In addition to promoting awareness about pet cancer prevention, detection, and treatment, FETCH a Cure is committed to making people aware about senior pet care and aging issues. Several Board members and staff at FETCH a Cure own “senior” dogs. The unofficial office dog is Dudley, a much loved sixteen and a half year old Jack Russell terrier who is blind and deaf.
What makes a dog a senior? Generally, dogs seven and up are considered seniors, but it depends on the size and breed of the dog. Small dogs might be considered seniors at age ten to twelve. Larger dogs might be considered seniors at age six to eight.
What are some things to be concerned about as your dog ages? Contact your veterinarian if you see any weight loss or weight gain or changes in eating or drinking habits. Keep an eye out for new lumps and bumps, sores that don’t heal, and any blood or discharge. Tell your veterinarian if your dog seems out of it or confused. Finally, let your vet know if the dog is having trouble going to the bathroom, breathing, or getting around. Some of these symptoms could be signs of aging, but they could also be indicative of an underlying health problem.
What can you do to make your old friend more comfortable? Think about buying an orthopedic bed. Invest in high quality dog food specially formulated for senior dogs. Consider taking your dog to the veterinarian twice a year instead of once a year to see if they notice any changes in health that are significant. Let your dog direct you in activity level. Your dog may still enjoy playing, walking and running, but you may need to shorten walks or go a little slower.
Most of all, cherish every moment with your buddy. It goes by fast.
Comments Off on “Hands on” volunteer work that can fit your routine
FETCH a Cure is out and about in the community at all sorts of events. We have volunteers that help at all of them. They help by telling the public what it is that we do. They explain all of our fabulous programs and they hand out information and FETCH swag. We have many volunteers who help in the office when we have huge projects. We have amazing volunteers who help plan our fancy events and then execute amazing evenings. We always say that our volunteers are the very best volunteers around and oh how we mean it!
What we have a shortage of are volunteers to help with our Pen Pals program. This fantastic program serves humans and animals in a way no other program does. The tough part about the program though, are the logistics of getting the dogs out of the correctional facilities when we need to. Usually, we like to get them out for high profile adoption events that are happening in and around the city and, of course, the correctional facilities are far out. We need regular volunteers to call upon to “taxi” these dogs to and from their respective “pens”. This will always be during regular business hours. What we also need is a reliable group of foster homes for these dogs when they are out. Foster stays are usually just for the weekend. We occasionally need longer accommodations, but not typically.
FETCH a Cure provides a crate, food, toys and any other thing a particular dog might need to make his stay comfortable. Most of the dogs in the program get along very nicely with other dogs, and are incredibly well mannered. Besides getting seen, another huge perk of having these dogs in a foster care situation occasionally is that we get to learn more about them. Most of the dogs in our program come from euthanizing shelters in the area, with no record of their history or their preferences. Learning as much as we can about their personalities in a home environment makes it easier to place them in the best home possible. Please consider opening up your home for a weekend guest!
It has been a long, hard winter, hasn’t it? My kids were out of school for eleven days, usually for 1 or 2 inches of snow or a “wintry mix.” Any snow at all in Richmond is disastrous. In Goochland, one of the suburbs of Richmond, the kids missed eighteen days of school. We’ve had a few teaser days of nice weather, but it is the last week of March and we have been wearing sweaters all week. I passionately despise all of my winter clothes. I’m so sick of wearing them!
Spring brings with it so much promise and hope. I love seeing little shoots of green here and there and buds on the trees. Baby goats, lambs and bunnies are scampering around at Maymont, our local petting zoo. People are trying to wear their spring outfits, even though it is still cold outside. Here at the FETCH office, we are gearing up for a very busy spring. We have several events in April, our big golf tournament in May, and our Gala in June. We are feeling a little overwhelmed by everything we have to do, but we are super excited to be able to participate in such great community events with our wonderful supporters. Check out our calendar of upcoming events at www.fetchacure.org. We hope to see you out and about! Look for me – I’ll be the one wearing flip-flops and a cardigan.
FETCH a Cure relies very heavily on its volunteers and supporters. We have a very small staff and would not be able to accomplish all that we do without our volunteers. Some of events require staffing over 100 volunteers! April is actually National Volunteers Month, but we would like to show our love to our volunteers a little bit early in honor of Valentine’s Day.
Our Companions in Crisis program provides funding to families who could not otherwise afford cancer treatments for their dogs or cats. If approved, we generally pay about 20 to 40 percent of the total treatment cost to the treating veterinarian. We do not ask recipients to pay us back, but we do ask them to pay it forward by volunteering for us for ten hours a month for one year from the time that funds are awarded. We offer a lot of different ways for people to volunteer. Some are very happy doing some office work. Others would rather be out and about in the community – pouring beer at a street festival, doing check-in at our annual Gala, driving people around in a golf cart at our annual golf tournament, or handing out brochures about FETCH a Cure to pet-friendly businesses.
We welcome volunteers of all ages and abilities. We have had kids as young as five come in and help us do some office work. We have a group of adults with intellectual disabilities who take great pride in stuffing snack bags with dog treats for our Holiday Bone Trees every year. Some middle school-aged and high-school aged children volunteer because they need community service hours for their schools. Others show up just because they love animals.
We enjoy meeting so many different people from all different walks of life. Some of our volunteers are amazing and show up year after year whenever needed, or will be there in an emergency situation, like driving out to one of the correctional centers to take a Pen Pals dog to the veterinarian. We at FETCH a Cure are very grateful to all of our volunteers and are constantly inspired by their dedication and hard work. We could not do it without you!
Beyond Chemotherapy: How Veterinary Oncologists Can Improve Outcomes and Extend Quality of Life
By: Angharad Waite VMD, DACVIM (Oncology)
The Oncology Service
As a veterinary oncologist, my primary objective is to provide information to my clients about the benefits and risks associated with a cancer treatment. A principal component of this effort is to bring hope to families and to provide prolonged high quality of life to my patients who have been stricken by cancer. The primary means to deliver the best care is through a personalized review of the available clinical information for a specific patient and a discussion about the cancer, its prognosis, and the spectrum of available treatment options. It is increasingly the case that this discussion does not focus on the use of chemotherapy alone.
A diagnosis of cancer is often obtained from a tissue section that has been submitted to a pathologist. The information provided on the pathology report can offer a wealth of information to the oncologist regarding the biologic behavior of that tumor type and what other diagnostic tests may be indicated to provide more prognostics information. Additionally, it is important to remember that the conclusions generated on the pathology report may not always be consistent with an oncologist’s experience or inclusive of the newest information available to an oncologist. With the development of advanced cellular and molecular tools, we are now able to extend the value of a pathology report and to provide additional information that is helpful and often essential to completely describe the prognosis for a given patient. This information can often provide insight into the necessity for and types of additional therapy that may be offered.
Once a diagnosis of cancer has been obtained, there are many treatment options. We are aware that chemotherapy is a term that carries many negative connotations for pet owners. The good news is that our ability to effectively manage the risks of chemotherapy have dramatically improved. Indeed, we can now be confident in a high level of quality of life for our patients. Nonetheless we understand that chemotherapy may not be in the interest of a family or may not be relevant to the treatment of a given cancer. Therefore, a concern about chemotherapy should not be the only basis to decide on the input of a cancer specialist. For example, if a primary bone tumor is diagnosed in the limb of a dog, surgery and chemotherapy would be one treatment option. However, if surgery and chemotherapy are not elected, many options remain.
Intravenous infusions of pamidronate, lidocaine and ketamine, and/or palliative radiation can markedly improve comfort and the ability to walk. Pamidronate is a bisphosphonate inhibitor which minimizes bone turnover (and therefore pain from the tumor destroying the bone) and is well tolerated. Palliative radiation is a short course of radiation treatment with reduced incidence of side effects and with the intent of improving comfort for the short term. In my experience, 60% of patients will respond to pamidronate and the improved comfort can be maintained for 2-6 weeks with treatments repeated as needed (often every other week). The reported response rate with pamidronate in the literature is 28-40% with pain control lasting for greater than 4 months. I have also routinely used lidocaine/ketamine infusions with pamidronate and have seen most patients show signs of improved comfort, typically within 24 hours, and this has lasted for several weeks before a repeat treatment is pursued. As such my role in improving outcomes, even in this single example, extend well beyond a focus on conventional chemotherapy.
Progress in the field has also taken us beyond chemotherapy alone. Advances in immunotherapy and targeted cancer therapy continue to be made in human and veterinary oncology. The two immunotherapies I most commonly use are inhaled IL-2 for lung metastases and the melanoma vaccine. IL-2 has a 30% response rate in patients with pulmonary metastatic osteosarcoma. This therapy has been well-tolerated in my patients and can result in stabilization and even regression of the metastatic lesions. The melanoma vaccine has shown significant improvements in survival time in dogs with malignant melanoma. Recently, a paper published looking at canine patients with oral malignant melanoma including dogs that had spread to local lymph nodes had long survival times when surgery and the vaccine were pursued. The median disease free interval was not reached at two years in these patients. In the future, additional novel immunotherapeutic drugs will become available and will be safely integrated into the care of our patients. In the setting of targeted therapy we are now in the era of targeted small molecule inhibitors for veterinary cancer patients. Two approved agents (Palladia and Masitinib) are available and more are expected for several cancers.
In summary my role as a veterinary oncologist extends well beyond that of chemotherapy. Changes in our field have increasingly required me to carefully review a pathological report and to consider what additional cellular and molecular tests are needed to fully define a diagnosis and prognosis. From there, my goal is to provide families with information on the specific cancer in their pet and discuss the diversity of options that can be used to treat cancer. This includes the use of chemotherapy combined with medications that successfully limit the side-effects previously seen with chemotherapy, and to include the vast numbers of new treatments from targeted radiation to immunotherapy and small molecule inhibitors into a treatment plan that meets the goals of each patient family.
