Bond: Beating the Odds
Bond, a 9-year-old Great Pyrenees, was adopted by his family in October 2011 by way of Texas through the National Great Pyrenees Rescue (NGPR). Collectively, the NGPR has saved more than 140 Great Pyrenees by transporting them from high-kill shelters to the Pacific Northwest where they can find their new homes. At the time Bond found his forever family, his new owner, Jennifer Nudelman, was facing her own medical battles with breast cancer. Loyal from the start, Bond stayed by her side as she recovered from 12 life-saving surgeries, giving her all the love and support she needed during such a difficult time. Little did the family know that soon Bond would be facing his own cancer struggles.
Bond’s medical troubles arose in 2016 a few weeks after he was attacked by a neighbor dog. He was brought in to see Dr. Cassidy at Rainier Veterinary Hospital. At the time, he seemed to recover well, but when his left front wrist began to swell, Jennifer decided to rush him in to be examined.
Unfortunately, Dr. Cassidy and her team soon diagnosed Bond with Osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer. Although the news was devastating, his family promised Bond that it was now their turn to stick by his side down whatever path lie ahead.
The first step to treating Bond’s Osteosarcoma was to amputate his left front leg. From there, Bond’s family consulted with Oncologist Dr. Kevin Choy of BluePearl/Seattle Veterinary Specialists to conduct scans to ensure the cancer had not yet metastasized as well as to begin his five-round course of chemotherapy. (Osteosarcoma has about a 90% chance of metastasis, and only 20% of dogs live two years from diagnosis.)
“Bond was such a fighter,” Jennifer says. “Just two days after his leg was amputated, he worked to make it up a flight of stairs. I suppose that incident set the tone for how Bond was going to handle his cancer. He was determined to conquer it from the very start, and he sure has made me proud. Each day, I get to love him more because of his continued victory over bone cancer.”
Following his chemotherapy course, Dr. Choy proceeded with monthly infusions of zoledronic acid (Reclast), which have been shown to keep dogs with bone cancer in remission longer. This process included regular bloodwork and chest scans to monitor the effects of treatment and watch for the cancer’s progression.
“We were a little shocked when Bond made it through a year’s worth of infusions and remained in remission,” Jennifer remembers. “He was the first dog under Dr. Choy’s care to still be in remission at this point in the treatment process.”
Bond will finish his last infusion in April 2019 at which point he will get scans every six months for a year. If the cancer is still in remission, Bond will then only have a scan if he starts to show symptoms of metastasis. To date, he has responded well to all his treatments and is on course to beat all the odds.
“We are blessed that despite being diagnosed with an aggressive cancer, Bond has a good chance of living a normal lifespan for a Great Pyrenees,” Jennifer says. “None of this would have been possible if it weren’t for the outstanding care Bond is receiving at Rainier Veterinary Hospital and Seattle Veterinary Specialists in Kirkland.”
Read more about Bond in our Dog of the Month series, where he was featured in December 2016.
