Support Rogue's Battle Against Cancer

Last March (2024), Rogue ripped off her toenail, which called for an emergent vet visit. While there, our vet used her super instincts and insisted doing a respiratory work up on Rogue- including an xray which showed us that Rogue had nodules in her lungs. Our vet gave us some resources, asking if Rogue (10 years old at the time) would be appropriate to consider for chemotherapy. Rogue was a healthy dog- the only other problem they saw was she was a little fluffy which could be related to her hypothyroid. Rogue was a good candidate.

I reached out to UW Madison and got Rogue scheduled for an appt where they did extra imaging and found she had abnormalities in the spleen, liver, and a primary mass on her kidney. (The spleen showed enlargement, which the vet informed us if it was an aggressive type of blood cancer, we could have little to 2 weeks with Rogue). The vets were optimistic that we did however catch this early despite the results.

After biopsies, the spleen was negative for any kind of cancer (thank god), and luckily the liver just showed “abnormalities” of “changes”.

So, what we knew for sure: the cancer had metastasized to the lungs, and was primarily on the kidney. The vet suggested trying a pill form of chemotherapy that should help prevent the growth of the tumors.

Rogue was on the oral chemo medication for more than a year. In May 2025, we had noticed Rogue having increased breathing problems. Hoping it was just allergies, we got an earlier appointment to be told that the cancer is progressing. They found a mass on her thyroid, which made us suspect maybe it was there the whole time and it was something we missed.

After a sit down with the oncologist, she suggested the next step- palliative care (where we just let Rogue be comfortable), we could continue with chemotherapy (an IV form this time), or the option for radiation to help freeze and prevent the growth of the tumor(s).

At another crossroad, I figured that radiation was off the table. In April, our other dog started to experience seizures, causing us to take him to the Neurologist. They put him on seizure medications, suggesting an MRI, spinal tap and more neurological work up to diagnose what could either be a rare neurologic problem, or a tumor. My spouse looked up radiation options, and for a tumor in the brain- the pricing for radiation, as well as the effect on the body was not feasible. Hoping for a miracle, we are praying that the medicine will continue to help the seizures and our boy will continue to do well. This made me feel hesitant at even looking up radiation for Rogue, but after some talking with the oncologist, she once again assured Rogue was a good candidate & it wouldn’t be as costly or invasive as it would be on the brain. This has given us new hope for treatment for Rogue.

Our oncologist applied for funding, in which Rogue was awarded enough money to get the next step in our voyage, a CT scan. With the CT scan we will know more about placement, size & how effective treatment would be. Unfortunately she is not a surgical candidate but with radiation & IV chemo therapy we are hoping to continue this fight with our girl. She is otherwise healthy for an eleven year old & has a lot of life & fight left in her.