And I thought this might be a quiet week. Last week we had the tootsiebell who tossed a puppy out into oncoming traffic. This week we have another woman who is a total abomination. Maria Aguilar of Queens, New York has been arrested on charges of beating a dog so badly that the animal is [...]
Dog Behavior Training | steveniam | March 10, 2010 | 
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Choosing to end a pet’s life is the hardest decision we make when it comes to our pets, and we can tell you from decades of experience that it’s a decision that never gets any easier. Your veterinarian will offer you advice and support, and friends and family can offer you sympathy, but no one can make the decision for you. When you live with an elderly or terminally ill pet, you look in your pet’s eyes every morning and wonder if you’re doing what’s best.
Everyone makes the decision a little differently. Some pet lovers do not wait until their pet’s discomfort becomes chronic, untreatable pain, and they choose euthanasia much sooner than others would. Some owners use an animal’s appetite as the guide — when an old or ill animal cannot be tempted into eating, they reason, he has lost most interest in life. And some owners wait until there’s no doubt the time is at hand — and later wonder if they delayed a bit too long.
Also from Dr. Becker, reassuring news about the safety of pet microchips:
Veterinary experts say there is no evidence that cancer is a problem in microchipped pets. More than 14 million-plus microchips have been implanted with only four cases in question.
Want more? Read the entire Pet Connection for this week! You can also download it just the way we send it to our client newspapers right here (PDF).
After hearing what Dr. Laura D. Garrett of the University of Illinois had to say about Palladia at last month’s Western Veterinary Conference, I realized there’s more to the story than the fact that this is the first drug approved in the United States to treat canine cancer.
Palladia (toceranib phosphate) is what’s known as a “tyrosine kinase inhibitor.” That means it blocks an enzyme that can help cancer spread.
Other tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) include the human drugs Sutent (sunitinib) and Gleevec (imatinib mesylate), and a European veterinary drug, Masivet (masitinib), which will be known as “Kinavet” if it’s approved in the United States.
Right now, Palladia is approved to treat mast cell tumors in dogs, and it’s fairly successful at treating those that don’t respond to other forms of treatment. In one study, mast cell tumors were reduced in size in 43 percent of dogs who received the drug, while only 8 percent of the dogs given placebo responded similarly.
Dr. Garrett, who is a board certified specialist in oncology, cautioned that TKIs are not a first line of treatment, but are meant to be used for particularly severe mast cell disease and only after other forms of treatment, like surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, have failed.
Even then, these drugs don’t always work. But for some mast cell tumors, particularly those with mutations in what’s known as the c-kit gene, TKIs have a much greater chance of success. Your veterinarian can have your dog’s tumor tested to see if it has that mutation.
Another big plus to treating cancer with Palladia is that it can be given at home, unlike other forms of chemotherapy. However, that’s a minus, too, because it can cause pretty severe side effects, mostly gastrointestinal. Owners have to be very vigilant in watching for signs of diarrhea or vomiting, and getting the dog to the veterinarian immediately.
There’s another potential benefit for dogs in the approval of a veterinary TKI: research. Manufacturers of human drugs don’t test them for how well they work in animals, but those making veterinary drugs do. Pfizer and AB Science are continuing to sponsor research into mast cell tumor treatment and other uses of their TKIs, which can lead to better ways to treat many kinds of cancer.
And once a veterinary drug is approved for one use, it can legally be used “off-label” to help animals with other problems. So veterinarians can try TKIs in the hope that they might benefit animals who aren’t responding to other therapies. Their outcomes will contribute to the body of knowledge about this class of cancer drugs, and possibly lead to new research and new and better therapies.
The first FDA-approved veterinary cancer drug isn’t going to cure every case, or even most of them. Neither will other tyrosine kinase inhibitors as they roll out of the pipeline. But cancer is one of the worst enemies a veterinarian ever battles. The more weapons we have against it, the better.
Right now, only boarded specialists who treat cancer have access to the drug, although it’s expected to be available to veterinarians in general practice later this year. If your dog is diagnosed with a mast cell tumor and you want more information on TKIs, talk to your veterinarian and see if he’s likely to be helped by this drug.
Photo courtesy of Pfizer Animal Health.
Disclosures: Palladia is manufactured by Pfizer Animal Health, and Pfizer sponsors the web archive of the Pet Connection syndicated feature.
Dr. Garrett does not work for Pfizer, but received an honorarium for presenting on Palladia at the Western Veterinary Conference. She also received, as did all board certified veterinary specialists who treat cancer, free Palladia for use in her patients during its testing and introduction.
Man’s best friend goes to work: Area hunting club puts 70 dogs and their owners through their paces
Deb West was smitten as a young girl. Her object of affection? The natural beauty and grace of a properly trained hunting dog.
Read more on Belleville News-Democrat
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Some of the ingredients that end up in commercial pet foods are truly shocking. What’s more, many of these will not appear on the label and others are hidden under umbrella terms such as ‘meat meal’ and ‘meat by-products’. How can this happen? The pet food industry is highly unregulated. As Ann Martin, author of [...]
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This article outlines 10 points that you need to make sure you consider when buying a Dog Bed for your Dog. There are a great amount of different types of Bed Dogs on the market these days and while having a large selection is great, it can sometimes be overwhelming. Use this guide to help you with making your next Dog Bed purchase.
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