Man's best friend sniffs out brain tumor - St. Louis Post Dispatch

[wizdum]

Steve Werner suspected his health was in trouble even before his golden retriever, Wrigley, started sniffing around. His symptoms were vague back in June - occasional ringing in his ears, a general feeling of unease. His doctor couldn't pinpoint a problem. Tests came back negative.

Then in July, Wrigley started to behave strangely.Every day when Werner would curl up next to his beloved canine at his Brentwood home, she would turn, focus on his right ear and sniff doggedly.

"I thought it was just a friendly sniff," Werner said. "But after four or five days, I realized she seemed to be focusing on something. At some point, I noticed she was always sniffing at the opening of my right ear. She would set herself up and intently smell my ear."

One day, Werner was watching TV when a feature about cancer-sniffing dogs grabbed his attention. What he heard propelled him back to his doctor's office.

Story contined at SLPD link

[Lib Grrrrl]

1. Yes! Man's Best Friend!!

This is true...dogs CAN detect, by smell, cancer, even before the most modern of human technology can detect it. I was informed of this little factoid by a free emailing I get regularly from PURINA.

Dogs are absolutely the best animals in the world! If you ask me, dogs are superior even to most human beings. I believe dogs are God's furry little angels, here on this Earth to teach us dumb-assed human beings about the simplest, most basic concept of all...the commandment Jesus gave us, and which we constantly fail to live up to - unconditional, universal love!

I don't know what I would do without my dog!! She is my world!

[ninkasi]

4. I agree

My husband and I lost our little terrier mix rescue this past January. He was 13, and we had him for 12 of those years. There was never a more loyal, faithful, loving soul, as far as we were concerned. Our lives were so empty without him (our children are grown and in their 40's) that we adopted another rescue recently.

It's a privilege to be the caretakers for these wonderful, loving little souls. Humanity bred dogs for their own purposes, and now it's up to us to care for the descendants of the wolves that we shaped to our own purposes. The care that we give is tiny in proportion to the love and loyalty we receive.

[donco6]

6. What a great thought!

God's furry little angels. Well, they seem more useful than the invisible winged kind, IMO. Mine are amazing.

[Lib Grrrrl]

7. Thanks

And your doggies are beautiful!
I'd put up a few pix of mine, but I recently changed ISP's and so, my old web site is no longer up to link to, and I haven't had time to put it up at my new site yet.

[susanna]

8. I lost my "squirrely girl" in January.

So I can understand your feelings. We called her squirrely girl because she was fawn/red colored, marked like a squirrel, and had a huge upright bushy tail. (She was an Akita/Golden Retriever mix, by two purebred parents. And for the record, she was gorgeous, but then I am biased.) She went into abrupt kidney failure at age 12, and I could not bear her suffering.

Not a day goes by I do not miss her clunking around (she was big girl), or her total absorption in everything that was US as a family. She was front and center for 99.9% of it.

I am learning to live without her now, five months later. I just today planted a memorial stone in my herb garden that she would raid regularly for the basil and oregano. Yes, really. Maybe she thought she was actually Italian, but in any case she liked the herbs better than grass!

The bottom line? She taught me so much that I find it funny when people say: "but...it (not she, note) was just a dog." Yeah. Whatever. Like they would know. I learned from her. Deep, deep lessons. Like facing the day with your loved ones as a gift and an adventure...no matter what. :-)

on edit: added detail.

[Vidar]

10. Couldn't agree more.

[AnnieBW]

2. I've Heard of a CAT Scan

But this is the first DOG scan! :D

[AX10]

3. kick

:kick:

[DBoon]

9. That would be a *lab* test

[BrklynLiberal]

5. Saw a similar story on Animal Planet.

A woman had a dog that would not stop sniffing at her leg. Turned out she had skin cancer on her leg.
It turns out that dogs are EXCELLENT at sniffing out cancer.

Some can also sense when people are going to have epileptic seizures and others can sense when people are going to have heart attacks. These specials dogs undergo special training and are paired with people who need them.