Cancer-sniffing Dog Saves Owner’s Life

By Queuebot in Animals & Pets on Feb 24, 2009 at 8:29 pm

Maureen Burns in Rugby, England has a 10-year-old mixed breed collie named Max who probably saved her life.  Max started actingly strangely, sniffing his owner’s breath and rubbing against her right breast. 

Mrs. Burns discovered a lump but it did not show up on a hospital mammogram.  She convinced doctors to do a biopsy and sure enough, the tumor was malignant. 

She’s had surgery to remove the lump, followed by radiation treatment, and her prognosis is excellent. Mrs. Burns is convinced that she is alive today because of her dog’s keen sense of smell.



“It was his peculiar reaction that alerted me to the fact that something was wrong. At first I thought he was just getting old, he was not so playful and his eyes were sad. He’d sniff my breath in an odd way — I even asked my husband Roger if I had halitosis.”
– Maureen Burns

Link – via arbroath

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Marilyn Terrell.


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  1. vonskippy
    Feb 24th, 2009 at 9:35 pm

    Great, now I have to have my crotch biopsied since my neighbor’s collie does that to me ALL the time.

  2. Lostfiniel
    Feb 24th, 2009 at 10:06 pm

    What they failed to notice is the owner’s new Beef-scented lotion!

    Animals are amazing. So is our amazement over them?

  3. Wings
    Feb 24th, 2009 at 11:36 pm

    How freaking awesome is that?!?

    GOOD doggy! Bet he gets premium food from here on out.

  4. chet
    Feb 25th, 2009 at 1:17 am

    not exactly new, but still neat. Here’s a national geographic article a few years back about training dogs to find cancers:
    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/08/0820_040820_detectordo gs.html

    I can’t find the link, but a few years back there was also a cat that predicted who would be the next to die at a nursing home.

  5. jodie
    Feb 25th, 2009 at 1:49 am

    @ vonskippy. good one.

  6. mad_max
    Feb 25th, 2009 at 9:52 am

    I’m having difficulties understanding the link between cancer and a certain body odor. How would breast cancer somehow give off a certain smell? And how the hell would the dog know that it was her breast that was cause of the smell? I’m thinking that this was just a coincedence.

  7. whitcwa
    Feb 25th, 2009 at 12:38 pm

    Count me crazy(or is it angry?), because I agree with Mad Max. Dogs can be trained to detect cancer, but they haven’t got xray vision. Not yet, anyway.

  8. Johnny Cat
    Mar 8th, 2009 at 2:08 pm

    Dogs are amazing prognosticators and sniffers of things undetectable to our lowly senses. Ever heard of seizure sniffing dogs? Seems impossible, but they can detect a seizure moments before it strikes an unsuspecting human.

  9. delicious
    Apr 10th, 2009 at 12:29 am

    this bitch comes from an amazing breed. just look at its warm and healthy coat. she is sure to win best in show. Look, she can do tricks too… why right now she’s wear a pair of glasses.


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