Kyra's Page

Weight: 72
Breed: German Shepherd
Age when diagnosed: 7

Tumors:

I had not intended to get a new dog. It was summer of 1999, a few weeks after my beautiful German Shepherd had died suddenly, probably from a ruptured hemangiosarcoma. My aunt talked me into heading out to the Puppy Rescue “just to look,” and there she was. Kyra was 7 weeks old, a German Shepherd/lab mix, sitting in one of the cages just looking at me. She didn’t run, she didn’t jump, she just sat, chest out, head high, and looked at me. I was instantly in love and she came home.

Kyra has been my best friend and companion from day one. She goes everywhere with me. Her favorite place is Bighorn Park in Vail where she can run around in feet of snow in the winter and swim after tennis balls in the lake in the summer. She is incredibly stubborn and way too smart. She clearly thinks, mostly about food. When she decides she wants a treat, she will sit in the family room, and stare at me. And stare. And stare. And stare. She knows I will inevitably break down and give her a treat.
We had a previous cancer scare. Last summer I felt a mass in her abdomen. Being particularly paranoid about HSA, I immediately took her to the vet where an ultrasound showed a large spleen, thought to be normal for a dog her size. This summer, I had a feeling that something was wrong. I felt her belly and again thought I felt a mass. Back to the vet, another ultrasound, again, just a large spleen. Relief. The day after the ultrasound she started limping. That was a Thursday. Saturday she seemed to have swelling over the bone. Monday we went into the vet and did x-rays: osteosarcoma.

We were at Colorado State University by Thursday, and enrolled in a clinical trial the following Monday. I decided to do a trial with N-MTP-PE, an immunomodulator therapy designed to use the body’s immune system to fight the cancer. Earlier trials had shown the drug to have equivalent survival statistics with traditional chemotherapy, and it is being used with some success in children. This trial included a dose of radiation and N-MTP-PE for three weeks prior to amputation, and 8 weeks of N-MTP-PE post amputation. Due to a microfracture from the biopsy, we only lasted a week and a half before we had to do the amputation for pain relief. After the amputation she had an extended depression, and really started acting like herself only after the therapy was over, 8 weeks post amp.
We are now two months post treatment, and she is doing great. She has hip dysplasia so we can’t do long walks or hikes, but we still “walk” twice a day, chase tennis balls and roll in the snow. Her normal pace is now a slow run- why don’t they warn you about this before the amp? so we run. I find myself praying for well-spaced fire hydrants or posts so she will stop to sniff and I can stop to breathe! I am so grateful for every day I have with her, and pray for many, many more.

Pictures