After long sessions of chemotherapy, the muscles of animals can become weakened, and the effects of the cancer can harm their bodies. In order to help improve the animals' quality of life, walking on underwater treadmills can help rebuild their muscles.
The treadmill, along with other new medical equipment, will be installed in the nearly $13 million Center for Comparative Oncology, attached to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital.
Scheduled to open in late 2005, Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine Lonnie King said the 40,000-square foot building will serve animals with cancer, making MSU one of only several universities in the country with a veterinary oncology center.
"A lot of veterinary teaching schools have the capacity to treat cancer patients, but only three or four will have the facility we're building," King said. "It makes us one of the top teaching hospitals. It's a very elite group."
President-designate Lou Anna Simon said the cancer center improves the reputation of the College of Veterinary Medicine and MSU overall.
"In terms of the College of Veterinary Medicine, it puts the college in a leading position for animal care," Simon said. "It puts the university in a leading position in terms of really looking at the treatment of animals."
With rooms for surgery, chemotherapy, recovery and housing for animals who must stay for an extended period of time, the center is being built through donations and will operate with payments from the patients' owners.
King said many donated to the college because their animals' cancers were treated at MSU.
"Research we do with animals benefits our understanding of human medicine," King said.
Animals with cancer are currently being treated at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, where the cancer center, under the direction of Barbara Kitchell, is now located.
The current cancer center opened in January 2004.
Director of the hospital, Pat LeBlanc, said roughly 22,000 animals received care from the hospital last year - 1,000 of those for cancer. With the addition of the new center, he said they hope to increase the number of patients they can treat to 2,000.
"We're fighting cancer with a vim," LeBlanc said.
King said veterinarians refer animals to the center because they lack the equipment to treat cancer.
"What we're starting to see is people with pets are demanding specialized care just like they would get if they had cancer," King said.
Kitchell said people are willing to spend large amounts of money to treat their cats and dogs, and sometimes hedgehogs and ferrets, because they see them as members of the family.
"In human medicine, the emphasis is on maintaining life and there's sometimes only a small consideration of quality of life," Kitchell said. "We really have to put quality of life at a high premium with animals.
"Even if we can't cure the patient of cancer, our treatment goal is trying to keep the animal happy as long as we can."
Kitchell hopes they can increase this level of care in the new center.
"We're overflowing, seeing patients," Kitchell said. "It's going to be lovely when it opens."
