Toby - time flies!

Toby, 12 years 5 months old

Toby (Ch. Varazs Tobias Barat FDJ) is from our 2001 litter between our Abby and Cyrus (Am CH Voros Vadasz Cyrus Barat MH ROM).  He turned 12 years old in February and his owner, Kris, sent me this photo of Toby taken this summer (2012).  I haven't seen Toby since he and Kris moved out to British Columbia several years ago.  I handled Toby to his Championship.  He's a wonderful dog with a great temperament.

Toby has had some mast cell tumours which have been diligently removed and another was recently found on his ear flap with another lump found near his anus.  Kris called me this week to discuss the situation and was fearing the worst.  A couple of days ago, Kris got great news as an x-ray showed no signs of cancer internally - in fact the vet was very impressed with how things looked internally - we should all be so lucky!! And the lump near his anus is benign.  Both lumps will be removed next week; unfortunately part of Toby's ear flap has to be removed in order to get clean margins around the mast cell tumor site.  Kris isn't very happy about this but I tried to help him put things in perspective.  Toby is a good age for a Vizsla and while he won't look as handsome with part of an ear, his quality of life is  very good and if the vet is right, he should be around for a while longer. And it won't interfere with his abilities or movement. Removing part of an ear flap is not as drastic as, say, amputating a limb which is what I had to do with one of my Vizslas.  That was really tough.  But as they say, "God gave dogs 3 legs and an extra."  God gave us two ears too; maybe one is an extra.

Toby at around 10 days of age

6 months old

3 months old

I urged Kris to have Toby participate in the pilot research project on Mast Cell Tumours in Vizslas and he has agreed.  These are the most common type of tumours in dogs according to some statisticians and they were worrisome enough for the Vizsla Club of America to initiate a pilot research project into this cancer.  A few of the dogs I've owned and bred have had them but since this is a brand new project, we didn't have an opportunity to participate.  It's hoped that one day, the gene for this disease will be mapped.

Thanks Kris for being another great owner of a Varazs-bred dog! And here's to Toby and to several more years of being a terrific Vizsla companion to Kris and his 7-year old son who both love Toby dearly.