Practice News
A much loved dog, By Joyce MurrayThursday 25th May, 2006
All of our clients who bring their pets to us are caring and concerned owners, but sometimes we come across instances where the bond is particularly strong.
One such case that I will never forget occurred over 10 years ago when I was in practice in South Yorkshire.
The area was not very wealthy which often made it diffcult to treat animals effectively especially if there was no spare money for diagnostic tests or treatments and people seldom had their pets insured.
One of our clients was an elderly gentleman called Mr Pascoe who lived a couple of miles from the surgery with his middle aged Jack Russell, Digger. He was completely devoted to him and once a month someone would go round to his house (he had no car) and clip Digger's nails and 'give him the once over'.
He was such a lovely client and clearly didn't have much money that the practice charged him very little for these visits. He lived in a tiny terraced house the front room of which was dominated by a very impressive grandfather clock which Mr Pascoe informed me had been inherited from his father. This thing had such a loud chime that the whole house would shake and I knew in time not to call round any time around middday!!
It was Mr Pascoe himself who spotted the lumps when they appeared on Digger, who had started to go off his food. Closer examination showed tham to be enlarged lymph nodes. I took some samples and sent them off to the lab who confirmed our worst fears that Digger had cancer of his lymph nodes. I phoned Mr Pascoe with the news and told him that I would bring round some tablets which should help take the lumps down and give Digger some extra time.
Later, when he had had a chance to absorb the news, he phoned back and asked if ther was anything else that could be done. Could Digger have chemotherapy?
To be honest, and to my shame, it hadn't occured to me to offer chemotherapy as it would be expensive but I worked out the coast, and Mr Pascoe agreed this was what Digger should have as it would give them more time together. Once a week, and then once a fortnight, Mr Pascoe arrived in a taxi and we gave Digger his intravenous chemotherapy. He responded very well, the lumps went down, and Mr Pascoe had his dog back.
Sadly after 14 months his cancer came back. He became very lethargic again and it was decided it was time to let him go. I arranged to go around to his house to do this, having not been there since the start of his chemotherapy. As soon as I walked into the front room I was aware of how much bigger it looked. At first I couldn't understand why, and then I realised that the grandfather clock was gone. I was on the verge of asking Mr Pascoe what had happened to it, when i looked over at him with Digger in his arms, and I knew.
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