Many of you know Potato the Pitbull – my infamous Pet CPR Demo Dog Extraordinaire!
But not everyone knows his cancer story… his story of survival all because of one VERY simple skill.
Everyone joins our classes usually to learn the CPR portion – which is the most obvious skill that most people admit that they don’t know. But… hidden throughout our program are other little “gems” that people don’t know that they don’t know. One of these “gems” is what helped to catch Potato’s cancer early on so that he could be treated.
In November 2017, Potato wasn’t feeling well. He gets PLENTY of Snout-To-Tail™ Assessments since, as a Master Instructor for Pet Tech™, I am typically teaching monthly classes. This allows me to know his “normals” very well, and I can instantly tell when something isn’t right. Although Potato has had four exploratory abdominal surgeries, something was off, but it wasn’t exactly the same symptoms as his previous foreign body escapades. There was nothing too obvious, no physical symptoms exactly, but I went ahead and took him into one of my favorite vets.
They x-rayed him, weren’t confident of a foreign body, and nothing else seemed abnormal. We decided to run some bloodwork, put him on fluids, repeat his x-rays at the end of the day and watch him. Later that day, he was clear; everything in his stomach moved OK, so we were all kind of at a loss. I just knew something wasn’t right, but nothing showed up, and I couldn’t put my finger on what was wrong. Because the other vet was booked, I went to a different location a few days later to see another one of our favorite vets. I was asked if I wanted to repeat the bloodwork that we had just run two days prior. I initially hesitated but then agreed, and this decision ultimately saved Potato’s life.
On Monday, the veterinary technician had taken his blood from his leg, but the second technician happened to go to his jugular on his neck to take his blood sample. She immediately alerted the doctor that Potato had a tiny lump on his left thyroid gland. Soon after this discovery, he was diagnosed with functional thyroid carcinoma. They all kept telling me how sorry they were for the diagnosis, and it came as a complete shock, but I knew something was wrong… I just hated that I was right.
I cannot ever express the importance of doing regular Snout-To-Tail™ Assessments on your pet. If I hadn’t known what was “normal” for Potato, his cancer might have gotten out of control, and he wouldn’t be here right now! CPR and bleeding skills are extremely important, but THIS could save your pet’s life today!!