This site is in memory of my loving dog Skye, who battled bravely for 5 long months against Lymphosarcoma   (cancer of the lymph nodes)

I am usually a very private person, but I  decided to create this webpage to help other owners understand lymphosarcoma and what to expect.  I know that when I was informed about Skye, the first thing I did was to surf the web looking for as much information as I could, to help me to learn about lymphosarcoma and all the options that were available.  The information and stories of other dogs who have fought this disease were vast, and this gave me a positive outlook on the journey Skye and I were about to embark on.  I hope my contribution helps and lets you know that you are not alone.

Skye started of being very slow and stiff when out a walk, and that was not like her as she loved her walks and although she was a wee dog, was always up front with our other dog Sparkie who is a medium sized dog. Then she started being sick directly after her meal or would just be sick and then not eat, now this was causing concern as Skye although being a Pedigree was not at all fussy and loved her food, so I knew something was not quite right.

I telephoned the vets on the morning of Friday 30th September and by luck got an appointment with my vet for that afternoon (in reflection maybe not so much luck but fate!). The vet I always see gave her a good thorough check and found that her lymph nodes were raised, she took Skye for a second opinion with one of the other vets in the practice and also ran some blood tests. I felt as if I had just entered my worst nightmare - waiting on the results was nerve racking not to say the least, as I sat in the waiting room with my mum, the tears ran down my face uncontrollably and I felt really silly (what would the other people think!). I thought I was taking her up with a run of the mill virus or something more treatable and cureable. My vet called me back in about 20 minutes later, I said to her right away is this cancer we are dealing with and she said it could be but lets wait and see. She passed me to the other vet in the practice as she had to deal with other appointments. The other vet advised me that Skye had high calcium and required to be kept in on a saline drip to flush the calcium out of her system as it was dangerously high, they also advised me that a fine needle aspiration required to be taken from one of the lymph nodes for analysis - worst case scenario would be Lymphosarcoma. I left the vets feeling as if my whole world had came crashing down, as my best friend and loving companion looked like she had been hit with an illness at such a young age. Skye was kept in until Sunday, until her calcium came down. The next few days were just a nightmare, at least Skye was oblivious to all the diserae that was going on around her. The results came back on Tuesday 4th October as inconclusive. Skye was booked in on Wednesday 5th October for an operation, part of the lymph node was to be removed and sent away for analysis. I dropped her off at 8.45am and collected her at 17.15pm. She was still out of it, my heart went out to her when I saw how much of a wound she had. By the next day she was back to her wee self. As everything so far with Skye has happened at the weekend or the middle of the week, it makes it feel a lot longer when you are waiting on such important results.

It took until the following Wednesday 12th October for the biopsy results- I received a telephone call from the vet advising me that it was confirmed that Skye had Lymphosarcoma and would like me to bring her up this evening to discuss all the options with me. Hear we go another tidle-wave - the vet explained everything to me and I gave the go-ahead for chemotherapy to be administered at the vets - Skye was given her first dose that evening - she was put on the University of Wisconsin - Madison Protocol which is the most successful protocol to date, with a 95% success rate - giving a dog an average life-expectancy of 1-2 years, she was given vincristine (chemo injection) and prednisolone (steroid tablets) the tablets were given at home. In many cases 3 months to a couple of years can be achieved with good quality life and treatment only at their own vets. Skye was very unlucky as she was hypercalcaemic at first presentation, this automatically means her chances of surviving a long time with the disease were much less, this is why she had to have the stronger treatments and attend the Vet School more often.

I could not believe that such a happy, healthy, looked after wee dog could have been so unlucky than to be struck down at such a young age with this terminal illness, she had only just turned 6 years of age. I just sat in a state of shock all night, thinking of ways that we could beat this together.