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K-9 CANCER CHECKS

On Wednesday, November 19th, 2003, while executing a school narcotics search, I observed a small sore on K-9 Kodee’s right rear toe. Initially I thought that Kodee had suffered a minor cut or his toe was just irritating him and he had been licking his toe.  To be on the safe side, I took K-9 Kodee to a local vet who took x-rays and fluid samples of the sore to have them analyzed.  We viewed the x-rays but there were no bone fragments and everything looked okay. The vet said that it could possibly be just a sore that was infected and he prescribed antibiotics.  The vet looked at a sample of the fluid while I waited and he mentioned something about abnormal cells.  The vet talked about the dreaded “C” word (cancer) and that he would know more once he sends the sample out to be analyzed.

On Saturday, November 22nd, the vet called me at home with the results and I immediately knew from the tone of his voice that something needed to be done. The vet told me that the sore was indeed cancerous; that it was a type of cancer that was slow to be absorbed into the body. The vet advised there was an oncologist specialist at the Animal Emergency Clinic (AEC) today and that I should make an appointment with him.  I went to the AEC and had the sore looked at by Dr. Thamm who advised that the best way to handle this situation was to have the toe removed.  Dr. Thamm said this would not affect the working life of K-9 Kodee and that the recovery should take a week to ten days.  Further x-rays were taken of K-9 Kodee’s body to make sure there were no tumors elsewhere that had spread.  Luckily, there were no signs of any tumors.  I scheduled surgery for the upcoming Monday.

On Monday, November 24th, K-9 Kodee had surgery and the toe removed. The surgery went well and the toe was sent out for further evaluation to make sure the entire growth was removed. The vet said that K-9 Kodee was lucky that I noticed this cancerous area because it could have been fatal had it gone undetected.  The vet reassured me that if K-9 Kodee had to have a cancerous spot, the toe is a good area because it can be removed. If the cancerous spot was in the muscle or in another body part, it may have gone undetected for a period of time until it could have been too late to cure.

As I write this letter, K-9 Kodee is sitting in the Glendale Police Department garage kennel with his paw wrapped up and a collar (lampshade) around his neck.  Even though K-9 Kodee is out of service for a short period, I am lucky that he will soon be back on all four paws, even if he will be missing a toe. This is a reminder to all Canine Handlers that it pays to perform periodic examinations of your working partners.

Sgt. Larry Slamann & K-9 Kodee