A Cocker Spaniel mother is going to embark on a journey spanning over more than four thousand miles to save the life of one of her puppies. The puppy is suffering from cancer, and the chance of his survival has been made possible only because of a pioneering, state-of-the-art stem cell transplant procedure.
The mother dog named Coco had given birth to Millie, six years ago in Lancashire, Uk. The pup then moved to California, US, with her new owners.
Just recently, Millie was diagnosed with cancer, and the only way she could survive was by getting a very rare stem cell treatment. This novel treatment is not available in the U.K. at the moment, and there is only one hospital in the U.S. that offers the treatment.
The experimental stem cell treatment requires disease-free blood stem cells from the bone marrow of the mother dog so that they could be injected into Millie.
Millie’s owners Serena and Andrew Lodge, called Coco’s owner Robert Alcock to ask him if he could travel to the U.S. with Coco to help save their dog, and Robert agreed.
Andrew and Serena paid for Coco’s trip to the U.S. and also for the expensive treatment that their dog required. The procedure for stem cell treatment was to take place at a veterinary hospital in Newyork City. The hospital is the only veterinary facility in the world that offers this treatment.
Andrew and Serena received a prior warning from the staff at the hospital that in the event of successful operation, the chance of Millie being fully cured was still only fifty percent.
Coco, however, in all probability, will be able to make a full recovery.
In the case of a human patient, the chances of survival would have been much higher, but because of being a pioneering treatment in animals, the vets were not very sure about the outcome.
Image source: SWNS via Ladbible