K9 Corner: Pay attention to changes in dogs

[Crossfire Bulldogs]

The Advocate Messenger - Danville, KY.
By HELEN PALMER
Contributing Columnist

"I lost my dog to cancer. I understand you have a dog that survived this disease. How did you know your dog was sick?"

I have been very lucky over the years. Three of my dogs and one of my cats had malignancies removed and survived for several additional years of active life.

I attribute my good fortune to my practice of playing with and massaging my animals each day. I had my long haired cat upside down on my lap and was massaging his legs, gently squeezing them and tickling the profuse paw fur, when I noticed what I thought was a swollen pad on one paw. It didn't seem to bother him, so I waited until the next day to take him to the veterinarian. It was then that I learned that it was not an abscess, but a tumor. After removal, the growth was diagnosed as being malignant.

The three dogs survived because I decided to groom them. Grooming is the second most important way of detecting growths. I say second because, contrary to what my veterinarians think, I do not groom each day, although some of my friends who are showing their dogs do comb and brush their dogs that frequently.

When grooming, I start with a hind foot and work up the leg, inch at a time, using a coarse comb for the medium to long haired breeds. The coarse comb does not pull the hair out like a fine toothed comb, but it does straighten out the tangles.

Then I take a medium toothed comb and go over the hind quarter, tail and side. Back to the coarse comb, I work on the front foot and up the leg, switching to the medium comb for the shoulder, chest and neck. Bearded dogs have their facial hair gently combed by pulling the hair up toward the top of the muzzle and then starting at the neck, combing in quarter-inch segments. Strand by strand is released and combed out until the beard is tangle free.

Even when the dogs have their winter undercoat, the comb will alert me to any bump or depression in or on the skin.

It was when I was filing one dog's toenails that I discovered a marble size lump on a toe. Remembering the cat's malignancy, I took her in immediately. Fortunately, that growth turned out to be an abscess and, although the dog lost an entire toe as a result, it didn't bother her after it healed.

It is this attention as well as just plain luck that I attribute my success in locating growths before they become fatal. Although it doesn't help my caller this time, I hope that by sharing, it will help other pet owners