Meet Narco, our 6 year old German Shepherd Dog who has been serving this county as our drug detection dog for the last 5 years. He has been an amazing aid for our Sheriff’s department and has helped to keep our town safe. About a month ago Narco presented to us to remove a growth on his paw. This growth was fairly small, and at the time he wasn’t bothering it much. We removed the growth and sent it for analysis. What came back was not what we were hoping for…the growth was malignant melanoma. Malignant melanoma is a very aggressive form (especially on paws) of skin cancer.
Malignant melanoma is aggressive because of its ability to metastasis (or spread) to other parts of the body. Metastasis to the bone of the toe, the long bone of any extremity (femur and humerus), the nearest lymph nodes, and the lungs are the most common places. Most of the time metastasis is already present when diagnosed. If no metastasis is present at the time of diagnosis, then we generally see it occur within a year of diagnosis.
Narco is one of the lucky ones and does not have any metastasis present at this time. Because of that we are hopeful that we can extend the time before his disease metastasizes or the best case scenario is that we can put it into remission. He is set for retirement at the end of this year, but we are going to keep him working as long as he feels up to it during the course of his treatment. When he retires, his handler is going to adopt him and continue to care for him as he has been doing. Narco has a loving family to retire to and we would like for him to get to live the life of retirement and enjoy it!
Today we started Narco’s first chemotherapy treatment. The treatment plan lined out for Narco will last a year and a half and the total cost is around $8,000. We all want the best for Narco, but his treatment is expensive, so we are asking for help. If you would like to contribute to Narco’s treatment, there are 3 ways to donate: a cash donation here at Scottsville Animal Hospital, South Central Kentucky K-9, Inc., and https://www.gofundme.com/K-9Narco. Any donation will help Narco tremendously.
Malignant melanoma is aggressive because of its ability to metastasis (or spread) to other parts of the body. Metastasis to the bone of the toe, the long bone of any extremity (femur and humerus), the nearest lymph nodes, and the lungs are the most common places. Most of the time metastasis is already present when diagnosed. If no metastasis is present at the time of diagnosis, then we generally see it occur within a year of diagnosis.
Narco is one of the lucky ones and does not have any metastasis present at this time. Because of that we are hopeful that we can extend the time before his disease metastasizes or the best case scenario is that we can put it into remission. He is set for retirement at the end of this year, but we are going to keep him working as long as he feels up to it during the course of his treatment. When he retires, his handler is going to adopt him and continue to care for him as he has been doing. Narco has a loving family to retire to and we would like for him to get to live the life of retirement and enjoy it!
Today we started Narco’s first chemotherapy treatment. The treatment plan lined out for Narco will last a year and a half and the total cost is around $8,000. We all want the best for Narco, but his treatment is expensive, so we are asking for help. If you would like to contribute to Narco’s treatment, there are 3 ways to donate: a cash donation here at Scottsville Animal Hospital, South Central Kentucky K-9, Inc., and https://www.gofundme.com/K-9Narco. Any donation will help Narco tremendously.
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