I have spent the past twenty months and over thirty thousand dollars in order to save Bailey, our beloved seven year old beagle. She was the 2nd pet dog to have a stem cell transplant last April (it took me over a year to track down her five siblings and mother), unfortunately her only match, her brother, Clifford, proved to be too close of a match and the tumor cells came back in Sept.
In Dec. she was the first dog, and being to have a donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) again using Clifford, who was given the up and coming cancer treatment, tumor vaccine injections. We are not sure if this is working either! She may have another transplant-- a haploid transplant (using a relative that is not a match). You can read Bailey's entire story by going to www.savebailey.com. This web site not only tells her story, but also includes dozens of photos along with press releases.
Our veterinarian is the amazing Dr. Edmund Sullivan of Bellingham, WA a visionary in veterinary medicine. My dream is to get funding for a transplant center built in W. WA and a World Registry started for pets in order to find donor matches. Though Bailey came from an AKC breeder, many dog owners have no info. On their dog's family background. Lymphoma is a common cancer in dogs--even with the standard chemo. Treatment, dogs with lymphoma will only live up to a year or more until the cancer takes over their body.
Cathy von Haartman, Bailey's owner
