Northwest Veterinary Specialists Oncology Department

17/03/2026

🤩Everyone meet Freddie🤩

🤝Freddie first came to visit us in October 2025 following a history of vomiting. Initial investigation at his primary care vets showed that there were some changes to his spleen and a stomach foreign body. 🤝

✂️During surgery to remove the foreign body it was discovered that Freddie also had an intestinal mass, this was also removed.✂️

🔬Samples of the spleen revealed normal extramedullary haematopoiesis which is production of blood cells outside of the bone marrow.🔬

🫩Unfortunatly, the intestinal mass was discovered to be histiocytic sarcoma.🫩
🧬Canine histiocytic sarcoma (HS) is a highly aggressive malignant tumour that arises from the histiocytic cells (cells that help the immune system).🧬

🤔Treatment depends on the location, extent, and stage of the disease.🤔

🩻We advised that Freddie should have full staging with a CT scan and ultrasound for sampling of organs. 🩻

🎉Thankfully all the results showed that there was no evidence of involvement of any other organs, but it is possible that there is undectable tumour remaining.🎉

💊Therefore chemotherapy was advised and we adminstered six treatments with lomustine oral chemotherapy.💊

🎉Freddie has been very well during his chemotherapy protocol and deffinatly enjoyed the tasty snacks used to administer the chemotherapy capsules.🎉

🩻We look forward to seeing Freddie in a few weeks for his restaging CT scan.🔬

🎉But for now here he is celebrating finishing his protocol with some snacks!🎉

💜We love you Freddie💜

25/02/2026

🤩Everyone meet Floyd🤩

🤝Floyd first came to NWVS in November 2025 with a history of lameness on his right hind leg. His primary care vets had treated Floyd with pain relief and reduced exercise which worked well initally for him.🛋

🩻The lameness returned and Floyd was refered to our surgery team with a suspected cruciate ligamant rupture. X-rays sadly showed a bone lesion of his right femur, close to his knee. This was highly suspicious of a bone tumour.🩻

☢️Floyd then had a CT scan of his chest, abdomen, and his hind legs, this was to assess for any metastatic spread ☢️ thankfully none was noted.🙌

🔬A biopsy of the affect bone was submitted for a**lysis, and unfortunatly showed that this bone lesion was an osteosarcoma.🔬

😟Osteosarcoma is an aggressive cancer, that is also painful due to the bone destruction. 🙁

✂️Floyd had surgery a few days later to have his right hind leg amputated. He came through the surgery and recovery really well and went home the following day.🏡

🧬As osteosarcoma is highly metastatic, it was advised that Floyd should follow up the surgery with chemotherapy.🧬

💉So once he was fully healed we started Floyd with a four treatment course of carboplatin, one treatment every three weeks.💊

🪅Floyd coped pretty well with the chemotherapy course and by the time of the third treatment Floyd was up to his old Husky antics of howling whenever he possibly could, just for fun, and was playing with his toys - he's surprising agile for a large boy with three legs!💖

🙌Floyd recently completed his chemotherapy course🙌 Well done Floyd 🙌

🩻Our plan is to recheck Floyd in one month, and to perform a CT scan to assess of there has been any progression or spread of the cancer!🩻

🥰Team Oncology loves you Floyd🥰

05/02/2026

🤩Everyone meet Bella🤩

🗓In July 2025 Bella's parents noticed that some of her lymph nodes were enlarged so sought help from her primary care vets.🤓

🧬Her vet took some biopsies of these lymphnodes, and unfortunatly the results showed that Bella had lymphoma.🧪

🤝So Bella was referred to Team Oncology immediatly after the diagnosis so we could discuss options.🤝

🧫Lymphoma is a cancer of the white blood cells and can respond very well to chemotherapy, but is usually not a cureable disease. The aim for chemotherapy is for a 'complete remission' where the lymphoma is no longer clinically detectable (lymph nodes small in size) and that Bella feels really well in herself.😎

💊We opted to start Bella with a 16 treatment, 25-week multidrug chemotherapy protocol (CHOP).💊

💊This involves the use of prednisolone, vincristine, cyclophosphamide, and epirubicin on a rotation over the 25-week course. 🤝Her primary care practice were also invloved and administered four of the treatments for us.👌

💃Bella rocked her treatment from the very beginning and completed her protocol with us last week.🪅🪅

🧐Bella will have monthly check ups with her primary care vets, but knowing that we are only a phone call away!☎️

🥰🥰Team Oncology love you Bella, and in the nicest possible way,🥰 we hope not to see you soon😉🥰

04/02/2026

❤️Everyone meet Bertie❤️

🤝Bertie first came to visit Team Oncology in October 2025 after his primary care vets detected a mass associated with one of his a**l glands, and they were suspicious it could be cancer.😔

😴Bertie had a general anaesthetic for us to perform a CT scan and take some samples of the mass to get a diagnosis.🧪

🩻The CT scan allowed to to see how big the a**l gland mass was, and if the local lymph nodes within his abdomen were enlarged.📏

🔬The samples of the mass confirmed our suspicions of cancer and that the mass was an apocrine gland a**l sac adenocarcinoma. 🧬

📈Cocker spaniels are also reported to be at an increased risk of this form of cancer.📊

🙌Thankfully, the CT and further sampling (the lymph nodes close to the tumour, liver, and spleen) showed that there was no metastasis (spread) of the cancer.🙌

✂️Therefore Bertie was refered to our surgery depertment where he had the affected a**l gland removed. ✂️

🧬Due to the nature of this type of cancer, and the fact that there were narrow surgical margins the risk of recurrence is possible, and chemotherapy was advised.🧬

💉Therefore Bertie was scheduled to recieve four treatments of carboplatin, one treatment every 3 weeks.💉

🫣Bertie gave us a little scare at the time of his third treatment as a 'nodule' was felt in the area of the affected/removed a**l glad so he was sedated to have some samples taken. Thankfully these results showed no evidence that this 'nodule' was recurrance of the cancer! 🙌 Phew!!🙌

🪅🪅Bertie went on to smash his planned protocol and completed his chemotherapy course last week!!🪅🪅

❤️We look forward to seeing Bertie for his check ups.❤️

💗Well done Bertie, Team Oncology love you💗

28/01/2026

🎉Everyone meet Chester!🎉

🦸‍♂️ He's one of our super hero blood donors! 🦸‍♂️

27/01/2026

🐱Everyone meet Phoebe🐱

🧬Little Phoebe was first refered to Team Oncology in January 2025 after she had developed a lump affecting her left eye. The lump grew quickly and was starting to close over her eye.🧬

💉Samples of the lump were taken and revealed that Phoebe had lymphoma.🔬

🤕By the time Phoebe atrived to us her left eye was completly shut and was weeping. Phoebe was always a very chatty catto but she was feeling a little subdued, but thankfully she was eating well.🫩

☢️Treatment options for Phoebe were radiation therapy or chemotherapy.☢️

💉Due limited availibility of radiation treatment centres we opted for chemotherapy for her.💉

💫So at the end of January 2025, we started a COP protocol. This involved the use of two chemotherapy agents along side a steroid.💫
✅️Week 1: Vincristine and cyclophosphamide
✅️Week 2: Vincristine only
✅️Week 3: Vincristine only
✅️Week 4: Vincristine and cyclophosphamide
✅️Every three weeks: Vincristine and cyclophosphamide.

🙌Over the weeks the lump grandually reduced in size, until disappearing completly, showing she was in remission from the disease, and she is back to her super sassy and sweet self 🙌

🎉🎉Last week Phoebe completed her ONE YEAR of treatment!🎉🎉

🤩Phoebe was a little rockstar for all of her treatments, even though she was a wiggly little worm!💖

💖Well done Phoebe💖

🎉Team Oncology love you Phoebe 💖(and those little love nips you very affectionatly gave us🫶) and we look forward to seeing you soon💪

27/01/2026

💖Everyone meet Lyla💖

🫂Lyla first came to visit Team Oncology in Sepember 2025 following a diagnosis of a mast cell tumour on her right hind leg.🫂

🧬The lump had been present for over a year and initial testing had shown that it was possibly a lipoma (fatty lump).🧬

💉But in August 2025 the lump started to grow and became harder. 🧬
🔬Repeat sampling showed that this was a mast cell tumour and Lyla was refered to us.🔬

💉Lyla initially had an ultrasound scan to allow us to take some samples of her liver, spleen, and the local/near by lymph nodes. All of these were sampled as these are where mast cell tumours like to metastasise (spread) to.💫

📝Results showed that there was spread to those local lymph nodes, but that her liver and spleen were clear.📝

✂️Lyla was then refered over to our surgery department to have the primary tumour removed, along with the afftected lymphnodes.✂️

🔬Further testing of the primary mass showed that it had been completly removed, so no need for further surgery or any treatment at the site. 🔬

💉But due to the spread to the lymph nodes it was recommended that Lyla undergo a course of chemotherapy.💉

🍪So once the would had all healed Lyla started her vinblastine chemotherapy protocol which involved one treatment per week for four weeks, then one treatment every two weeks for four more treatments.🍪

💖Lyla is the best girl and rocked her protocol! 💪

🙌Well done Lyla for completing the protocol🙌

🫶Team Oncology love you Lyla and look forward to seeing you soon for check ups 🫶

08/01/2026

💖Everyone meet Rocky!💖

🤩Rocky first came to visit Team Oncology in July 2025 following a referal from his primary care vets as they had diagnosed lymphoma.🧬

🩻We initially perfomed some radiographs/x-rays, an ultrasound of his abdomen and aquired more samples.🩸

📋This allowed us to get a full diagnosis of high grade B-cell multicentric lymphoma, and chemotherapy was recommended.🔬

📑We therefore started Rocky with a 25-week multidrug protocol involving 16 treatments. 💊

😇Rocky was a sweet perfect angel for all of his visits and we think he loved coming to visit us.... or maybe it was all the snacks🍪 he loved....💖

🥳We are very happy to report that Rocky completed his chemotherapy protocol today!🥳

😎Here he is proudly showing off his bandana and certificate, and also him having a nap during his last treatment 💤💤💤💤💤

💖We love you Rocky and look forward to seeing you soon for your check ups💖

30/09/2025

💖Everyone meet our very handsome boy, Apollo.💖

🧐Apollo was referred to Team Oncology in June 2025 following a diagnosis of a mast cell tumour at his primary care vet.🧬

🔬Given the diagnosis, we advised that Apollo should be fully staged, this allows us to get all the information on the tumour, and, if it has spread.🔬

🧐Therefore Apollo had a ultrasound scan to allow us to take needle aspirate samples of his liver, spleen, and lymph nodes.💉

🧬Unfortunatly, the results showed that there was mast cell tumour spread to one of his lymph nodes🧬.

🎉But thankfully, his liver and spleen were clear. 🎉

✂️This gave us essential information so surgery could be planned to remove the primary mass and the metastatic lymph node.✂️

💊Once Apollo was all healed from surgery we advised that he follow up with a course of chemotherapy.💊

🎉Today, Apollo completed his 3 month/8 treatment course of chemotherapy. 🎉

🧐We look forward to seeing Apollo soon for his restaging in a few weeks🔬

💖Here he is looking all smart and proud with his certificate and bandana.😎

💖We love you Apollo 💖

27/09/2025

🤩Everyone meet George🤩

🔬George was diagnosed with multicentric lymphoma by his primary care vet in May 2025.🔬

🤝He was then referred to Team Oncology to start his chemotherapy treatment.🤝

💤Due to George being very nervous at the vets, and requiring💤 sedation💤, we opted for less intense protocol involving a treatment every three weeks.💤

💉We decided on a multi-drug protocol involving epirubicin and Tanovea.💉

😔George received his first treatment with epirubicin, but unfortunately he was unwell with some gastrointestinal side effects afterwards.💩

😎Quality of life for our patients is the most important thing for us so with George being unwell afterwards we opted to discontinue ❌️ epirubicin ❌️ and continue with a single agent protocol of Tanovea.💉

🙌George received five treatments of Tanovea, without any complications, and completed his protocol on 17th September.🙌

🪅Samples of his lymph nodes were also checked, and this confirmed George was in remission.🪅

🧐George will come back to us monthly for us to check his lymph nodes!🧐

🙌Well done to George and his wonderful parents for getting through this protocol.🙌

🎂Here he is having a very well deserved chemotherapy completion - happy 4th birthday combi celebration!🎂

💖Team Oncology love you George💖

26/09/2025

Free educational event at Northwest Vet Specialists on Toxicities in dogs and cats - click the link for more info and to book🤩

🐾 FREE pet owner CPD evening 🐈‍⬛

Join Jess Herley, registered veterinary nurse and Veterinary Technician Specialist in Emergency and Critical Care, for a free educational evening.
Jess will discuss:
🍫 common toxins affecting cats and dogs
🙀 how to recognise signs of poisoning
🚑 what to do in an emergency

Food and refreshments are provided. You will get chance to tour our state-of-the-art veterinary hospital and meet other passionate pet owners.
🕧 Time: 6.45pm
🏥 Location: Northwest Veterinary Specialists. WA7 3FW
✉️ Reserve your place: email [email protected]

🌟 Spaces are limited - we'd love to see you there 🌟

25/09/2025