It depends on several things. Sometimes we can figure out what type of cancer a dog has based on a fine needle aspirate, where I stick a needle into a tumor, for instance, and look at it under the microscope. Certain tumors are relatively easy to diagnose that way, like a mast cell tumor in the skin is an easy one to diagnose that way. We can diagnose some of them in the office. For others, we take a biopsy sample. We take a little piece or the whole tumor in some cases and send that to the laboratory. A veterinary pathologist looks at them and does histopathology and gives us that diagnosis.

It is with many types of cancer. It depends on the type of cancer, but with certain tumors like mast cell tumors, we can remove them. Depending on the location of sarcomas, we can remove them. Many times, those are curative surgeries. Surgery is often an excellent option for many different types of cancers— not all of them, but many of them.

Yes, there have been. We do chemotherapy as they do in humans and they do radiation therapy like they do in humans. There have been all kinds of neat immunotherapy or antibody therapy advancements where you have antibodies that can attack the tumors. There's been a lot of advancements in cancer that weren't available 20 years ago.

That's hard to say because it depends on the type of tumor. I don't know that we have an answer for that. There are certain tumors like sarcomas, for instance, that tend to be a little more locally aggressive. If we were able to surgically remove them, that would be a high cure rate for that type of tumor. Then there are other tumors like bone tumors that are extremely aggressive, and we don't cure the dog. We make them feel comfortable for an extended time, sometimes with remote amputations and things like that.

Dog cancer can be cured. It depends on the type of tumor, its location, and other things like that. As far as chronic diseases go, there's a number of them in dogs, cats, any animal. Cancer is the most likely to be cured or have a reasonable treatment.

The biggest thing is figuring out what the best laser therapy plan is for your pet. And every pet is different. Maybe you have a hunting dog where you set up laser therapy sessions after a big hunt with your dog and help provide any muscle soreness and provide some relief there. Maybe you have an older pet who has arthritis and would benefit from laser therapy, or maybe your dog has an ear infection. And those ears could benefit from laser therapy. So the best thing to do is talk to your vet about what's going on with your pet, and they can help you figure out the best plan.

No, it is not painful at all. And laser therapy can decrease your pet's pain. It can trigger acupressure points that provide musculoskeletal relief as well as blocking nerve receptors to reduce pain.