Vet Tech Love

Osteosarcoma, which also occurs in other species (including humans), is a cancer of the bone. In dogs, it is the most common primary bone tumor, accounting for up to 80% of all malignancy originating in the canine skeleton.

Canine osteosarcoma usually occurs in the limbs, but any bone could be affected. Interestingly, while overall cases mostly occur in middle age or older (median age 7 years), primary rib tumors are more common among younger adults median ages 4.5-5.4 years.)

Larger breeds are more likely to develop osteosarcoma. Great Danes, Irish setters, Irish wolfhounds, boxers, Doberman pinschers, Rottweilers, German shepherds, and golden retrievers are particularly at risk.

Other major risk factors are being unaltered, family history, certain gene mutations, pre-existing skeletal anomalies, chronic osteomyelitis, and exposure to carcinogens.

Treatment and prognosis depend upon multiple factors. As with humans, chemotherapy, radiation, and/or surgery are often used. (Always follow veterinary advice from your pet’s vet.) The average survival for canine osteosarcoma patients treated with surgery and chemotherapy is 1 year. Dogs between the ages of 7 and 10 have the best prognosis.

Signs and symptoms of the disease include but are not limited to:

🦴 Swelling/bulging

🦴 Difficulty with swallowing

🦴 Eye bulging

🦴 Localized deformity

🦴 Heightened sensitivity of the senses

🦴 Pain or difficulty in opening the mouth

🦴 Pain or difficulty with walking

🦴 Fractures that don’t make sense (for example, a dog breaking a leg by jumping)

🦴 Nasal discharge

🦴 Neurological symptoms

🦴 Secondary signs of pain, such as irritability, aggression, loss of appetite, weight loss, whimpering or yelping, sleeplessness, and reluctance to exercise.

Dear Adorable Fluffs,

I’m sorry.

I’m sorry that you don’t understand what is happening to you.

I’m sorry we have to poke and prod you every little bit so we can make sure you stay alive and get the treatment you need.

I’m sorry that your intestines is literally and continuously sloughing unto the puppy pad diapers that you are surrounded by.

I’m sorry I can’t explain to you why we have to draw blood so often or why you are hooked up to so many tubes and fluid lines.

I’m sorry that you feel so crummy that you won’t eat. Puppies should be able to love to eat.

I’m sorry that instead of a bright, hyper puppy you are reduced to being a miserable and dull corpse-like ball of diarrhea. 

I’m sorry that your entire body might begin to shut down and you might go into septic shock.

I’m sorry that even around the clock care might not be good enough.

I’m sorry that even the best medicine might not be good enough.

I’m sorry that even if you walk out of here alive and possibly eventually happy, you had to endure even a single second of this awful, cruel, debilitating disease.

I’m sorry that that this was most likely preventable (Yes, there are exceptions, but they are rare and almost always has a valid reason why the vaccine didn’t work- i.e. didn’t store the vaccine correctly, giving it only once without a booster, expecting it to miraculously work immediately right before or during a pravo infection etc.). 

I’m sorry that your owner didn’t believe in vaccines or that “we just want to give them for money.” (Hint: iF we ACTUALLY were in this career for the money, then why in the absolute world would we give a $20 vaccine when we could refuse to vaccinate and make $1,000-$7,000 ++ on each critical parvo patient that walked in the door?)

I’m sorry that you could have been playing with your siblings and being snuggled as a puppy should but instead I’m trying not to sob I might have to put your tiny, emaciated body into a body bag.

A private Australian microchip registry called HomeSafeID has seemingly gone dark. With the owner(s) of the registry no longer communicating with, or paying for the registry's website, it is almost certain to shut down. From the HomeSafeID website:

5 Feb 2025: The owner of this site, HomeSafeID, is no longer communicating or paying for the hosting of this site, and so this site is likely to go offline in the future. You may want to investigate alternatives to your pet's registration, as once this site goes offline the registration data will no longer be available online or searchable via PetAddress.

While the company HomeSafeID is still registered with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, if/when the registry goes offline it will mean thousands, probably hundreds of thousands, of microchips will become essentially useless as there would be no way of searching for their number or verifying its' information.

This is obviously very scary, but it's the perfect time to visit your vet and check all your microchip details are up-to-date. If a microchip is registered with HomeSafeID, you can ask your vet to contact another registry and apply to have the details transferred.

Don't financially, emotionally, physically, or verbally abuse paramedics.

Don't financially, emotionally, physically, or verbally abuse doctors or nurses.

Nobody visits the ER because they’re having a good day. Nobody brings their pet to the ER on a good day, either. Same goes for urgent care, hospitals in general, and many visits to general practitioners for humans and pets. Like, I get it, things are hard.

But don’t take your stress out on clinic and hospital staff! They don’t deserve that! They are trying their best to make you or your family member better, and if they can’t do that, they’re going to try to make things a little easier for the patient.

They are not “only in it for the money”. They are not the ones making you or your family member sick. It’s not their fault that Johnny broke his arm, or that Fuzzy McGigglepuff tried to eat a bee. The nurse is not a punching bag. The veterinarian doesn’t deserve death threats. The doctor is not a spittoon. The paramedics responding to your friend’s seizure aren’t trying to ruin your party. Waving a broken beer bottle at an EMT won’t make your day any better. Threatening the vet tech won’t remove the cancer tumor from your cat.

Tense body

Ears flattened

Dilated pupils

Flicking tail or tucked tail

Panting

Showing teeth

And I sympathise. I understand. Parents are hard, especially when they still think of you as ‘their kid’ and not ‘grown adult with autonomy’. Getting your parent to change their behavior is very difficult.

My two cats have a scoop in their bag of food, and they get one scoop each for dinner. It’s a very simple system: 1 scoop 1 cat. If I notice they’re getting a bit podgy then I make the scoop a bit concave. If they’re looking a bit light, I give them a little extra breakfast. But dinner is always the same, never more than one scoop.

But last night I watch my mother (the very same woman that scolded me for my weight since I was ten) decide to feed the cats for me while I finished washing the dishes.

The cats follow her, mewing pathetically, as she carries the food bag to their bowls. And I watch, as she’s talking to me and making eye contact, while she gives one cat a slightly heaped scoop of food, and then the other.

And then, dear reader, she replaces the scoop into the bag, as though it’s the most natural thing in the world, and proceeds to give each cat an additional handful of food.

I was astounded. I was politely mortified that you just increased the cats’ meals by at least 80%. No wonder they’ve been podgy!

There is a little labrador that comes to my clinic. She weighs 120 pounds. Her back only reaches my *knee* and I'm average height. Her senior owner thinks she only needs to lose about 20 pounds. I looked at him and went "she's the same height my 55 pound lab mix was..."

His response? "Oh, there's no way she could be a 50 pound dog!"

Sir, your dog is at this point wider than she is tall. She is 2.5 dogs in one. She's almost large enough to begin affecting the tides.

Good problem solving skills

…which means it’s time for an annual reminder not to kidnap baby birds. Fact: most species of birds have almost no sense of smell. Someone probably told you that if you touch a baby bird, the mother will smell you on it and reject her baby. THAT IS NOT THE CASE. If you’ve found a baby bird and you touched it, all is not lost, you can still return it to mom and dad!

Pictured: a young Mourning Dove, after being rescued from the tender mercies of my dog, circa spring 2005. It’s a fledgling! Note how it has most of its feathers, but still looks a bit awkward and scruffy, and, being unable to properly fly, can be caught by an elderly husky or a child. 

Help, I found a baby bird on the ground, what do I do???

Hatchlings/Nestlings: IF it is naked or covered in fluffy down and/or pinfeathers and cannot flutter successfully, it’s a hatchling or nestling, and has fallen from its nest prematurely. Look for the nest- if you find it and can reach it, return baby and then leave and let the parents return. If you can’t find the nest, or if you find it in pieces on the ground, use a small box/yogurt container lined with dried grass and attach as close as possible to where you found the bird or where you think the nest was. If it’s cold, warm it in your hands for a few minutes before putting it back. RETURN BABY!!!! 

Fledglings: If you spot a young bird covered with feathers (may have a few patches of fluff) on the ground, it’s a fledgling (bird tween) who is currently working on flying 101 homework, which is normal and fine. Hanging out on the ground is part of the learning to fly process! If it looks like it’s in immediate danger (i.e. of being run over, stepped on, or eaten by a cat or dog), the best thing you can do for it is to gently scoop it up and place it in the low branches of a nearby tree or shrub, and then LEAVE. The parents are likely nearby watching, and will return once the coast is clear. If it flutter-hops away from you and you can’t catch it, then don’t worry! It just successfully avoided a predator (you), and therefore can probably continue to do so. LEAVE BABY ALONE!!!

DO NOT: Try to feed it, bring it into your house or car, or take it to your local domestic animal vet or shelter. 

Someone brought us this poor sparrow fledgling. I told them we may euthanize since the wing appeared broken but we asked the rehab anyway their thoughts. And they took it in, but I’m still not convinced they can save it. I hope I’m wrong.

If it didn’t have an injury I’d have told them:

But at the same time, best not to even bring us the injured baby. There’s an app called AnimalHelpNow that can get you exactly the help you need for any wildlife emergency or situation.