Pet of the month for April 2020 goes to Darcy.
Darcy is a 15m old Bull Terrier mix who first came to visit us through DBBR dog rescue for vaccination & check up with her 5 puppies. Not long after her pups went to their new homes, she came back to us to have her de-sexing procedure performed. When she came in, we noticed that she was bleeding from her vagina so it was assumed she has simply gone on heat. Her procedure when very smoothly and she went home that night to her new family.
A month later she returned to the clinic as she was still bleeding from her vagina (it is normal for them to continue bleeding for up to 2 weeks post-surgery). An ultrasound was performed to make sure that the uterine stumps from her de-sexing were intact and that no infection had occurred. Everything came back looking normal so we booked her in for a sedation and vaginal swab/wash. It was during this exam that Dr Raj could see some lumps inside her vaginal canal, he explored further and noticed that there are many deep inside. One lump was cut out so that we could have it sent to the laboratory for testing.
5 days later the results were back and we had a diagnosis. Darcy unfortunely has canine transmissible venereal tumours (CTVT) which are transmissible cancers that affects dogs. CTVT causes tumours which are usually associated with the external genitalia of both male and female dogs. In short, poor Darcy has an STD. It is in fact the only cancer that is transmittable.
Treament for CTVT requires a weekly (for approx. 6-8 weeks) dose of an intravenous chemotherapy drug called Vincristine. Darcy has now finished treatment and everything is looking really good. We would like to thank DBBR dog rescue and her new owners for being so amazing throughout the process and doing the absolute best for her.