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107366 tn?1305680375

Dogs Can Smell Ovarian Cancer

Some of you may have already seen this, but I thought it was quite interesting.  Who knows where our best method of detection will come from?

http://www.livescience.com/health/080626-dogs-cancer.html

Gail
11 Responses
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272338 tn?1252280404
I too have seen this on TV and was not surprised. We do not call them man's best friend for nothing!
  My dog which I have had for almost 12 years is a big baby in the first place, but has always known when something was wrong with me. Several years ago I had a miscarriage and when I came home from the hospital, I was still out of it and asleep on the couch. Dave told me later that she stayed with me on the couch the whole night. But we had company come over and since I was sleeping they sat in the kitchen talking to Dave to see how I was doing. One of the girls (a long time friend of mine) came into the living room to see if I was awake, and co-co sat up and growled at her! That is the one and only time that co-co has ever growled at anyone. Since becoming sick, she cannot stand to be away from me for any length of time at all.
  Even if they do not know it is cancer, they do know that something is wrong.
      Chris
Helpful - 0
146692 tn?1314331773
having epilepsy myself, I can attest to dog response, my brothers pitbull would go to my mom or dad, put his mouth around there hand and tug til they came with him..he led them everytime to where I had fallen. My brothers other dog for some reason would not go out on my balcony, it looked as tho she was afraid of heights, when my niece would call her out to her, she would put a paw out and then back up. I went out there myself later and she followed me right outside to my brothers amazement. I can't say I understand it? but I certainly believe its true. With everything else dogs are used for, it doesn't surprise me at all.
butterflytc
Helpful - 0
360216 tn?1218743000
We took in a stray dog several years ago, half lab and half pit bull (the vet thinks), who had been badly abused.  He's a strong dog, but very timid and obedient.  For several months prior to my diagnosis he would come up to me as I was sitting and poke his nose hard in the area over my left ovary.  I didn't think anything of it at the time, but my husband remarked how unusual it was for Jake to bump anyone like that.  He waits until you call him to come to you before sniffing, kissing, etc.  He has not once "poked" me since my initial surgery when the ovary was removed.  I don't know if it's coincidence or not, but I think there is some truth to that story.  ChrisP
Helpful - 0
41502 tn?1223517053
I don't know if my female dog ( part redbone coon) knows what I have, but since I have been sick, the first time & this time, she stays right with me. I can hardly get her to go outside and play. If I am in bed, she is there. If I go out front or to the deck, she is right behind me. She actually seems sad, unless I get up and act normal. The male is an english setter, also a strong nose, but hes a guy, and he still wants to go outside and hunt in the lower lot.When I ride over to the golf course Missy goes nuts till I get back.When I was in the hospital she got under our tall bed and would hardly go out or eat. The male has taken up licking my legs, something he never did. Like he is trying to heal something, you know they lick their wounds. I think they both know something is wrong. When I was in remission last yr., Missy let me go to work and acted normal.
Helpful - 0
282804 tn?1236833591
We only actively use 10% of our brains, (and some even less) so what's the other 90% being held in reserve for.  Maybe it is for the senses that we haven't fine tuned yet. This is a little off topic but not to bad. Have you ever called someone, by accident, but more than once, by the name of an ex lover or friend or some person you didn't like or severely disapproved of?  Did you think it wasjust a weird slip of the tongue because the person in the present was NOTHING like the person in the past?  DId you ever later come to find out that the present friend has some big thing like being an alcoholic or habitual liar or something like that other person had?  It is true and if you think about it you can probably think of at least one or two people like that. Maybe part of that 90% is trying to tell you stuff like that.  I believe the same with dogs and machines and if they could narrow that down with a nice typed up summary of what the dog is sniffing that would be even better.
Alan you are two  funny, but always appreciate your contributions.
Jan
Helpful - 0
106886 tn?1281291572
OK, now this is very interesting to me, too.

I recall seeing something on TV about this a few years ago, too.

Just as a side bar of sorts... just before Maddie (our second dog, the 11 year old Golden Retriever) is about to have a seizure, she will usually seek me out, one time to come and lay just behind my feet while I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth. I don't mind having the dogs near me at all, but I have not "invited" them into the bathroom as such since all of our bathrooms are small...and, well, I am with them all of the other times... so it was unusual behavior and then sure enough a minute later, she was having a seizure.  

But, on the cancer note, some of you know that Maddie's older sister, Maya (age 12) has been diagnosed with Leukemia which we all know is a blood cancer. Now, in retrospect, I had noticed that Maddie was "sniffing" her sister more so lately and not in the usual places we think of when we think of dog sniffing. I also noticed that Maya's breath was bad and she has never had bad breath in all of her 12 years until about three months ago.

I also recall a specific odor emitting from my brother (back in 1997) who died shortly afterwards from Renal Failure after a Kidney transplant (treating Diabetic symptoms). My sister, who is a nurse and a nursing instructor, too, did not smell anything (we'd all gone out for a family dinner that night). She did not dismiss what I was smelling something unusual, though, and we are sure it was a sign of renal failure. I did not think much of it at the time but in retrospect I wish someone who was more familiar with this type of thing had picked up on it since I did not connect the odor with near-death.  

Interesting topic.

Mary
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I remember this on TV too!  I think they are trying to 'clone' the dog(s) somehow, but there is some debate as to wether the cloned version will be as effective.  But it's really interesting though, that they can use smell to 'sniff' out cancer.  I know our 'sniffer' technology is good now (take a look at bomb sniffing machines, etc.) so I wonder if research (humane of course) should be done to somehow figure out what 'cancer' smells like and recreate it in a mechanical device versus a living animal.  Food for thought!  Since ovca is curable at stage I, imagine every doctor having some government subsidized device that can sniff it out during an annual exam or sick call.  Now, that would almost eliminate all the 'races' to find a cure, because we all know diagnosing any cancer prior to metastasis is the real cure (in the long run at least).

Whoa, got off topic...but, yeah, lol, very cool.  For the record, my cat is useless at even catching bugs so we'll take her off the list for sniffing out cancer (unless cancer smells like tuna fish...well...then, she's your cat!).
Helpful - 0
354706 tn?1279470795
I think it is really possible. There is this dog that the US loaned to Malaysia because the dog was trained to sniff pirated VCDs/DVDs/computer software. Apparently one sniff, the dog is able to tell whether that stack of VCDs/DVDs/computer software is illegal because of the smell of chemical the pirated discs give out. The dog is so successful that the local syndicate bosses put a price on the dog's head. Sad to say, I read in the papers that the dog was 'offed' after the 'wanted' notice was out.
Helpful - 0
282804 tn?1236833591
Marie, maybe your dogs did, but you didn't know what they were trying to convey.  I have seen this also and it isn't just cancer.   I have seen where people with epilepsy have dogs because they can tell when a person is going into an epileptic seizure.
So where's the office with the sniffiing dogs? That will be some time in coming won't it?
I will read the article Gail, don't have time now.
Thanks for posting it.
Jan
Helpful - 0
408448 tn?1286883821
My dogs failed me.  They were as clueless as my ex-gynecologists.  Marie
Helpful - 0
135691 tn?1271097123
I remember watching something on Dateline or 20/20 about this...it's absolutley amazing. They showed this dog sniffing out about thirty people - one person had cancer and the dog found them - unreal!
I guess there's lot's to be said about keeping an open mind!
Take care Gail,
Becky
Helpful - 0
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