Those Dogs With Cancer

[Guest PhillyPups]

In reading this thread over and over cause it hits so close to home -

 

I remember as a kid losing my Chesapeake to cancer, so I called my oldest brother, it was bone cancer. At the time there was not the medical knowledge we have now, but her leg broke, my brother went with my Dad to the vet and remembered it well.

 

Needless to say, Chessie never raced, never ate kennel food, never had hormones, but was a big dog with bone cancer. This was way before internet and/or treatment.

 

We lost a Border Collie to stomach cancer at 14.

 

I think we are so much more aware by having internet access and being on this board, we grow so close to all the hounds here that it really hits home, our large dogs have longer life spans mix that with the fact that vet medicine has advanced so much we have better awareness.

 

Heck used to be if we didn't see the neighbor's old dog and saw them with a new dog, we knew what happened but were too polite to ask.

 

[rschultz]

I was told by an adoption group that some are given steroids. I am glad you guys cleared that up for me. I would hate to tell others the wrong thing.

[Guest Heehoo]

Bool & Dear had long racing careers, they had hermangio sarcoma, Gogh had osteo sarcoma & didn't race at all.

Actually I went back, Bool raced 169, Dear only raced 64. Pipi who has thyroid cancer raced 154.

 

Edited July 20, 2009 by Heehoo

[Burpdog]

Putting together the spread sheet I did (working on the second one) for Dr. C, I didn't notice genetic similarities but I need to revisit. I know I made a comment to him that a genetic pedigree would be wonderful to do.

 

Also frequency of vaccinations and flea treatment -- compiling record of for dogs that got any type of cancer.

Edited July 20, 2009 by Burpdog

[BauersMom]

I was told by an adoption group that some are given steroids. I am glad you guys cleared that up for me. I would hate to tell others the wrong thing.

 

Some are - as noted previously to prevent the girls from going into heat. (note that steroids describe a large class of hormones - not all are muscle building anabolic steroids, though...estrogen is a steroid )

[fourofem]

Who knows? All of us here on GT know about our greyhounds but not so much other breeds. When Lewis was first diagnosed, I immediately blamed it on his upbringing/training/drugs/racing.....everything other than the fact he was just one of the unlucky ones. It's like the person who never smoked a cigarette in their life dying of lung cancer or the woman with no family history at all dying of breast cancer. There is just no explaining it right now. I still get mad when I think about losing Lewis at only 7 years old but then I read about much younger dogs that met the same fate. Thanks goodness for people like Dr. C....maybe one day.....

[JedsMom]

The TBD theory is very interesting. Jed had ehrlichia...

[Guest FLT]

Chester (Big Cheese) did very well, and died of Hemangiosarcoma. Drake may or may not have cancer (OMG the waiting for this next round of biopsies!) - although so far 4 out of 5 experts think he does have at least one type of cancer and retired very promptly. I think it took Drake 8 tries to break his maiden!

[Guest sja5032]

The only "make you go hmmmm" theory I've read related to greyhounds and racing is the force exerted on the "rail-side" leg (left) during a race...racing possibly causes microcopic damage to the bone over and over again that eventually makes the leg more susceptable to cancer. But that would be osteo, specifically and not the other kinds. Not sure I've ever read any evidence to back it up or disprove it, though I think there was a left leg/right leg poll done on GT a while back to see if there was a more common side. I'm sure OSU would keep that kind of stat.

 

The TBD theory is an interesting one as well, though the few dogs we've had that we know for sure had TBDs died of old age, not any kind of cancer. And two dogs that we know for sure didn't (well as sure as you can be, but they were used as blood donors for years and years) actually died of cancer (one osteo, one chondrosarcoma). But, that's just a handful of anecdotal cases that don't mean much...still, interesting theory and it makes sense on the surface...

 

 

There is usually more stress put on the right leg (specifically the hind) to push themselves around the turns vs. their inside legs. Most broken legs & muscle injuries happen to a dogs right rear leg, so if cancer was more prevalent in greys right rear legs I would definitely see that as a possibility.

 

I don't think there is one real answer to any of this, just like people and cancer, something that causes cancer today is good for us tomorrow and bad again next week.

 

 

[Guest GentleHugs]

I can attest to the right rear leg breaks more often during racing than any other leg on a Greyhound. I'm a VP for an organization called GreytLegs (www.greytlegs.org) and we give out grants to help GH groups with financial need to help with the veterinary cost on a broken leg Grey who broke their leg while racing (active racing Greys who were currently racing at the time of injury).

 

When I review a grant application, the first thing I check is to see which leg was injured and then I check to see what the injury was specifically. In the last 5 years that our organization has been doing grants - every single grant that was approved was for a right rear leg break - most generally the hock area. The other thing I have noted in reviewing our grant applications is where the Grey was at on the track when the leg was broke - the first turn.

 

I also have a close friend who is a racing owner and I asked her about left leg breaks and right leg breaks. She said although it's not near as common, there have been left rear leg breaks and front leg breaks while racing (especially if they get tripped up in a spill or something or during training because they are just not that experienced yet on the track) but the most common break is the right rear leg. It's considered their *push off leg* and that's where all the force is placed at to propel the dog forward at an angle around that first turn - on that right rear leg.

 

 

[Guest longdogs]

Nugget was healthy, fairly young and had never raced. She's the one I lost to osteo, not my two with a racing career.