N.S. couple seeks to save dog from cancer using stem cell treatment only available in U.S.

When five-year-old golden doodle, Lucy, was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma, owners Stéphanie Gauvin and Tim MacIsaac knew they would do whatever they could to save her, even if it took them to another country. 

Gauvin said Lucy's life expectancy would be between six months and a year with standard treatments like chemotherapy. The couple started looking into other options, and stumbled upon a rare procedure.

One veterinary clinic in Bellingham, Wash., offers a stem cell transplant and immunotherapy for dogs. Though it's expensive — the total cost could be in the neighbourhood of $100,000 Cdn — the couple's pet insurance would cover most of it. The rest would come from fundraising and their savings.  

But the procedure hinges on one crucial step — finding a stem cell match for Lucy.

"[We're] trying to reach out on social media, reaching out to the breeder, tracking down her family line ... just trying to find anyone who might be related to her and might be willing to check and see if their dog's a match," Gauvin said in an interview at the couple's home in Wolfville, N.S.

Meanwhile, a Halifax-area veterinarian is following Lucy's situation closely, hoping to form a partnership with the clinic in Washington and offer the procedure more widely to pet owners in the Maritimes. 

"I had no idea this was even available, it's something that I'm currently researching myself," said Dr. Melissa Burgoyne, a small animal veterinarian at Cobequid Animal Hospital in Lower Sackville. 

Burgoyne is conducting Lucy's chemotherapy, aiming to get her into remission. She said she's following the lead of the veterinarian in Washington who will conduct the procedure if a match is found, and supervise the immunotherapy after the transplant. 

"It's done in humans all the time ... the States is much more advanced in some of these technologies than Canada or even here in Atlantic Canada. So to learn of them and to know of them is going to be great," she said, noting many Americans are used to paying out of pocket for medical care so veterinary costs aren't as concerning.

Burgoyne said she believes new, innovative treatments like this will become more common as more veterinary specialists come to the Atlantic provinces.

The Washington veterinarian declined an interview request about the procedure, but the Bellingham Veterinary website says bone marrow or stem cell transplantation "has a higher success rate at complete remission than any other treatment and in some cases, it may result in a cure."

Burgoyne said she will be preparing Lucy for the treatment, following her aftercare and how she responds, as well as tracking the associated costs. 

"I'm hoping this ends with Lucy being a healthy, happy dog, lymphoma free," she said.

'People want to help dogs'

Gauvin and MacIsaac said golden retrievers, poodles, and golden doodles that have links to Willow Lane Farms in Ontario and Idaho Jewels Poodles in the U.S. could be matches. They are sending free test kits to vets working with families who think their dogs might be a match.

As of early November, 18 kits have been sent to vets to run blood tests on potential donor dogs. The samples will then be returned to the vet clinic in Washington to test for a match, starting with full siblings and moving on to more distant relatives. 

The couple is running social media pages dedicated to documenting Lucy's journey and fundraising the costs not covered by insurance. They said they've heard from people in multiple provinces and the U.S., but sometimes it can take around 30 dogs to find a stem cell match, so they're hoping people will continue to come forward.

"People want to help dogs," MacIsaac said. "And I've been pretty surprised and pretty thrilled with the reaction that we've been getting and how many people are reaching out trying to help.

"Dogs are family. And I think that's how people react to that."

Spreading the word

Lorna Welde's five-year-old dog, Galaxie, had the same stem cell transplant procedure at Bellingham Veterinary in 2018, and she said it saved him and allowed his life to go back to normal.

Since then, she's been advising and advocating for other families looking for options to save their dogs from lymphoma. She encourages pet insurance but also helps with fundraising and has a list of potential grants. 

"I wanted people facing this diagnosis with their dog, to have all the information to be able to make their best decisions," Welde said in an interview from her home in New York state.

"What needs to get out there is that this is available, it is safe, it is effective, and the experience for the dog is really very good."