Dog’s headbutt saves VN’s life after uncovering tumour

A veterinary nurse’s life has been saved after a canine patient headbutted her in the chest, alerting doctors to an aggressive tumour.

RVN Angie Shaw, of Beechwood Veterinary Group’s Garforth surgery in Leeds, was helping turn over a Labrador retriever on the consult table during a heart scan when the dog knocked her in the chest, causing a lump to appear.

Shock diagnosis

When the lump caused by the accidental bump was still sore a week later, Mrs Shaw booked a GP appointment – only to be referred for scans and biopsies that revealed she had a fast-growing form of breast cancer.

Just 13 days later, Mrs Shaw had an operation at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds to remove the tumour, which had grown by 2mm from the date of her shock diagnosis to surgery.

Treatment

Without the Labrador retriever’s intervention, the tumour, due to its position, would have taken another 10 months to distort Mrs Shaw’s breast tissue and be detected. Mrs Shaw said her next mammogram wasn’t due for about 9 months – by which time the invasive grade 3 cancer would have been too advanced to be able to save her life.

After 6 rounds of chemotherapy, followed by 15 doses of radiotherapy that finished in December 2022, Mrs Shaw is celebrating being given the all-clear.

Lifesaver

Mrs Shaw, who has worked at Beechwood Vets for eight years, said: “When we turned him [the Labrador retriever] over, he headbutted me by my left breast, towards my breastbone. A decent-sized lump appeared. I left it for a week, but it was sore, so I got a doctor’s appointment the next day. I thought it was a cyst.

“When I was told that I would have to have surgery, chemotherapy and then radiotherapy, my whole world fell apart.

“The lump was purely coincidental and nothing to do with the cancer, but if the pet hadn’t headbutted me, the cancer wouldn’t have shown up for 9 to 10 months, by which point it would have spread. It would have been too late. That pet saved my life.”