Articles with cancer

Do Dogs Get Hemorrhoids? Stormy’s Anal Gland Cancer

Stormy was a friendly, happy Collie mix who lives with my friend in the old country. He was 18 years old, and with the exception of an old spinal injury that would give him a hard time now and then when he overdid things, he is still plenty eager to chase bitches. In my old country, dogs rarely get fixed,…

by Jana Rade

Early Signs of Splenic Tumors: What You Probably Didn’t Know about Splenic Tumors in Dogs

You can’t see splenic tumors coming–or can you? Too often, splenic tumors pass under the radar until the dog collapses as a result of severe internal bleeding. My brother-in-law had a dog die to hemangiosarcoma a couple of years ago. The prognosis with this cancer is generally poor but on top of that, their vet insisted it was a urinary…

by Jana Rade

Mast Cell Tumor Treatment: JD’s Mast Cell Tumor— Surgery and Pathology Report

JD had his mast cell tumor removed last week. Everything went well and I will go into more detail on all his procedures next Thursday. Since then we were tending to his surgical sites and waiting for the pathology report. Diagnostic results The pathology report came today. That is much faster than we expected, which is great. Who likes waiting…

by Jana Rade

Mast Cell Tumor Diagnosis: JD’s Biopsy Results Revealed Mast Cell Tumor—You Don’t Know What the Bump Is Unless You Look at the Cells

Nobody, not even a veterinary oncologist, can identify a bump just by looking at it. There is no point in guessing and there is no point to watch potential cancer grow. Don’t wait. Aspirate. JD’s story We found three bumps on JD which we had checked out last week. One of them, looking like a skin tag, is a skin…

by Jana Rade

Canine Histiocytic Sarcoma: Elly’s Story

In dogs, in spite of its menacing appearance, histiocytoma is a benign skin tumor that results from abnormal growth of histiocytes, white blood cells responsible for attacking bacteria and other foreign matter in the body. These cells can be found mostly on the skin surface but also in other tissues that are in contact with the outer environment, such as the…

by Jana Rade

Jana Rade

I am a graphic designer by day, dog health advocate, dog writer, member of the Dog Writers Association of American and an award-winning author. Jasmine, the Rottweiler of my life, was the largest female from her litter. We thought we were getting a healthy dog. Getting a puppy from a backyard breeder was our first mistake. Endless veterinary visits without a diagnosis or useful treatment later, I realized that I had to take Jasmine's health care in my own hands. I learned the hard way that simply seeing a vet is not always enough. There is more to finding a good vet than finding the closest clinic down the street. And, sadly, there is more to advocating for your dog's health than visiting a veterinarian. It should be enough but it often is not. With Jasmine, it took five years to finally get a diagnosis for her initial issue. Unfortunately, other problems had snowballed for that in the meantime. Jasmine's health challenges became a crash course in understanding dog health issues and how to go about getting a proper diagnosis and treatment. I had to learn and I had to learn fast. Helping others through my challenges and experience has become my mission and Jasmine's legacy. I now try to help people how to recognize and understand signs of illness in their dogs, how to work with their veterinarian and when to seek a second opinion. My goal is to save others the steep curve of having to learn things the hard way as I did. That is the mission behind my blog and behind my writing. That is why I wrote Symptoms to Watch for in Your Dog, which has turned out being an award-winning guide to dog owners . What I'm trying to share encompasses 20 years of experience.

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