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One of
my two dogs, a four-year-old female American pit bull
terrier, appears to have lung cancer. At least that’s
what her veterinarian tells me. And it was only a couple
of weeks ago that we found out, after several x-rays of
her thorax indicated a mass in her lungs. She has since
been in the hospital, initially for intravenous (IV)
feeding and medication. The tumor is partially blocking
her trachea, making it difficult for her to swallow food
and oral medication.
I
visited Blue (that’s her name) at the vet Tuesday night,
and she seemed to be in high spirits. The IV drip was
finally off, and the nurse told me Blue could already
eat and take medicine orally, but only in small
quantities. At least she was up and about. The initial
dose of medication, I believe a type of chemotherapy for
dogs, seems to be working.
It never
occurred to me that even our favorite household pets—in
my case, I consider them part of the family—could
develop a tumor or suffer from cancer. So it was a shock
that it happened to Blue, and it makes me wonder now
whether her son, Silver, who is just 14 months old, can
suffer the same fate. After all, with humans, cancer can
be hereditary.
My mom
passed away in January 2003, the same year Blue was
born, and just six days after my wedding. She battled
cancer for about five years—undergoing surgery,
chemotherapy and radiation. After her surgery and the
first round of chemotherapy, the cancer was in remission
for about three years. But it came back, and with a
vengeance, and the last two years of her life were the
most physically and emotionally tiring for her. But now,
she is in a better place.
Researching on the subject of dog cancers, I found out
that lung cancers were fairly rare in dogs, and that
there was an increase in risk associated with living in
an urban area, and exposure to secondhand smoke. One web
site also noted that “short-nosed breeds exposed to
cigarette smoke in the home have twice the risk of
getting lung cancer as medium- or long-nosed breeds
exposed to a similar amount of cigarette smoke. This is,
of course, the inverse of the nasal-cancer findings and
again speaks to the more efficient nasal filtration
system in long-nosed breeds.”
More
revealing are the findings listed in a December 5
article in Time.com: “. . . American Cancer Society
researchers reported that of 36 beagles they had trained
to smoke heavily, 12 had developed lung cancer. The
cancer victims had smoked seven to nine unfiltered
cigarettes a day over a 21-year period. That, Dr. E.
Cuyler Hammond figured, was the equivalent of a man’s
smoking almost two packs a day for 18 years, after
making allowance for the beagles’ size and shorter life
span. Two of the dogs’ cancers were indistinguishable
from human smokers’ lung cancer; the remaining 10 were
of types that are less common but are also found in
men.” Truly, the dog is man’s best friend.
Another
web site explains new evidence that secondhand smoke
harms pets, quoting a report in the New York Post: “Of
all the compelling reasons to quit smoking, this one
should make pet lovers sit up and take notice: there’s
ample scientific evidence to suggest that secondhand
cigarette smoke can cause cancer in companion animals.
And your furry friends don’t just inhale smoke; the
smoke particles are also trapped in their fur and
ingested when they groom themselves with their tongues.”
“A study
published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found
that dogs in smoking households had a 60-percent greater
risk of lung cancer; a different study published in the
same journal showed that long-nosed dogs, such as
collies or greyhounds, were twice as likely to develop
nasal cancer if they lived with smokers. And in yet
another study, vets from Tufts University found that
cats whose owners smoked were three times as likely to
develop lymphoma, the most common feline cancer.”
Two
studies were reportedly done at California State
University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital on the effects
of secondhand smoke on companion animals. In 1992, in a
study entitled, “Passive smoking and canine lung- cancer
risk,” and in 1998, in a study entitled “Cancer of the
nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses and exposure to
environmental tobacco smoke in pet dogs,” it was learned
that a dog exposed to a smoker in the home was 1.6 times
more likely to develop lung cancer than a dog that was
not exposed to a smoker.
And in a
September 4 report, the Xinhua News Agency cited recent
studies by US veterinarians showing that secondhand
smoke not only threatened the health of nonsmokers but
also house pets such as dogs and cats. Quoting Carolynn
Mac Allister, a veterinarian of Oklahoma State
University, the report noted, “secondhand smoke has been
associated with oral cancer and lymphoma in cats, lung
and nasal cancer in dogs, as well as lung cancer in
birds.”
Xinhua
also reported a recent study conducted at Colorado State
University showed there was a higher incidence of nasal
tumors in dogs living in a home with secondhand smoke,
compared with dogs living in a smoke-free environment,
and that the increased incidence was specifically found
among the long-nosed breed of dogs. Meanwhile, shorter-
or medium-nosed dogs showed higher rates for lung
cancer.
Perhaps
it’s time smokers became more conscious of their vice’s
impact not only on other members of their own household,
but also on their beloved pets. Before lighting up, it’s
best for a smoker to be conscious of a pet’s
presence—very much in the same way that one should never
smoke when children are around. After all, the greatest
irony is that while cigarettes in this country are very
cheap and are widely available, medical treatment,
particularly for cancer, is very expensive, even for
pets. Moreover, it is truly heartless to put pets at
risk or make them suffer just because their owners
choose to irresponsibly indulge in a smelly habit. If
only pets can complain.
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