoped to be able to keep Chloe with us for 6 more months.  That was February 2016 – 15 months ago.  Her response to radiation followed by various types of chemotherapy made it feasible for a second round of palliative radiation. This time, Fetch had just fulfilled their promise to bring radiation therapy to Richmond.  Chloe was one of the first to receive the benefit of state of the art equipment and the expertise of the staff at the Advanced Radiation Treatment Center.   Each day with Kasey, Maggie, and Chloe has been a gift that cannot be measured.  They are not ‘just dogs’ – they are our heart and soul.


    As Chloe’s condition slowly deteriorates and we know the end will come, our focus is to love her, spoil her, comfort her and keep her happy.  I’m fortunate enough to telework so I am with her every minute of every day.  She has good days and bad days but she always knows that she’s safe and we’ll do whatever it takes to make her better.

    I cannot thank Fetch A Cure for what they have brought to this community along with awareness of cancer in pets and treatment options.  The financial assistance from Fetch has helped us and other families afford the enormous cost of keeping our babies with us for as long as possible.  For those who are unaware of the cost of treatment, it can amount to as much as you might expect for a down payment on a house.  Insurance, personal monies and Fetch contributions made it possible for Chloe to be here today.

     


    Pet cancer awareness is an important part of our mission. Please visit our resource library for advice on cancer prevention and detection, and other pet health tips.