Cookie’s health pupdate

Hello readers.

Dr. Barney called me yesterday with the results of Cookie’s excised little tumor. Dr. Barney said that it was a “circumscribed mammary ductal carcinoma.” The good news is that it was completely removed. The bad news is that it was not completely benign. That just means that we have to be extremely aware of recognizing any future tumors that may appear in her mammary glands (ie. we must “feel her up” once a month). The situation could have been a lot worse, so we are happy that we went ahead with surgery. The good doctor said that there is a 50% chance that we may see more of these during Cookie’s lifetime, and 50% that we won’t. Let’s hope its the latter!  An interesting thing to note is that the risk of a dog developing a mammary tumor is 0.5% if spayed before their first heat (approximately 6 months of age), 8% after their first heat, and 26% after their second heat. But, spaying does not provide a protective effect against mammary tumor development after 2 years of age. We know that Cookie was not spayed until she was about 4 years old.  So in the words of Bob Barker “….help control the pet population. Have your pet spayed or neutered. Goodbye, everybody!”

Tags: Bob Barker, Cookie, Dr. Barney, English Bulldog, mammary ductal carcinoma, neutered, spayed