Kim
Kim, a 10 year old spayed mix breed dog was brought to the clinic for a routine treatment against park worm in December. When we weighed her at the beginning of the visit we saw that she had lost 1kg, which was about 12% of her body weight, since her last park worm treatment 2 months earlier. Such a weight loss is something to look into and the fact that we had seem a bit of a weight loss in her previous visit was a real red flag.
The exam that was done (prior to getting her park worm treatment) revealed a firm mass on the left side of the abdomen, just behind the rib cage. A blood test that was run in the clinic showed a normal blood picture except for a decrease in protein (Albumin) levels. An ultrasound expert was called in and his exam confirmed what we had suspected – Kim had a mass the size of a tennis ball attached to her left kidney. During the ultrasound exam several aspirations (a minimally invasive technique where we suck cells out) of the mass were done and sent to a veterinary laboratory for a cytology evaluation. The cytology results showed that it was cancer, probably a sarcoma.