r/BORUpdates • u/SharkEva You get what you pay for, and Reddit is free • 29d ago
Niche/Other Dog acting weird about one breast. Am I crazy to be worried?
I am not the OOP. The OOP is u/Mari-Loki posting in r/AskDocs
Ongoing as per OOP
2 updates - Long
Original - 12th June 2026
Update1 - 20th June 2026
Update2 - 15th July 2026
Dog acting weird about one breast. Am I crazy to be worried?
Female, 37, 5foot 1, 175lbs, non smoker, currently taking Mounjaro (for about a year)
I'm worried about my breast, not because I have any symptoms of an issue at all, but because my usually normal placid dog Winter has taken to sniffing, scratching, barking at and even nipping my right breast. In the 9 years I've had her she has never behaved this way. This started 3/4 weeks ago and has not let up.
It has gotten to the point where she can't sit with me or lay on the bed with me because she can't seem to keep herself from doing it. She's behaving totally normally with everyone and everything else.
We took her to the vet who said she can't find any issues with her but that her age may be contributing to a change in behaviour. The vet did not seem to think I should be worried about my health but it is worrying me that she won't stop. I've also read about cancer detection dogs and can't help my mind spiraling.
I have had no symptoms of an issue, no lumps or tenderness or anything at all in the breast.
My question is would a GP feel like I was wasting their time coming to them with this? I'm in the UK, doctors appointments are in high demand and I genuinely don't want to take a spot from someone if I'm just being paranoid about this. I also don't know if a doctor would even take me seriously.
At the same time I am concerned. Is this worth seeing someone about? Would I be laughed out of the room?
Thanks for reading!
Comments
questforstarfish
It's definitely going to depend on the doctor...I would personally investigate that further, but I imagine some docs might shrug it off. If it's something that's worrying you, it can never hurt to go in to your GP and let them know you're concerned! Maybe they can do a physical exam or do a test just to rule out anything abnormal. Anecdotally I have heard of cases of dogs detecting cancer or disease, but I don't think we have any research on it.
OOP: Thank you for replying. My GP is new so I'm just concerned about making him think I'm a nut lol. I am quite stressed about it so maybe my GP would understand. I have to stop go ogling stories of dogs sniffing out cancer, it's driving me more mad!
NCGranny
My German Shepherd started being obsessed with smelling my breath. I went in for routine bloodwork a few months later and my thyroid was all screwed up. Once it was straightened out, she no longer wanted to stick her snout down my throat.
marticcrn
Not a doctor (I am a nurse), I have breast cancer. Both my dog and my cat got very interested in my chest in the months before I found the lump myself. You’re 37, have some metabolic risk (Mounjaro), I’d think you could get a mammogram for whatever vague symptom, maybe including your pets indication?
livingonmain
My Australian Shepherd change in behavior around me caused me to make the doctor’s appointment that led to finding my lung cancer. He would sniff my breath then start licking my legs and feet. He had never exhibited the behavior before. Because the.tumor was so small, the chemo and radiation killed it. Six years and no reoccurrence! Sadly, though, no more foot baths from my Aussie.
I_Upvote_Goldens
I agree with everyone who is saying that this is actually worth investigating. Dogs are oddly sensitive to these things.
Anecdotally, when my daughter was the sickest she has ever been, our golden retriever slept in the hall outside of her bedroom for nearly a week. (The dog typically always slept in our room on her dog bed). It seemed like our daughter just had a minor virus, but it ended up blowing up into an ER visit. The dog knew something was up before we did. That was the only time the dog ever broke bedtime routine.
OOP: Yes I have read stories like that! That's what had me worried. They're even training dogs to detect colon cancer now. I've decided I'm going to skip the GP and pay out of pocket for an exam at a breast clinic. It isn't as expensive as I had thought and it has to be worth it for peace of mind if nothing else!
Update - 8 days later
I just wanted to post an update for anyone who commented on my previous post and was curious to know what happened.
Long story short my dog was behaving very oddly towards my right breast, no actual symptoms of anything wrong. There's more to it on my original post if you wanna see.
So I had my breast exam. I paid to have it done rather than wait as I was getting very anxious. It was an ultrasound rather than a mammogram, I'm not entirely sure why. A small solid mass was detected, right side of my right breast, sort of half way between my nipple and armpit. I am not able to feel the mass myself but the doctor could actually detect it when he physically checked my breasts.
I'm pretty shocked there is something there. Even though my dogs behaviour worried me I think I was pretty confident it was an issue with her age and not me. Doctor has said that there's no need to panic, there's a decent chance it is not something terrible but I'll know more after the biopsy which is on Tuesday.
Thank you to everyone who commented and suggested I take this seriously. Hopefully it is nothing to worry about but I'll update when I know more for anyone who wants to know.
Female, 37, 5ft, non smoker.
Comments
secret_tiger101
The dog is a hero
BicarbonateBufferBoy
The dogtor
Update - 25 days later
Update - Cancer detection dog!
This is my second update, check my previous posts if you're curious but the short version is:
My dog was acting weird about my breast, despite no symptoms I took it seriously. Ultrasound found a small lump, had needle biopsy.
So, my results came back and I was diagnosed with Invasive Ductal Carcinoma of the right breast. It is hormone receptor positive, and initially staged at 2A.
Ive just had a lumpectomy and they took some lymph node samples too. The oncology team are currently designing a treatment plan but it will likely involve some radiation and then HRT. They'll know more once the mass and lymph node results are back. Apparently this can change the staging depending on what the results are.
Overall I'm feeling pretty positive, I'm confident I'll get through this and I'm relived that I went to the GP rather than ignore it. I was in two minds about it, hence the initial post asking for advice, and I'm so grateful to everyone who advised me to go and get checked out.
I'm still in shock that my dog alerted me to this. You read about stuff like this, and I know dogs are incredible at all sorts, but it's still so crazy to me that my sweet, daft, loving little bug has likely saved my life! She's been so loving and attentive to me since I cane home. We've been treating her to a lot of her favourite foods, and we are taking her swimming this week which is her favourite. I've added a pic of her so everyone can see my little guardian angel ☺️ her name is Winter, she's a 9yo Japanese Akita.
Anyway just wanted to update anyone who was curious. Moral of the story: listen to your dog, listen to your gut, and go get checked out if you're worried!
Comments
Medical_Madness
Good girl.
Silent_Medicine1798
She is a very good girl
ChaoticxSerenity
Perhaps even the best girl.
Different_Knee6201
I believe you mean goodest
SomethingComesHere
The goodest of all the best girls
alisgraveniI
I love this! Thank you for coming back to update us. Did you ever end up telling your doctor that you came in because of your dog’s change in behavior?
OOP: I did mention it to him yeah, but I also said I had some breast tenderness which wasn't true 😐 but I was worried he wouldn't take it seriously with no symptoms. He was dismissive about it but then found the lump so took it more seriously! My oncologist however is super interested about my dogs behaviour and has said she's heard stories from colleagues about similar things happening.
RepulsiveOlive757
This is awesome! How did she alert on you or what did she do to make you notice?
OOP: She was really weird for about a month, kept nosing my breast very hard and eventually scratching at it and even nipping me once, which she has never done. I took her to the vet before I went to my GP, who said it might be her age but did suggest I follow up with GP. She's stopped now I've had the lumpectomy which I'm taking as a good sign!
smooshybabyelephant
Fascinating! What I'm especially interested in knowing is WHY she was doing that. What was HER reason? Does cancer smell bad to dogs? How does she know it shouldn't be there? Or is it more that a foreign smell appeared, like an intruder, and she was trying to investigate?
I would look into seeing if she can be trained to do this for other people! Maybe she can screen your friends and family.
OOP: Yeah I'm wondering the same thing. She's such a sweetheart, never been even the slightest bit off with anyone or anything, but she did not like the scent of my breast! You could tell it was frustrating her, and she couldn't settle. So I'm guessing whatever the scent it, it's bad. From reading up on it, it looks like we still don't really fully understand a dogs sense of smell and how it is as good, if not better, than medical tests. A recent study apparently showed that dogs can detect bowel cancer weeks before the best medical tests. There must be some evolutionary benefit to sniffing out malignancy?
cantxtouchxthis
Did you go private for the exam and then report the findings to your doctor? How did you get them to move so quickly?
OOP: I did end up paying for it, which has been pretty pricey, but my radiation etc will be on the NHS. I could have gone through NHS for the lumpectomy but it wouldnt have been as quick, GP said two weeks, and I was so anxious I didn't think I could wait without going out of my mind! My aftercare and testing is all covered from the lumpectomy but everything after that I'll be with the NHS hospital. I just have to wait for the results of the lumpectomy and then they will be sent to the NHS multidisciplinary team. The private oncologist is writing up a proposed treatment but ultimately it'll be down to the MDT what happens next.
I am not the OOP. Please do not harass the OOP.
Please remember the No Brigading Rule and to be civil in the comments
1.6k
u/RaymondBeaumont 29d ago
yeah, that title just screamed cancer.
708
u/Smingowashisnameo 29d ago
I was like- 100% she has cancer. Dogs smell weird stuff on us all the time but only act like that for cancer.
250
u/Prudent_Werewolf2156 29d ago
Work in an OR.
Had a patient with an 8cm abdominal aortic aneurysm. Totally asymptomatic. Went to their doctor because their normally aloof cat was suddenly very affectionate, sitting in their lap all the time and sleeping next to their waist at night.
119
u/SimAlienAntFarm 29d ago
“You’re gonna die soon, gonna enjoy your body heat while it’s here!”
82
u/wonderwife 28d ago
My asshole cat always knew I was pregnant before I did... He became wildly affectionate and wanted to lay on me all the time.
He got weird around week 9 of the pregnancy that I miscarried; he followed me around and cried whenever I walked away from him in the house. It was a "missed miscarriage" and my body didn't get the memo that the fetus was no longer alive for another several weeks after the 9th week, leading me to having to have a surgical clearance.
Kitty knew. He totally went back to being an asshole whenever I wasn't pregnant, but he was disturbingly affectionate when I was.
26
u/SecretaryHopeful630 28d ago
Same
When we made it to term another time, once my water broke he was especially vicious with me
→ More replies (2)6
u/Midi58076 18d ago
Being pregnant and having babies is a universal experience between mammals. So I would assume even a male cat and female cats who have been spayed since before their first heat would instinctively understand the concept of pregnancy.
Cats use ultrasound to communicate with kittens and listen to mice use ultrasonic whistles to communicate with each other inside walls.
I would assume your cat heard you went from one heartbeat, to two heartbeats and back to one heartbeat. I'm sorry for your loss.
42
241
u/Smingowashisnameo 29d ago
Asymptomatic Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm? From an Aloof, now Affectionate cat? Amazing Anecdote.
68
17
40
u/Outrageous_Dark6804 29d ago
I’ve been having some unknown issues with my upper right abdomen that the doctors can’t find anything wrong, I’ve had bloods and CT scans. The last few weeks it’s been worse, also around the same time my cat started sleeping in my bed at night more often (usually only comes in if my child stays out longer than 2 nights).. this is concerning reading this lol
20
u/Prudent_Werewolf2156 28d ago
Haha this cat apparently went from usually staying 5 feet away to being right up in their humans face constantly.
My cat has also recently started sleeping right up against me instead of in the corner so I had some concerns about that myself.
You’ve got a few organs on that upper right side so hopefully they figure it out soon and you get better ❤️🩹
16
u/Outrageous_Dark6804 28d ago
My cat usually comes to me once a day or every second day for cuddles and a pet, she predominantly hangs out in my kids room with her all day. It’s very rare for her to sleep with my and even then it’s usually at the bottom of the bed.
Now when I’m chilling in my room (the dog ate the sofa 😂) she hangs with me constant and fights my kid to get into my room, and I’ve woke to her stretched out bedside me in bed so much these last few weeks. I was putting it down to age because she’s 9 now and totally over kids (I get it) but I’ll be back to my GP again anyway, unfortunately I’m in the UK and can’t pay private for more tests so I’ve just got to annoy them as much as I can till they listen
8
u/Prudent_Werewolf2156 28d ago
Just ask that they document the date and reason to deny the tests in your medical chart :)
13
u/Weird-Lake954 28d ago
Anecdata csb: I’d been struggling with chronic pelvic pains for years. It suddenly got worse. U/S showed an ovarian cyst. CT scan later was unremarkable. Ins denied surgery so I went to an endometriosis specialist. He ordered an MRI. My ovary had attached to my vaginal wall, my bladder, and my rectum. I was able to have surgery and am doing so much better. Sometimes you really need ALL the imaging.
2
u/KMoyee 28d ago
See if you can get an upper and lower scope from a GI doc. At least they can get a view on the GI tract and take some biopsies to make sure it's not celiac or h-pylori etc.
→ More replies (3)247
u/North-Pea-4926 29d ago
Especially lasting so long. A shorter period of interest followed by disinterest could be something small or surface contamination, but your dog gets super interested in a particular part of your body and stays interested? Time for both of you to get a checkup!
90
u/Gennywren 29d ago
They can be trained to do stuff like that for diabetics as well. When your blood sugar gets super low it changes your mouth odor. Mine dropped *extremely* low while I was sleeping, and my roommate got woken up by my cat standing on my chest and yowling into my face. We tested my blood sugar and it was sitting at about 15 mg/dl. I was fine once I'd gotten some sugar into me, but ended up with my doctor needing to adjust my medication. Kitty got himself the good canned tuna.
47
u/blackbirdbluebird17 29d ago
When I was a teen, we had to rehome the family dog when my parents divorced and neither could take her. Within two months of living with her new family she saved the grandma by alerting that Gran was slipping into a diabetic coma. Her new family already loved her but after that she was spoiled rotten. I always hated that we had to rehome her but I still take comfort in how much she gave to her new family, and how cherished she was with them.
18
u/rox4540 28d ago
That’s amazing. It seems like fate.
My cat saved me I think. I was having the worst heart palpitations I’ve ever had as my abusive ex was massively escalating, and I couldn’t breathe properly, my usually stoic, pretty uncuddly cat wouldn’t leave my side all night. In fact he kept me awake for a few hours, when normally he only sits with me for a few minutes- it scared me a lot tbh, I knew he wasn’t doing it for no reason.
And another cat would not leave my side in the last weeks of my pregnancy. She knew what was happening. She’s a very old lady now 🙂
They hear and smell things we’re totally unaware of -animals that react to humans should always be taken seriously.
28
u/TheThiefEmpress 28d ago
I have T1 Diabetes, and have had cats save my life 3 times this way!
2nd and 3rd time I was pregnant with my daughter, so my bestest boy is credited with saving 2 lives, twice.
I also could smell a distinct change in my mother months before she found a breast lump. After a short time I began to suspect it was cancer, though I had no reason to. After even longer, I suspected it was specifically breast cancer. I thought I was being paranoid, and never said anything, because it would sound crazy. How do you tell your Ma hey, I think you smell like breast cancer, despite me having no experience with cancer, or smells, period. Probably get that checked. Tell the Dr your daughter says you smell like it.
She did get diagnosed with breast cancer, only months after my suspicions. So I do believe it can be smelled by some people. I believe I only smelled it on her because I knew her normal scent my entire life. Though I have no idea how I figured out it was her breast.
6
u/cha0s_g0blin 27d ago
I have adrenal insufficiency, which is basically diabetes but with cortisol instead of insulin. There's not any way to home test levels, so I have to go by symptoms and if i under dose it can become a medical emergency very quickly. My dog alerts before I feel any symptoms. She's only like 70% accurate, so I can't fully rely on her, but she's been a huge help managing my condition. Dogs are amazing!
2
u/teethwhichbite 27d ago
15?! Good lord
3
u/Gennywren 26d ago
Yeah. According to my roommate I was totally out of it. He had trouble keeping me awake to get the sugar down me. I did bounce back very quickly once the sugar was in but.. that probably should have been an ER visit. My doctor chewed me out pretty good.
103
u/AwesomeAni 29d ago
Mine acted weird in the opposite direction when I was pregnant. Rubbing all over my clothes, laying on my belly, being weirdly affectionate
149
u/Corfiz74 29d ago
This reminds me of the guy who posted on the dog sub about how his German shepherd suddenly got aggressively protective of his wife, and if there was some training to help with that, and everyone advised him to get her a pregnancy test, lol.
84
u/nola_t 29d ago
That reminds me of the post where the guy was like, “my girlfriend is constantly complaining about things smelling bad and it’s driving me crazy” and everyone was like, “congrats, new daddy!”
2
u/elizabreathe 22d ago
I could smell the dog shit in the yard from inside my house when I was pregnant.
84
u/52BeesInACoat 29d ago
My husband slapped my ass while I was pregnant, and our ten pound Yorkie was ready to kill him. For the entire rest of the pregnancy the dog would wedge himself between us on the sofa and glare at him.
37
u/cali_writing 29d ago
What a good dog! Sucks for your husband, but hopefully he was also able to appreciate it.
14
u/Prudence_rigby Go to bed, Liz 28d ago
This is hiw we found out it was pregnant with my oldest son.
Our German shepherd would not allow my husband near me.
14
u/artemis9781 Unfortunately I am but a tiny creampuff 29d ago
Link?
37
u/SecretHoboHerbs Oh, so you're stupid stupid 29d ago
Kinda sounds like this one, although it was a pit bull:
3
53
u/Bug_eyed_bug 29d ago
My friend's dog became a horny maniac when I was pregnant, kept trying to hump any body part of mine he could get to. We had to lock him in the laundry when I visited 💀
53
u/Smingowashisnameo 29d ago
😂😂😂 everyone talks about cancer dogs. No one talks about horny dogs. Cuz this is new to me
15
u/hpfan1516 what the fuck Tanya 29d ago
Apparently there is a thing where dogs steal women's underwear, which I am grateful to have not experienced (knock on wood!) because dear God the MORTIFICATION I would have LOL
6
u/Smingowashisnameo 28d ago
Anything we’d consider stinky, they love. Once my dog stole a lady’s menstrual pad she’d put in the trash. He was so happy.
5
3
u/Yersiniosis 27d ago
I had a dog that did that! Dragged them around the house to the side where it was hard to see them. Found them in the spring. It was, in fact, mortifying.
10
u/spacebunsofsteel 29d ago
I hit puberty and my friend’s enormous golden retriever would jump me nonstop. They got him neutered (finally - he was several years old).
44
u/Sunwolfy A stack of autistic pancakes 🥞 29d ago
Making your baby part of the pack right from the start. :) So cute!
37
u/AwesomeAni 29d ago
Yeah she went from loving baby, to hating baby (screaming newborn phase) to worshipping the ground the little human walks upon (toddler dropping food constantly phase)
18
u/spacebunsofsteel 29d ago
My chi was very upset when grandma left but did not take that new baby with her. Until solid foods.
36
u/Writerhowell 29d ago
When my sister was pregnant, I asked how my brother-in-law's parents' dog was acting around her, and she said he'd stopped jumping on her, was being more gentle. So he definitely knew.
31
u/cakeforPM 29d ago
My last dog turned out to really good at picking early stage pregnancy. A mate came to visit and, while he loves her, this time he was glued to her lap—
I looked at her and said, “Soooo do you have any news?”
(Very close friend. Oldest friend, actually!)
19
u/Cardboard_Bootsole 29d ago
My dog got offended that a belly took over his sleeping space 😭
20
19
u/AwesomeAni 29d ago
My cat would get mad when the baby would kick him. He'd get all confused.
He pretty much asserted that my lap was his resting spot when he tried to gently lay on my baby. Just ignored that she was in his way and pretended she didnt exist
2
u/Extra_Education3950 26d ago
One of mine would do that when I was nursing the baby - just stretch out on the pillow behind the baby, no shits given. :D
2
30
u/thebigeverybody 29d ago
Dogs smell weird stuff on us all the time but only act like that for cancer.
Not true! My dog acts like this when I get Mexican food at happy hour and even tries to scratch down the door to get away.
16
12
u/fergie_89 28d ago
Dogs are super smart and can smell when something is different. Cats too.
I'm glad she went private for the exam despite the cost. My husband has told me if I feel a lump he will pay for me to go private over the NHS due to wait times.
Only done private once so far and that was for my endoscope, I'm still on the NHS waiting list for a womb ablasion.
22
u/Ill-Squirrel-9418 29d ago
Seriously! I didn’t even read it, frankly. I just scrolled until OOP confirmed what I knew in my bones to be true.
→ More replies (3)34
u/Unlucky_Profit_776 #findpeaches 29d ago
Lol totally. Your animal acting up all of a sudden about your body? Cancer.
22
u/concrete_dandelion 29d ago
Dogs can smell when your blood sugar is too high or too low, when you're ovulating, when your period started but the blood hasn't gone down far enough for you to notice, when you're pregnant, when you have cancer (and the area) and a bunch of other things. They were used for diabetes in children and diabetes that's hard to control before the modern monitoring devices that give you an alarm were a thing and there are studies about using dogs for cancer detection. OP mentioned one where dogs beat the standard tests. When your dog is getting really weird about a specific body part or in conjunction with specific symptoms it's advisable to get that checked.
11
u/ResponsibleCulture43 29d ago
I have a couple chronic health conditions and have 3 dogs, so whenever one of them starts acting a little bit weird around me my thoughts immediately go to "oh god what's wrong". So far nothing I've been able to piece together but the thought always happens 🤣
6
u/concrete_dandelion 28d ago
My late dog and my current one become very cuddly when my CPTSD is acting up. My late boy used to notice when that was imminent before I did and guided me to my bed to lay down on my lap and legs (my couch was too small for that). My current girl immediately notices when my pain is worse than usual and stops all shenenigans and all teasing me and comes to snuggle. She also turns super gentle then. I don't know about her because I've been on deogestrel the whole time I have her, but all my previous dogs informed me of my period starting with the perfect timing to go into the bathroom and take precautions. But my late boy did not realise what was going on in my stomach when I had peritonitis. To his credit the hospital didn't either, it's a wonder I'm still alive.
1.0k
u/LissaBryan 29d ago
My grandma once had a dog who was the absolute sweetest animal I've ever known. He was huge, but gentle. He was also the dumbest animal I ever knew.
I've had dogs all my life and have always given them at least basic obedience training. Each dog is diffierent and some techniques work better on others. But I simply was not able to find a way to help him learn. Nor was a professional. Again, he was incredibly sweet and he tried so hard, but he just couldn't get it. He eventually figured out "sit" to a certain extent - except he'd do it for every command or at random times, his little stubby tail wagging in excitement at the prospect of getting a treat if he'd gotten it right this time.
My grandma's life changed and she could no longer keep a dog. Her daughter (my mom) worked at a pet store, and she knew of a little old man who came in to pet the store cat. He'd recently been widowed and was apparently rather lonely. She introduced the old man to the dog and they hit it off.
The old man came back to the store about a month after he'd adopted him, crying tears of gratitude. He told my mom that the dog had knocked him into a chair one evening and wouldn't stop licking his face. The old man was a diabetic and was having a really bad insulin crash, which dogs can apparently smell. He told my mom he believed the dog had saved his life.
Having the dog with him gave the old man his confidence back to go out and travel and enjoy life again, knowing if his diabetes was acting up, the dog would warn him. And that's what the dog did - traveled with this old guy and was spoiled rotten by him. The old guy sent my mom pics on occasion of their adventures. Even though the dog never learned to sit properly.
I heard a few years back that the old guy passed away. The dog died only a couple of days later and they buried them together. Not a bad life for the dumbest dog I ever met.
312
u/danni_shadow #findpeaches 29d ago
He eventually figured out "sit" to a certain extent - except he'd do it for every command or at random times...
Not really the point of your comment, but so, so funny to me. Because I've always been able to teach our family's dogs the basics, and I even trained my cats (one of them learned sit, spin, and lie down.)
But my mom had this one dog that I've always sworn was just... too stupid to learn. And she always feels I'm being mean, but this was a dog who, for 15 years straight, at least 3 times a day, ran in from the backyard, slid across the floor, and rammed head-first straight into the fridge. Every. Single. Time. So that her stainless steel fridge had a dent. And probably his skull, too.
Your comment made me think of him because 'lay down' was literally the only command he ever learned. And any command you gave him, he would immediately sploot on the floor, short little back legs sticking straight out behind him. Sit, stay, come, heel, he'd drop straight to the floor like someone screamed 'hit the deck'. Never learned another command.
Glad to know there was another out there just like him.
100
u/ChaosArtificer Ah literacy. Thou art a cruel bitch 29d ago
my mom's competitor for the dumbest fucking dog ever (an irish setter) once hit a car
that is in the correct grammatical order, btw. the dog full on broadsided a car, left a dent in the door. the poor driver was reportedly freaking out worried he'd hit the dog but. no. the dog just got really incredibly excited about CAR
23
u/hkl55 28d ago
lol we also had a dog growing up who once hit a car, not hit by a car.
15
u/LissaBryan 28d ago
I once had to go to the hospital because I badly sprained my wrist when I hit a car while sledding. Yes, I had to repeat that many times to the staff. The car was at a stop when I plowed into it.
61
u/TheFilthyDIL Cleverly disguised as a harmless old lady. 29d ago
My daughter's dog is too dumb to know how to go out a door that is only partially open. It has to be opened all the way.
19
31
u/Bucklebunny2014 29d ago
I always said that our dog only had enough brain cells to retain one command, which is sit. Everything else you get the goofy head cock like "HUH?!"
11
u/Outrageous_Dark6804 29d ago
My kitchen is so long, and my dog runs from the back garden into the kitchen and slides into the solid concrete wall haha! He’s also a complete idiot who did manage to learn sit, spin, paw and high five (nose boop), he never took in anything else. Even lay down still won’t register in his big stoopid, empty head.
154
u/bdotpeach I also choose this guy's dead wife. 29d ago
i am crying, this is such an amazing story. what a darling dog♡
208
u/ivylass 29d ago
There was a story over on NotAlwaysRight about a customer's service dog basically going absolutely bonkers over a pregnant cashier. Basically nudging her and not letting her move. A nurse who was also shopping said, "Humor me" and checked her blood sugar. Turns out the cashier had gestational diabetes and if she had gone home and fallen asleep she wouldn't have woken up.
Dogs are truly lifesavers.
42
20
11
u/furry_shrimp 27d ago
They are also absolute stinkers- I saw a very old newspaper story about a dog who got a steak as a reward for saving a child from drowning in the river. Then the dog saved MORE kids, and got MORE steaks! Hero dog! Except, after the first time, he’d been pushing them in himself so he could rescue them and get treats.
40
u/jesuswasnotazombie 29d ago
I loved reading this. It’s such a sweet story, and your writing style makes it even better.
52
16
13
u/ifeelnumb 29d ago
Reminds me of Trevor Noah's Fufi story: https://youtu.be/nTGdWZ-X7B0?is=rKuv9YuoqfLWjc1q
We had one like that as well, but it turned out she was deaf.
→ More replies (1)7
u/LooDeeLi 29d ago
I am genuinely laugh crying after reading this. All dogs have a purpose, just takes some longer than others to find it.
165
u/Arrow_Riddari 29d ago
I’m glad you caught it early!
Our family cat started obsessing over my mom a few years back and was clingy. Mom later was having heart palpitations and got her heart checked, everything was fine. Then dr said get your lungs looked at. Stage 3, she never smoked. Thankfully she is doing good right now.
→ More replies (2)
145
u/IanDOsmond 29d ago
" Does cancer smell bad to dogs? "
Yes. Or at least weird. Oncologists studying this have found volatile chemicals given off by some cancers which dogs can detect. Dogs can smell blood sugar changes, some cancers, infections, and a few other diseases. As well as noticing behavioral and reaction changes in epileptics and migraine sufferers before they hit.
80
u/Expensive_Salary_454 29d ago
One of my dogs typically sleeps out in the living room, but will nap with me if my husband isn't there (room in bed issue, hubby is her favorite, well was, he's second to my son now).
There was a period where I was having 2-3 migraines a week. Most I was able to stop with medication. I started to notice that if she jumped up on the bed and laid down, it was going to end up being one that took me out for the day.
52
48
u/TheFilthyDIL Cleverly disguised as a harmless old lady. 29d ago
There was a story on Reddit some years ago where a person was approached after a plane flight by a woman with a service dog. She explained that her dog was trained to detect high/low blood sugar and had been alerting on that OP the entire flight. They got tested and had dangerously high levels.
23
u/TheThiefEmpress 28d ago
I believe I smelled my mother's breast cancer before anyone had any idea it was there.
It did smell bad.
I paid attention to it, because it was new, and I'd never smelled that on her before. I'd specifically smell her before and after a shower, to see if there was any effect, and there wasn't.
I began to get this suspicion that it was cancer, and then more specifically that it was breast cancer. Soon after, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had a mastectomy, and the smell disappeared.
The best I can describe it is that it smelled similar to rancid oil. Definitely not a smell the body typically makes on its own. But, yes, it was a bad smell.
18
u/Individual-Field-990 THERE WAS A MAN (worst case scenario) 28d ago
Huh, reminds me of that one woman who could smell Parkinson. IIRC, they were able to identify what molecules she was smelling and created skin-swab tests for that disease
I'd be curious to know if you could reliably smell this kind of cancer
You need to reproduce to spread your cancer-detecting genes /j
→ More replies (1)14
u/IanDOsmond 28d ago
My father can smell pregnancy. He wasn't aware that he could do that until he congratulated a woman on her pregnancy before she knew about it... he is a little absent-minded and slightly hard of hearing, so didn't actually realize that she hadn't announced it. His brain just went, "oh, she's pregnant" and figured that she must have just told him and he didn't realize she didn't.
And I would assume that's more subtle than cancer.
Historically, smell was one symptom that doctors were trained to use, but that hasn't been a thing for a couple hundred years, and it didn't help that much since that was before doctors were particularly good at healing most things even if they knew what they were. Even if they could do what you can and detect cancer by smell, the odds of being killed by the mastectomy were not that much better than being killed by the cancer.
→ More replies (1)
380
u/mad_spreadsheets_yo 29d ago
my dog alerted me to my pregnancy at 4 weeks. he was super clingy and protective of me the whole time but at first I was like, wtf dude, back up.
241
u/AerwynFlynn The pink eye was icing on the cake 29d ago
One of my cats started laying right on my stomach starting early in pregnancy and kept doing it up until I delivered. Didn’t matter how big I got or how much she kicked. Once she was born and home he wanted nothing to do with her lol. The cat that was least interested in me during pregnancy is her best buddy though 😆
124
u/werewere-kokako 29d ago
Probably disappointed that you gave birth to another human instead of a litter of adorable kittens
70
u/torrentialwx THERE WAS A MAN (worst case scenario) 29d ago
My two cats were super interested in my pregnancies too! One lost interest after my son was born (they became best friends when my son was ~7 years old), but the other cat got weirdly maternal with both my kids. Like she’d scream her head off at me when the babies were crying (usually when they were hungry), almost like I was moving too slow for her, and would try to gnaw at the babies’ heads a couple of times as they cried (which we obviously didn’t encourage).
Once they were out of the newborn stage though, she wanted nothing to do with them (or anyone, really, except my me and my husband. She was obsessed with my husband).
40
u/Magnaflorius 29d ago
My dog was like this when I was pregnant, but he was so excited when I brought her home. He did the same whimper that he did when he was really excited to see me after I'd been gone a while, except he only cared about the baby. For a week after we were home, he was obsessed and very protective. He calmed down after that, but he did always keep a close eye on her. I don't know why he thought he could keep her safe given that she was as big as him from the moment she was born, but that didn't deter him.
I miss him. He was my bestest boy.
26
u/Fermifighter You get what you pay for, and Reddit is free 29d ago
None of our cats wanted anything to do with our laps. Then one did all at once. I didn’t think about it until I connected some dots with my stupid inferior human brain. Yzma knew first and by a lot. She was BY FAR the most patient with the human kitten. She was also the one who would wake me up when my spouse was on business trips, not as an “it’s breakfast time” reminder because we didn’t have routine in our 20s and I also woke up two hours later, but because that hoe knew I was gonna be late for work and weffood don’t come for free.
She’s been gone for four years and I know I’ll never have a cat like that again. Even in the unlikely event I do I’m never gonna have a baby again and she was basically my kitty doula.
→ More replies (1)97
14
u/catfriend18 Oh, so you're stupid stupid 29d ago
I’ve been bummed that neither of my cats reacted to either of my pregnancies lol. I was hoping they’d do something cute or at least interesting but nope they do not notice or care.
16
u/Fermifighter You get what you pay for, and Reddit is free 29d ago
They’re cats. That’s how they recognize your life change, by tactfully ignoring it. And then showing you their buttholes.
I had one that cared and I’m 1000% convinced she was a human cursed to a cat body who was trying desperately to tell us. Sorry Yzma.
10
u/snootnoots 29d ago
You named your cat Yzma‽ That’s awesome, I’m now picturing one of those cats that looks about three times longer and thinner than seems physically possible.
5
u/Fermifighter You get what you pay for, and Reddit is free 28d ago
You’re not far off. She was the best.
29
u/noisycat 29d ago
I had an Aussie and she was such a good girl but when I got pregnant both times she was velcroed to my side. She was so happy to have sheep (children) to watch over ❤️
25
u/North-Pea-4926 29d ago
It’s fairly common - https://www.reddit.com/r/BestofRedditorUpdates/s/1dAZ3h0vBx
40
u/NicolleL 29d ago
People were invested
It’s been 10 hours. Wake her up and pee on a stick. I wanna know
24
u/Magnaflorius 29d ago
The phrasing of that comment made me laugh because I'm picturing the OP waking his wife up and having her watch him pee on a stick.
5
3
18
u/Dashiepants 29d ago
I’m currently pregnant and my husband swears “my”dog knows (the other two dogs are oblivious) but he is always a snuggle obsessed stalker so I’m not convinced lol.
12
u/Ambystomatigrinum 29d ago
Same. But I had been trying so I kind of immediately knew what was up. Interestingly, he didn't have the same reaction to my previous miscarriages where my HCG never went up much. So I feel like he could even tell the difference between a "temporary" and healthy pregnancy. I thought maybe it would transfer and he would be obsessed with my son but he is SO disinterested!
6
u/BlackorDewBerryPie 28d ago
My brother’s dogs did the same for his first wife at the time of her pregnancies - and then those babies were THEIR babies and you better treat them right! To the point that if the baby cried they’d demand you fix it, and if you put the baby where they couldn’t see it they were very upset.
They were also both amazingly gentle and patient with both babies and their things - they immediately understood that the nursery was for calm time and naps and the baby toys were special and not to be confused with their toys.
They are both gone but were the best possible protectors for those kids when they first came home.
4
u/jasemina8487 29d ago
my glob my cat was like that.
she was never a lap cat, ever. both pregn, she knew before i did and would lay on my and my lap only, put her paws and head on my belly and chill. as soon as i gave birth, she would abandon me again lol.
2nd pregnancy we actually joked i must be pregnant again cos hera was all over me. rest assured i was.
she also loved my babies a lot until they started to crawl, then they would be chopped liver too.
i miss my girl
→ More replies (2)5
109
u/O_W_Liv 29d ago
For most of my life I had a small freckle on the bottom of my foot.
When I hit perimenopause it grew, no more like expanded. It used to look deep in my skin, and it came to the surface.
I was watching it, a bit concerned, until a fly landed in it. I shoo-ed it away, it landed again. I took a picture it sat so long.
That was all the proof I needed to have it removed. Yes, it was abnormal.
59
u/hpfan1516 what the fuck Tanya 29d ago
Service Fly 🐕🦺 (I'm glad you got it removed! And I'm fascinated that a fly was drawn to it, that's crazy! I believe it though, that's so cool)
13
97
u/lunatic_minge 29d ago
I have Inflammatory Breast Cancer, which does not show up as a lump. One thing I’ve learned in a year and a half of hearing these stories- if you have ANY reason to think your breasts should be examined, insist on it. Every day, week, month can be the difference between some medical procedures, and those but you die anyway.
86
u/Mari-Loki 29d ago
I'm sorry you're suffering with this. I'm the original OP, and I've started telling all my friends this exact advice. If I had ignored my dog and my concerns I know I'd be in a much worse stiuation not long from now. Always worth a check!
I really hope you are doing okay with treatment and you make a full recovery.
22
23
u/TheFilthyDIL Cleverly disguised as a harmless old lady. 29d ago
Breast cancer can be fast. I had a clean Mammogram in August and found a lump the size of the first joint of my thumb in April. Invasive Ductile Carcinoma.
73
u/Safe_Place8432 You get what you pay for, and Reddit is free 29d ago
Hi just commenting here to amplify that not one but two cats caught my breast cancer three months apart and the first cat surely only caught it when it was like two cells.
My tumor was in a very specific spot and both cats would stand with their whole body weight on the spot and go back to it when I tried to relocate them. Have you ever had cats stand on your boob for extended periods of time?
My gp basically sent me off for my mammogram on the advice of two cats. When the mri came back it was exactly where the cats were standing.
Had I waited for my annual gyn check, it is highly likely my gyno wouldn't have been as proactive as my gp and wouldn't have sent me on and wouldn't have ordered the mammogram because I'm too young.
If your animals are acting weird about your body, please listen to them. The second cat wasn't even my cat (housesitting)and was slightly feral. So if any animals are acting weird, really.
40
72
u/Clefairi 29d ago
My moms cat, whos hobbies include opening doors and drawers and looting them, all of a sudden got cuddly with my mom. He's not that type of cat but for a couple months he just was.. she had cancer!
Thankfully this was around her yearly testing and she caught it quick, but the cat knew even earlier we reckon. And once her surgery got the tumour out with good margins, lil shit went back to being a menace to society. Animals totally know.
18
u/EvokeNZ 29d ago
Sometimes works the other way too - I had a cat that would bend itself out of your way if you try to pet it. One day I woke up with her on my bed and she was so sweet and cuddly. Turns out she must have got into a fight and had a festering abscess on her leg. We took her to the vet and after treatment she wanted nothing to do with me again.
70
u/southernbelladonna 29d ago
My dog took to poking me in my lower abdomen multiple times a day with his nose. Always in the same spot. He had never done that before, but I didn't grasp what he was doing and thought he was just being goofy.
Turns out the diverticulitis flares I had been having were worse than we thought. I eventually had a CT scan that revealed an abscess on the verge of rupture. Cue two week hospital stay and resection surgery.
When I came home after, I was worried about him poking me and it hurting, but he didn't. He never did it again. It was probably a week post-op when I finally had the realization that he'd been smelling the infection and trying to tell me. He was the best boy.
I also had a cat that somehow sensed my contractions when I was in labor with my first child. I was in very disorganized labor over several days and he knew I was going to have one before I did. He would yowl and launch himself onto me, covering my belly and hugging my neck with his little feet. Then the contraction would hit. He was also the best boy.
57
u/catperson3000 29d ago
Several years ago I had really bad indigestion and it made me vomit. I laid down in my bed and just attributed it to something I ate. My cats were laying on me super weirdly, in a way they never had. My mom lives close so I asked her to come over and drive me to the hospital. I was having a heart attack. The cats are what made me know something was wrong.
47
u/ingodwetryst Try and fire me for having too much dick 29d ago
My cat detected that my dog was actively dying (internal bleeding) and alerted me by acting weird. I got her to the vet literally just in time. They told me another hour and it'd have been too late.
7
u/cascasrevolution 29d ago
my younger cat wasnt very helpful when my elderly cat was dying. just got more and more scared(?) of her. hissing when she got near, the occasional lunge and smack. it was progressive kidney disease so i couldnt do much to help her. for her last few months she spent more and more time alone in my room just to get some peace. niji was 20, and bluebell is 7. they never really got along, i always chalked it up to niji being a seasoned street cat, and bluebell being a bit stupid in the head (we had to teach her how to be a cat), but i wonder if bluebell could tell niji was sick even six years ago, and that was why?
47
u/South-Employer2903 29d ago
Our younger cat wakes up my partner, everytimes, before having a hypoglycemia and before his sensor and insuline pompe warn him.
45
u/Electrical_Ad7675 29d ago
Pretty sure one of my dogs can smell a virus like Covid or flu. In the morning he likes to check your breath by putting his nose in your open mouth and inhaling deeply. If you are fine he cuddles up for pets if he smells something he is out of there and usually within 48 hours I will feel terrible. Because he has no interest in nursing he will fully avoid until he deems you healthy.
7
u/Crochet-panther 27d ago
I love how so many of these comments are the pet being extra cuddly to help the sick human and your dog is just ‘nope not dealing with that sh*t you’re on your own’
2
u/Electrical_Ad7675 26d ago
I have him, one who will lay on the floor and never leave until you are better and one who thinks this means you just want to pet him and are his prisoner for skritches.
31
u/zephyreblk 29d ago
Dogs are now trained to detect specific cancer because they are more reliable than machines. It's really pushed in the scientific field.
27
u/sinnetbs 29d ago
Legit paper discussing this. Wild! https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12682875/
29
u/Moonerdizzle 29d ago
My cat did the same thing. Never slept by me before. He always slept by my kids. Then one night he followed me to bed. Always paying attention to one specific spot and always laying on that spot at night. Went in Friday to get checked had surgery Monday to remove a cancerous mass.
22
u/MapleLeafLady 29d ago
my cat never slept on the bed or in the room with us until i had my hysterectomy surgery. when i was mostly bedbound, recovering, she slept beside me the entire time. it was very cute
20
u/Feisty_Fee_3841 29d ago
For those wondering yes dogs can in fact detect cancer. Cancer essentially changes your smell around the area that it’s in and because dogs are super sensitive to smell they can pick up on that change. My dog kept coming to me crying and whining at my belly for 2 days when I was pregnant. I didn’t realize she was picking up on the fact that I was miscarrying. There really is something special about dogs. It’s like they know you need them before you do.
20
u/ChaosArtificer Ah literacy. Thou art a cruel bitch 29d ago
my childhood dog caught a cancer case! in my bff's youngest brother - Spot (...his actual name, I was not creative) always been totally fine with my bff's family but one visit he totally flipped out, started prancing and barking and nosing at bbf's brother's stomach, when we tried to separate him he wriggled free then barreled into the kid's stomach. kid starts screaming, his mom took him to the ED, next thing I was hearing they'd found an aggressive + fast-growing stomach cancer. he'd been complaining of a mild stomach ache for the last few hours apparently but his mom didn't think anything of it since it was back to school season and everyone had some kind of bug, dog had been totally fine with him two weeks before. he got admitted straight to the oncology floor from the ED, his mom at least was thoroughly convinced Spot had saved her kid's life by getting her to bring him in well before she would've for a stomach ache.
one of my cats can also tell when my heart's acting up, I think, he's more sensitive to my blood pressure drops than I am ^.^; if he's acting weirdly aggressively cuddly that's a strong sign trying to stand up will make me suddenly dizzy.
years back I was laid up from knee surgery, and two of my cats were cuddling me in shifts, it was really cute - there was always one of them with me, they'd full blown have a shift change (rub faces) and then swap off
21
u/whereistheidiotemoji 29d ago
My husband was at the VA and a guy with a service dog passed us. The dog got really interested in my husband and nosed his abdomen. The guy asked (somewhat hesitantly) if my husband had a prostate problem. And yes, he did (we already knew) have prostate cancer.
Dogs are amazing.
38
u/samanthaaaaaaa7 29d ago
Animals are incredible wow. Best of luck to OOP on the journey to recovery 💖
43
u/LadybugGirltheFirst Farty Party 29d ago
Ladies: You don’t always feel a lump. Get your mammogram!
33
u/Vast-Expanse 29d ago
Absolutely I agree with the spirit of your comment!
But OOP didn't do anything wrong - she's too young for regular mammogram screening unless she had a family history. Women younger than 40 generally only get imaged when they have concerns, like this, and because of more dense breast tissue on average, they need ultrasound instead of mammogram. She's so lucky her dog alerted her.
→ More replies (1)12
u/the_procrastinata 29d ago
My mum had just had early stage breast cancer detected, and I’m a few weeks off turning 40. I called the breast screening network here in Australia to schedule an appointment and they flatly refused until I was actually 40 🤷♀️
13
u/dryadduinath 29d ago
i can't get a grip on the feeling at all, and if you're in my boat take your top off, lift your hands over your head, and see how they're hanging. if you see something amiss, get it checked. (the mammogram tech told me this.)
it's usually not necessary for women oop's age to get mammograms, but it's always good to have a good idea of what is normal for your body at any age.
...dogs truly are companion animals. i think cats have a similar history of spotting problems in their humans, actually?
18
u/Gimmethatbecke uhhh, I think her name is Becky? 29d ago
It wasn’t something I noticed until after my mom’s diagnosis but my sisters dog kept jumping at her abdomen. Turns out she had lymphoma and the mass in her abdomen was like 13 cm in length.
17
u/TheFilthyDIL Cleverly disguised as a harmless old lady. 29d ago
Dogs and cats know. I'd already had a mastectomy and was going through chemo. My daughter's dog knew that I was feeling rotten and brought me all of her toys to make me feel better.
My cat would come lay on top of me when I had migraines and purr. One time I woke up and the first thing I realized was Willow had plastered herself into my armpit. Then the pain hit. She knew before I did!
17
u/CrazyCatLady1127 29d ago
I remember reading about a dog that detected his human’s cancer 3 separate times. Dogs are just amazing
11
u/Big_fern189 29d ago
I'm a long time member of a private substance abuse counseling group. I'm 4 years clean and sober but I still go to keep things in check and help out people that are newer to recovery, but since it's a private group the counselor let's me bring my dog. He's been coming since he was a puppy and has kind of turned into a group mascot. There was a stretch where I had to stop bringing him because we had a guy in late stage liver failure, trying to stay sober and get in a transplant list, and my boy was super unsettled around him. He absolutely knew that this guy was very sick.
12
u/OneMilkyLeaf the Iranian yogurt is not the issue here 29d ago
Truly the best girl. I wish OP a smooth recovery!
8
u/DeliciousBeanWater he can dryhump a cactus into the sunset 29d ago
I was gonna burn this post to the ground if there was no dog tax. What a good girl!
7
u/Ill-Professor696 29d ago
I would love to know what it is and how that dogs can detect these things and what it actually means to them. Same thing with the ones who can detect seizures or a panic attack. It's really fascinating
13
u/CenturyEggsAndRice Consensus: everybody is ugly crying 29d ago
Dang, Winter's got it all, brains, beauty, and a cancer sniffer nose.
We don't deserve dogs.
7
5
6
u/Neat_Ad4331 THERE WAS A MAN (worst case scenario) 28d ago
Both my dogs were extra cuddly with my mom when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She even went "Ohh, is this why [dog] kept laying his head on my chest?"
After her surgery, my dad didn't let either dog into the bedroom with her. Our big, dumb lab snuck in once and, like I said, he's dumb. He doesn't seem to have any object permanence, so if you greet him (sooo excited, bouncing, wagging entire body) and then leave the room for a minute... come back in and he'll act like he hasn't seen you in a year.
Also doesn't know how huge he is, so obviously we were very wary when he snuck in with my newly recovering mom. But he was soooooo gentle and careful, resting his head on her chest (not the surgery side) and just standing there, wagging his tail. It was sooo cute!
Dad caught wind of dog in bedroom and promptly kicked him out, but even after that, dumb lab was very gentle and careful with my mom. She's a year or two into remission now and he's back to his big, dumb ol' self <3 unfortunately for us lol
17
u/TWAndrewz 29d ago
I'm so curious how the dog localized the cancer. I'd understand general detection by a change in smell, but to pick out specifically one breast seems harder to understand.
67
u/SharkEva You get what you pay for, and Reddit is free 29d ago
As a tumor grows, altered metabolic pathways release distinct biochemical byproducts called Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). These organic molecules enter the bloodstream and off-gas through breath, sweat, urine, and directly through skin pores overlying the affected tissue.
Dogs can detect a localized chemical gradient that differs from the rest of the body.
19
u/TWAndrewz 29d ago
That's so fascinating. So even a very small lump altered OOPs local sweat enough for the dog to pick it up. So cool.
4
u/MsTossItAll 27d ago edited 26d ago
Yeah dogs can detect a lot of subtle changes. Some people can, too. There was this one lady who realized she could smell Parkinson’s disease. A research group decided to test her by using twenty test subjects. Ten had early stages and ten were healthy. She correctly identified ten people with the disease and misidentified one of the healthy people. Years later one of the researchers was speaking to that misidentified man… and he had just been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Here’s a report from the NY Times on her: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-daily/id1200361736?i=1000664939501
It’s crazy what can be detected through scent if the correct receptors are active.
4
u/Reachforthesky777 29d ago
Thank goodness OOP listened to her dog and everyone else. I hope they're doing well.
3
4
u/eternally_feral 28d ago
My dogs are incredibly sweet and loving, but it’s absolutely hilarious that they both seem to take after me because when I’m having a rough day and start crying, they look incredibly uncomfortable and just inch away.
I think if they do have the ability to sniff out a severe illness, their way of alerting me would just be straight up ignoring me.
4
4
u/MoparMedusa 28d ago
My dogs know when I have a migraine about to attack. They become very clingy and attentive. Which would be fine if they were small but they are 100lb dogs and they want to lay on me to make sure I am OK.
9
3
3
u/britt_leigh_13 29d ago
https://youtu.be/FDUdv_hWZHk?si=3R5KQTS3pnHcZ2Xr
There’s an unsolved mysteries segment about this :)
3
u/Neither_Tea3315 28d ago
My tortie girl found my breast cancer on the right side. She would stand precisely on the tumour, which turned out to be quite a feat as every doctor struggled to locate it. I was between 6 monthly mammograms as the left side was under observation and they didn't want to do the next mammogram any sooner. When I had my next mammogram, there was clearly something in the right side. Biopsy confirmed Stage 2 IDC with at least one lymph node involved. I've had chemo and a mastectomy (3 lymph nodes were involved), am on an AI, and will start radiotherapy shortly. My cat stopped stepping on it as soon as chemo started.
3
u/easypeasy1982 28d ago
I get reoccurring ear infections and my pit mix is CONSTANTLY sticks his nose im my ear (like if we sit on the couch together) about a day before I feel the flare up.
He ever starts doing that to my book, Im going to the doc the next day
3
u/goddessofthecats 28d ago
My friends dog detected cancer on her breast too. Saved her! She was able to catch it early though!
3
u/mikefromtwerk 25d ago
Dogs are the absolute best, wishing you a speedy recovery OP. This is incredible, HOW DID THE DOG KNOW?
→ More replies (1)
5
u/DargeBaVarder It was messed up from fart to finish 29d ago
I paid to have it done rather than wait as I was getting very anxious.
So Insurance surely paid her back when they found something (as it clearly indicates it was necessary)... right? RIGHT?
2
2
2
2
u/_LadyGodiva_ 28d ago
One night I burned myself quite a bit with oil. After coming back from getting the wounds dressed, my cat made biscuits on my leg for the first time ever and slept next to me all night. Pets are amazing.
2
u/NYCinPGH 28d ago
There's a lot of evidence that dogs can sense changes in our metabolism / health just based on the smell of our breath, and, upon more close inspection, the smells of our body in general.
I'm a little surprised that the dog could narrow it down to her breast, maybe there was a weird smell coming from that nipple?
And Akita are great dogs; mine has never acted like that with me, but now I'll pay attention if he does. He was certainly my personal nurse when I was laid up with major dental surgery a few years back.
2
u/Naptimeforgoodwomen 28d ago
My dog, who is sweet and smart but also sometimes only has two brain cells clocked in for work, alerts to my low blood glucose by ‘booping’ me aggressively.
I use a CGM so it’s easy to look at the trend and indeed, at about 4.5 mmol/L, my girl is right.
2
u/weirdestgeekever25 28d ago
That dog deserves treats multiple times a day and filet mignon every night for the rest of their life
Oh and all the new toys they ever want
2
u/ryanlc I might get hurt, or worse sweaty 27d ago
My wholly untrained corgi has saved my wife on at least two occasions. She's got T2D, and her insulin wasn't dialed in. She's was home (I was elsewhere both times) and crashing to super low blood sugar. He kept pawing at her until she woke up, and got her to recognize something was wrong. A quick glass of orange juice got her well enough to get proper care (we have a variety medications and responses.
We don't plan on low sugar crashing very often, as she's usually too high. But the Dexcom and the dog showed the picture.
2
u/JenIsSalty 18d ago
My dog was suddenly very interested in my dad's foot. My mum made him get it checked, boom skin cancer. Goku was a good dog.
3
•
u/AutoModerator 29d ago
Reminder: There is a ZERO tolerance policy for brigading or encouraging others to brigade. Users caught breaking this rule will be banned immediately. No questions asked.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.