Rex's battle with a poisonous spider bite - June-6-2011

In mid May I discover some faint discolorations on Rex's right thigh. It first looked like dirt which made sense since he falls down quite a bit. I tried to wipe it clean but it did not come off. It was so faint and hardly noticeable that I did not make too much of it, something that turned out to be a huge mistake.

Two weeks later I noticed a tiny hole in the middle of this area and a drop of blood came out. Again I thought he had fallen an punctured a small hole in his skin. I wiped the blood off and nothing else came out. A couple of days later I again saw blood dripping from this tiny hole. I called the vet and she told me to keep an eye on it for any changes.
A couple of days later I saw 3 more holes and small drops of blood. This  was a Saturday afternoon and I called the vet again. She asked me to come in on Monday so she could take a closer look. That Sunday evening it got much worse. While cleaning the area the skin broke between the holes. It was tin as paper. I then realized this is not good something is eating his flesh!
Monday morning we went to the vets office. They stitched up the ripped skin as best they could, took a tissue sample and sent that of to the lab. They suspected an insect bit or cancer.
I was pretty sure it was not cancer since Rex has been on B-17 for many years and I don't know of any dog or human that have gotten cancer while taking B-17. It will be a first.

Here is Rex after his surgery. The wound is stitched up and he's knocked out.

Digojo is back --- still going strong!

I forgot to mention this.....
This was my favorite story last year. Digojo (16) came here with a huge tumor in his mouth. The vet wanted to put him down. I talked the owner into waiting a few days and try something. I had a bottle of concentrated B17 (laetrile) and I told him this could help. Fortunately the owner was willing to try anything at this point. One month later Digojo was cancer free. You can read more about this amazing story here