Kaya came to me from the Roanoke SPCA at the start of my second year of veterinary school. It's funny how a dog can so profoundly impact our complicated lives. On the other hand, we have an acute sense of how blessed we were to have her in our lives. Our home is simply not the same without her presence. On one hand, my wife and I are incredibly sad at the loss of our beloved friend. It's odd sorting through mixed feelings at the moment. She was an incredible companion and gave us 11 memorable years of her life. Sadly, we lost Kaya just after Christmas. A humble tribute to my girl.)Ī few months ago, I saw a bumper sticker that had a paw print next to the words "Who rescued who?" It stuck with me as a profound thought as I had been dealing with what I knew were the last few months of my own rescued dog's life. Andersenįebruary 3rd, 2011: (here is my "Gazette Vet" column for February. I am hoping Kaya's story can help shine some perspective into this process for you. But battling a diagnosis of cancer is a unique challenge, as we are often faced with the choice of putting our pets through a procedure, whether chemotherapy or surgery, in hopes of a longer and more fuller life. If you have a pet, you'll likely outlive it, and that is a painful experience anyway you slice it. I started writing about this journey back in August of 2009, and you can follow how things went from then to the present by starting at the bottom of this blog. Looking back, I have no regrets in treating her cancer with chemotherapy and we were blessed to have been able to care for her after all she has given to my family and I. More importantly, she lived a great quality of life during that time, minus some bad days here and there. The average survival of lymphoma with chemotherapy is about 10-12 months, so I was pleased for Kaya to have lived so long. It has been an emotional journey filled with plenty of highs and lows, and an incredible learning experience for myself. During the course of diagnosing this disease and treating it with chemotherapy, I was compelled to write this journal as a way to help our clients understand the real life ins and outs of chemotherapy treatment in pets. Sadly, Kaya finally lost her battle on December 27th, 2010, after 16 months of fighting. This is the story of Kaya, my 11 year old mixed breed dog who was diagnosed with leukemic lymphoma, a cancer of the white blood cells.
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