His dog saved his life when he discovered ovarian cancer

Stephanie Herfel felt pain in the abdomen and prescribed painkillers to relieve discomfort. However, his dog, a husky called Sierra, I knew something was happening to him and tried to alert his owner in the only possible way: get his attention.

In 2013, the husky felt the belly of its owner and acted very strangely. "He put his nose on my belly and sniffed so intensely that I thought he had spilled something on my clothes, he did it a second time, and then a third. Sierra went off and hidExplained the woman.

"To see her so frightened was scary," she said. After the reaction of her pet, the woman visited a gynecologist. A few weeks later, a blood test with an ultrasound informed him that I had stage 3C ovarian cancer, an advanced stage of the disease.

Herfel underwent a complete hysterectomy (removal of the uterus) and lost the spleen. He then underwent chemotherapy until April 2014.

At the end of the treatment, the dog had the same reaction twice: in 2015 and in 2016. In both cases, the cancer had returned, first in the liver and then in the pelvic area. Sierra had alerted her before the disease spread further. "I owe my life to this bitch, she really was a gift, she never cheated on me," said the woman.

Ovarian cancer

This is not among the most common among women though it is one of the most aggressive. In 75% of the cases in which she is diagnosed, the disease is in an advanced stage and there have even been metastases in other organs, as well as in the bads, such as the abdominal bowel or liver. For that is one of the deadliest there is.

It is a disease that does not cause symptoms when it is in its initial state, so the diagnosis is also complicated. Wife may have abdominal pain (as is the case for Stephanie) or in the pelvis and digestive discomfort such as distention, constipation, feeling of heaviness or difficulty eliminating gas, although these are not always the signs.

He put his nose on my belly and sniffled so intensely that I thought I had spilled something on my clothes. He did it a second time, then a third time. After the latter, Sierra left and hid

Now, Herfel does not suffer from illness and is taking daily oral chemotherapy treatment in a clinical trial, although he is asking for and taking care of him. if Sierra could smell cancer despite this treatment.

Sierra's ability is not a novelty, Other cases of dogs able to detect cancer have already been reported. For example, Blat is a cross between the Labrador Retriever and Pitbul that is part of an ambitious project promoted by the Clinical Hospital of Barcelona to improve the early detection of lung cancer because it is able to breathe a breath sample. a patient whether or not he has pathology.

The case of Bessie, a Border Collie bitch, who started behaving differently from her 2-year-old owner, Phillipa Woods, was also reported in 2016. The animal constantly smelled the baby and did not leave him alone a second. Before that, the parents took her to the doctor, who diagnosed her an early stage of an acute type of leukemia.