Pet Cancer Survivors – Another Shelby’s Story

As part of Pet Cancer Awareness month, Veterinary Pet Insurance is highlighting some of our policyholders’ pets that were diagnosed with, treated for, and survived pet cancer. Every year in the United States, millions of pets are diagnosed with cancer, yet many pet owners are unaware of the prevalence and cost of the disease.

One fun thing about working at VPI is the number of fellow pet owners who work at the company. It is very rare you find an employee without a pet at home, and even rarer to find a pet that doesn’t have a VPI policy!

Our web managing editor, Christine Gowen, has two Labrador retrievers (Shelby and Sable) who are regular visitors to our office, especially on bring your dog to work days. Shelby is a 8-year-old yellow Lab that was named after Julia Robert’s character from the movie “Steel Magnolias.” In early 2010 Shelby was diagnosed with two mast cell tumors and one fibrosarcoma tumor.

Christine first became aware of the odd-looking cysts on Shelby’s abdomen and chest while playing with Shelby and giving out belly-rubs. She noticed they would change texture and sometimes fill with fluid—which wasn’t a good sign. The mast cell tumors were removed by a specialist while Shelby was having surgery for an unrelated condition. After they were biopsied it was determined they were malignant and Shelby was scheduled for more surgery to remove any excess cancerous areas.

With the mast cell and fibroscarcoma tumors Shelby had, the treatment options are often limited to surgical removal, so no post-surgery treatment was needed. The procedure took two hours and Shelby spent the night at the animal hospital so they could monitor her recovery and response to the anesthesia.

Shelby recovered quickly after surgery and is now back to being a typical, rambunctious 8-year-old Labrador retriever. She is highly active and is in denial that she’s approaching her “senior” years. She has been cancer free for 9 months now—and hopefully forever! However, because both of these types of cancer have a 15 percent chance of recurring, Christine is vigilant in checking for any new lumps or bumps and has any that she finds looked at under a microscope.

Even though Christine is an employee of VPI, her claims go through the same process as any policyholder. She attached all the medical records for Shelby’s procedure so that the Claims department would have all necessary paperwork in case they had any questions, and she received a reimbursement of $1,602 within three weeks.

For any pet owners who find themselves in a similar position, Christine suggests always getting a second opinion. Her regular veterinarian disagreed with Christine that the cysts she found were suspicious, or possibly cancer, for more than a year. If it hadn’t been for the specialist that removed and biopsied the tumors, they could’ve gone undiagnosed. “If your gut is telling you something is wrong, pursue it,” says Christine. “We should’ve simply insisted that the tumors be removed when we first suspected what they were.”

Christine would also like for people to realize that “cancer no longer means that your pet has no options and that it’s the end of the road.” She had another family dog that was diagnosed with bone cancer at 6 years of age. After surgery to remove part of her paw and radiation treatment, the dog lived to be 15 years old! Having pet insurance, she says, helps reduce her concern about treatment costs. “We were reimbursed 63 percent for Shelby’s surgical treatment. We knew going into her surgery that her chances of recovery were excellent and that her quality of life and life expectancy thereafter were also excellent.”