Pet Owner Stories

Winston

Pet Owner Name: Marilyn Mohrhaus

City & State: Marietta, Ga.

Pet's Name: Winston and Evie

Diplomate's Name: Dr. Mark Dorfman DVM,Dipl.ACVIM; Dr. Robert Schick DVM,Dipl.ACVD; Dr. Terrance Hamilton DVM,Dipl.ACVIM; Dr. Stacy Andrew DVM,Dipl.ACVO

Specialty: Dr. Dorfman-Internal Medicine, Dr. Schick-Dermatology, Dr. Hamilton-Internal Medicine, Dr. Andrew-Ophthalmology

Care Center Name: Georgia Veterinary Specialists; Atlanta,Ga.

Date of Story: March 1, 2008

How you met your Diplomate / Diagnosis: Dr. Dorfman was recommended to me by Dr. Kerry Webster DVM , our family's veterinarian.

Our two Golden Retrievers, Winston and Evie, were littermates born on 12-25-95. Winston was diagnosed with lymphoma in January, 2005. He had both cancer and a resulting skin condition to fight. Thus, Winston took our family, Dr. Dorfman, Dr. Schick and their technicians with him on his three year journey. It was explained to me that it was best to attack his cancer with two series of cancer treatments which together would last approximately one year. Even with this series of treatments, he was only given a 20% chance of living two years. We immediately started his chemotherapy while we consulted Dr. Schick as to our course of action to fight Winston's demodectic mange. He was losing his hair and the areas around his eyes were swollen. Our course of action was to medicate him with ivomec daily for three months.

Winston's first battle with cancer lasted until December, 2005. He had some vomiting, however six months into his treatment he developed a serious reaction to one of his chemo drugs. He was hospitalized for four days. Dr. Dorfman pulled him through the first of five series of hospitalizations.

After completing his second series of chemo treatments, Winston went into remission for 15 months. During this period, Winston regained weight, his demodectic mange had cleared and most of his hair returned. In February 2006 he had a temporary setback when he had a serious drug reaction to flagyl which required a second hospitalization. Once again, Dr. Dorfman quickly diagnosed the problem and Winston returned on his road to recovery. During the next 15 months, Winston was seen by Dr. Dorfman every month and by Dr. Schick every 3 months.

In March 2007, the demodectic mange returned and two weeks later his lymph nodes once again became swollen. Our greatest fear was realized. He was out of remission. Dr. Dorfman immediately restarted the chemo. Meanwhile, Dr. Schick placed him back on ivomec.

During June and July 2007, Winston required two more hospitalizations due to high levels of calcium which resulted from the lymphoma. To control the high calcium, he was placed on steroids. At this point, Dr. Schick was concerned that the steroids would cause Winston's skin problems to return. He was placed back on ivomec as a daily treatment.

October once again found Winston loosing weight. In addition, over the next four weeks, he was loosing his balance more and more frequently. Five days before Thanksgiving, he could not stand and seemed to have problems seeing. He was hospitalized for the fifth time. Dr. Dorfman told us that it was possible that the cancer had spread to Winston's brain, but he felt that the symptoms could also have been caused the daily doses of ivomec. He stopped this medication . Winston dramatically improved within 24 hours. Once again, Dr. Dorfman worked his magic, pulling Winston through another serious medical condition.

During the first week of December, 2007 Winston started refusing to eat. We tried many diets, however by Dec. 12th he became lethargic in addition to not having an appetite. One day later, his blood was tested. He was extremely anemic and subsequently he received a blood transfusion. Winston seemed to react positively the first day, but by Dec. 16th we found ourselves back at Georgia Veterinary Specialists with him. Once again, he was extremely anemic. Winston underwent a second transfusion in a three day period.

I spoke to Dr. Dorfman on Dec 17, 2007. He told me that Winston had not responded to the transfusion as well as he had hoped. The doctor felt that there was internal bleeding. The cause was not known and Winston was not strong enough to go through testing or any treatments.

Sadly, we had to come to the decision to say good-bye to our beloved Golden boy. Winston had been on a diet that did not include any meat for his last six years due to intestinal problems, so Dr. Dorfman sent out for Arby's roast beef as a special treat for Winston. That kind act reinforced my feelings that Dr. Dorfman was not only an extremely knowledge doctor, but was also a truly caring person who had grown to love our boy. Even though Dr. Dorfman runs Georgia Veterinary Specialists, he personally euthanized Winston with many of the technicians that Winston so loved by his side.

Although we had hoped that Winston would reach his 12th birthday on Dec. 25th, we were truly blessed that he had survived three years with lymphoma.

Evie was in perfect health until September, 2006, when she vomited blood. We took her on a Sunday morning to Georgia Veterinary Specialists, which operates a 24 hour emergency facility in addition to its state of the art cancer facility . The on call doctor informed us that there could be several causes of her symptoms. The following morning we returned with her to see Dr. Dorfman. A MRI was performed. It was determined that she had a bleeding ulcer and a small unidentified spot on her spleen. Dr. Dorfman said that she could either have surgery to have a biopsy performed or we could repeat the MRI every three months to see if the spot had changed in size. He told us that if she was his dog, he would take the second course of action because of her age. We followed his recommendation and returned her for a recheck every three months.

During her May, 2007 scheduled checkup, a hidden lump was found on Evie's left side behind her front leg. A biopsy was immediately scheduled. Unfortunately, the lump was a very aggressive soft cell sarcoma.

Dr. Dorfman immediately transferred her to Dr. Hamilton's care. He had just recently joined the staff to head up the newly completed cancer wing and was now treating most of the newly diagnosed cancer cases.

Dr. Hamilton informed me that Evie had a 50-50 chance of surviving six to twelve months with a twelve week series of cancer treatments. Treatments were started that afternoon. After just one week, the tumor had become noticeably smaller. She seemed to be responding positively to treatments with no side effects. On July 7, 2007; five weeks into the twelve week series, it was discovered that Evie had developed a tumor behind her eye. Dr. Andrew accessed her and informed me that Evie's eye would need to be removed in order to reach the tumor. Surgery was scheduled for the following morning. We returned home to prepare her for surgery. Evie ate her dinner at 5pm, as she always did, and all seemed well. Forty five minutes later, she was lying in the kitchen when she made a loud noise and rolled on her side with her right legs stretched out. She could not stand so we scooped her into a blanket and rushed her to our family veterinarian. Evie had a bleed out and a mini stroke. Dr. Webster stabilized Evie and proceeded to call Dr. Andrew at Georgia Veterinary Specialists to inform her that we were on our way to their 24 hour facility. The on call doctor meet us as we arrived and rushed Evie to the back for testing. Unfortunately, while the external tumor was shrinking, her lungs had filled with cancer. We were no longer given any hope for her survival. Sadly, we lost our beautiful Golden girl that evening just seven weeks after the cancer was diagnosed.

We will always miss our sweet, lovable Goldens, but we give great thanks to their team of doctors, technicians and the entire staff at Georgia Veterinary Specialists, who worked so hard to prolong their lives. We would also like to offer a special note of gratitude to Dr. Mark Dorfman. He not only runs a fantastic veterinary medical facility and leads a very knowledgeable team of specialists, but he always makes a point to personally speak to his patients' owners to address questions and deal with their concerns in a very compassionate and caring manner. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

PPAW Committee

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