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"The Vet Hospital Conspiracy"

What if there is something going on behind closed doors at major veterinary research hospitals? And what if it isn't what you think? What if it isn't bad?

In 2021 my daughter was diagnosed with major hepatocellular carcinoma. This is not fast growing or metastatic, but if large and on the wrong side, is normally fatal at this size. Every commercial vet said that same thing. It's too large and pressing against the vena cava. You see, one group of liver lobes is away from the heart and one presses against the heart. Hers was the one closest. Most vets said that the bleeding risk was too great at her age and that it was terminal. She was 15, going on 16.

In addition to being sick most of the time, she had eating problems and severe arthritis in an ankle and limped. This was bad news, but remember, she was 15. This is not unusual. This is old-age for dogs. If I hadn't paid a few thousand to get the proper diagnosis she would died from "old age." But that is not what happened. And that is the beginning of the story.

There were great drugs in 2021. She took a pill for her cortisol problems and a pill for her ankle that was, dare I say, a miracle drug. Her drug for arthritis was called grapiprant. So, near the end of 2021 her local vet who did most of the ultra sound work gave her "months" to live.

Around this time, in another city, we had a CT scan done that was expensive. It showed a complete picture of what we already knew. The carcinoma, though not spreading, was taking up so much of the body cavity that nothing was working well and, in addition, the liver failure was imminent. A major problem was the necrotic tissue of the growth that could not be maintained and that was bleeding into the cavity. I know, way too much information.

The vet who did the CT suggested she send this data to vet research hosptials. She recommended A&M and told me to look for other ones if I thought it would help. So, I looked up her problem and learned there are two surgical pet oncologists in the country. Missouri (Columbia, where I went) and Colorado State. I sent the data to Missouri and the head surgeon had an assistant call me and say that an oncologist could do the surgery on that side of the liver and though the bleeding risk was considerable, it was worth trying. But expensive.

I ended up taking her locally to A&M (what I saw as the third best in the country for her specific problem. Third only because they'd lost their cancer-specific (oncologist) surgeon to Colorado State. I spoke with an intern at A&M and he was negative about the surgery and, to be honest, so full of himself that I thought about pulling out his own liver and using it as a transplant for my daughter.

I spoke with Missouri again in more detail and learned again that it was possible and that there were major breakthroughs at these kinds of hospitals.

For some reason, after taking with the CT vet I returned to A&M for another expensive CT and requested to talk with the surgeon who would do the procedure. She was very different from the intern, obviously. After a while I learned that she had gone through the Missouri system and that she was trained by the head surgeon and oncologist at that school.

For this reason, even though the estimate for the surgery increased my total for diagnostics and procedure to about 12k, I made the appointment asap to do it. It was decided that she would be moved up in the approximately 3 month wait schedule. We did it three days later.

We were worried obviously when they took her in for the three day visit. The recovery, they said, would be the riskiest part other than the bleeding. We held our breath and a few hours later they called and said it had been successful and that the growth had not be attached to the vena cava and that, currently, the bleeding seems to have stopped. Her other organs had been surprisingly healthy. There was one scare where they called and said that she was not oxygenating normally and that she was in an oxygen chamber (really?) and that they would let us know. The next morning they called and said she had recovered.

A day later I picked her up. She normally weighed 16 lbs and was then 11. She was so drugged up that she could barely stand up. I took her home.

To wrap this up: A year or more later she is running around the house like an angry chicken chasing the other dogs and stealing their food. Now she jumps up and down from the couch - something she hadn't done for years.

All this from liver surgery.

Which brings me to my question. I paid a lot of money for this stuff. It doesn't have the legal consequences that human medicine does (vet medicine doesn't). Is there even a slim chance that they are doing magic behind those doors?

Let me add a couple things.

Yes, they removed half her live. Yes, there is a correlation between liver function and digestion and even arthritis. But this dog is acting like she is three. She is acting like they cloned her, aged her to 16, and then gave her back to me with no disease. The arthritis is completely gone and she doesn't limp at all.

I spoke with other people about the research hospitals and started to learn that this kind of experience was, if not common, a good amount of the time. People all over Texas had stories where their vet told them to go to a research hospital at a big university for their pet and a miracle happened. I remember sitting in the waiting room with Lola and talking to a lady. She had her small dog ready for diagnostics and probably surgery at the hostpical. She said, "This is the only place I would go." We talked further. Then I said, "What do you do?" She said, "I'm a surgical vet in town."

Dare I say magic?