So, when we decided to start taking care of this weird little animal in September we had no idea that she had a viral form of cancer.

We wanted to get her checked out health-wise but didn’t really know where to turn until we heard about WAG (facebook / website), an organization that helps rescue street dogs & finds foster parents or forever-homes for them. Before we could bring the doggo in, we needed a leash and tick/flea treatment to ensure she wouldn’t transmit anything to the other dogs in the compound there. We noticed that the dog seemed to have an infection in her nether-regions but we didn’t want to take too close of a look. Flea treatment accomplished, I walked over to WAG to introduce the as-yet-nameless animal to the owner to see if she had any recommendations.

Immediately it became clear that something was very, very wrong with this little dog’s butt/under-tail area. After taking a quick look, WAG told me that it’s very likely she had TVT - “transmittable venereal tumor” - in other words, Dog Cancer. This is a sexually transmitted disease that has been around for over 12,000 years and is indeed the oldest type of cancer in existence.

WAG recommended us to a) get the dog properly cleaned by one of their specialists, a very nice man named Pacific, and b) get in touch with a veterinarian living and working in Musanze who could likely get treatment for the cancer. Her name was Dr. Arum* and her husband, Joost, was working for the Gorilla Doctors, an organization that administered medical care to the endangered mountain gorillas when needed. They had a supply of animal grade chemotherapy that could be administered intravenously to the dog and all I needed to do was arrange transport up there - they’d do the treatment for $40 USD.

People living in so-called first-world nations: TAKE THAT IN. Cancer treatment for $40.

Treatment #1

After the dog was cleaned WAG helped me find a driver who could take me and the dog up to Musanze - an approximately 3.5 hr drive north into the Volcanoes area - and off we went. Not knowing whether the dog had ever been in a car before we put her in the back of the vehicle, where she was pretty good until about midway when she barfed all over the back. The driver was totally nonplussed and we kind of scraped the barf out with an old piece of cardboard and put down a towel. What else can be done? *shrug*

When I arrived at Gorilla Doctors in Musanze, Joost and Dr. Arum gave the dog an anesthetic and shaved her arm before putting in the IV. The anesthetic made her sick and she barfed, but luckily animal doctors are prepared for that and had a supply of old towels. The treatment took approximately 5 minutes total, after which they gave the dog another needle to wake her up and we waited to see if there were any ill effects. Dr. Arum said that this was the largest tumor she had ever seen and anticipated it would take more than a few visits to fully eliminate the cancer. She said that after the first treatment we should wait a week, then check to see if the tumor had gone down. We could then arrange another visit to give another dose of Chemo, or, if that wasn’t working, think about surgery (more expensive and complicated).

They mentioned that the dog might have loss of appetite or be more tired, but neither of those things appeared to happen. We agreed to keep in touch and back we went into the car for the 3.5hr return to Kigali.

Treatments #2-4

After just a week the infection had cleared up dramatically. No longer oozing blood and openly exposed to dirt, the dog’s hoohah was looking a lot better. Still, we could see the tumor was still there (though it had shrunk by about 50% after the first week!) so over the next 5 weeks we returned to Musanze about every 1-2 weeks for another cancer treatment, borrowing friends’ cars to do so. The drive up there is totally gorgeous, so with every trip up we got more and more familiar with the beautiful landscapes of the region.

To give ourselves a break between driving up, getting the treatment, and driving back down we stopped for coffee & sandwiches at La Paillotte in Musanze.

The Naming of the Dog

During this time we finally came up with a name for the dog - we decided to call her Keza. In Kinyarwanda, ‘keza’ means ‘pretty’ and that’s what everyone would say when they saw her on the street (if they weren’t jumping away in fear). It’s usually a name for a little girl so Rwandans thought it was really funny that we named a dog this but we felt it fit her perfectly.

We ended up going to Musanze 4 times in total, and then for the last chemo treatment Joost and Dr. Arum happened to be in Kigali. The tumor was by that time only a tiny fraction of its original size and Keza was leading a pretty normal life in our new house in Rugando.

By the end of November, Keza was cleared of all cancer and the total cost for treatment was $200 USD.

Once she was declared cancer free we could give her other vaccinations needed (rabies, kennel cough, etc.) and also arrange to get her spayed. She started growing back her hair over time, and now I can update with a 1 year progress photo - look at the difference in tail, overall body fluffs and coloring!!