Hope Unleashed For Pets With Cancer

(HealthNewsDigest.com) – If any of the country’s 70 million dogs are part of your family, you know how you feel about your furry friend, how the love and loyalty, playfulness and protection he offers can affect your life. You also know you want to keep him safe and disease-free.

One Dog’s Life

That’s how Sandy felt about her dog, Patch, when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. “We were referred by our oncologist to come to VCA Animal Diagnostic Clinic (ADC) in Dallas to receive treatment,” she says. “The particular machine and expertise we needed for Patch were available here. We had other options, but after reading about the services this facility can offer, all signs pointed us to come here. I wanted to put Patch in the best hands I could. He’s not just a dog, he’s a family member and there is nothing we would not do for him.

“Our experience with VCA has been beyond my expectations. The front office staff is warm and inviting and exceptionally friendly. I’ve e-mailed our radiation oncologist, Dr. Custis, on the weekend and he e-mails me right back. You don’t expect him to do that, but he cares so much and takes time out of his weekend to make sure he answers my questions.”

Hope Unleashed

At VCA’s Animal Diagnostic Clinic in Dallas, Texas, pets have access to life-extending cancer treatments delivered by caring and compassionate veterinary oncologists. The center is also working toward future medical advances, by participating in robust clinical trials, which have the capacity to impact both future veterinary patients as well as human patients.

Not only does the compassionate care there create a healing environment for pets and their owners, the board-certified teams of veterinary specialists can turn to the latest tools and technology to effectively treat animals with cancer. One such advancement is the state-of-the-art TrueBeam™ radiation technology that can deliver better, safer and faster radiation treatment with unmatched precision to tumors.

What The Technology Does

James T. Custis III, DVM, MS, DACVR (Radiation Oncology), VCA’sveterinary radiation oncologist at ADC, explains: “With the precision and accuracy of the TrueBeam, tumors are targeted while preferentially sparing surrounding normal tissues. Protocols involving fewer visits and shorter treatment times, while also improving local tumor response and minimizing side effects, are now a reality for veterinary cancer patients. This technology benefits our patients, clients and partnering veterinarians.”

The Power Of Communication And Compassion

“Each patient and its human family deserve the best possible experience when they come to ADC. We are totally committed to offering and providing the absolute best patient care we know how and that technology and medicine allow us to do. We are also committed to ongoing honest and transparent communication about the process their pet is going through in treatment and letting them know we care about them as we care about their pet,” said VCA’s Director of Oncology, Zachary M. Wright, DVM, DACVIM (Oncology).

Learn More

For further facts on pet health, go to www.vcahospitals.com/animal-diagnostic-clinic-dallas or on Twitter @vcapethealth.