It's not just what we know... it's how much we care!

Brave Turbo is a very special patient to us. 

Turbo is a 9 year old Jack Russell Terrier. He presented at the clinic in December 2017 with multiple swellings near is neck, armpit, groin and in front of his shoulders. These are all regions that have lymph nodes in them so we were immediately concerned that Turbo may have lymphoma.

An abdominal ultrasound and chest radiographs revealed that the lymph nodes in his chest and his abdomen were also all quite enlarged.

Several of the enlarged lymph nodes were biopsied and submitted to a laboratory and Turbo was diagnosed with malignant B cell lymphoma. Dogs with B cell lymphoma deteriorate quite rapidly and  without chemotherapy, the life expectancy after diagnosis is sadly approximately 6 weeks.

Turbo’s owners wanted to treat Turbo with chemotherapy and so we immediately consulted veterinary oncology specialists to determine the best protocol for Turbo. We commenced a 6 month chemotherapy protocol that involved weekly intravenous chemotherapy drugs. There were some bumps along the way, with Turbo developing sepsis (blood infection) in February 2018 due to low white blood cells – a side effect of the chemotherapy drugs. He was hospitalised on IV antibiotics and fluids and he soon improved. Once his white cell count was back up to normal the chemotherapy protocol could be continued and it finished in July 2018.

Turbo came back in October 2018 for his recheck 3 months after stopping chemotherapy. He is very bright and happy, his lymph nodes are all back to normal and his bloodwork showed no abnormalities! We were so happy to tell his extremely devoted owner that he is in complete remission.

We are so happy for Turbo and his extremely devoted owners.