Dog owner warns 'big stretch' could be an early sign of cancer

dailyrecord.co.uk:

One dog's seemingly innocuous 'big stretch'  turned out to be an early sign of cancer, one dog owner has heartbreakingly shared.

The woman behind the TikTok account @sweeteatate is urging people to take their pet to the vet 'immediately' if they suddenly start stretching in the 'downward dog' yoga pose.

The move will be familiar with those pups and whilst the position can 'mean nothing', one vet explained how to tell if, in some situations, the move is a sign something is wrong.In the video caption, user @sweeteatate wrote: "Really wish I would have caught this sooner. #cancer" Dr Anna Foreman, the in-house vet at Everypaw Pet Insurance, has commented on the viral video - which has now racked in 11,700 views - in order to ease the mind of worried owners, the Mirror reported.

She said: "Looking at the video, this dog is doing something called the 'prayer position’ (similar to the 'downward dog' yoga pose). "The prayer position is something we see in dogs who have abdominal pain, whether this be acute (such as involved in a gastric dilation or foreign body obstruction) or chronic (associated with masses in the abdomen or ongoing inflammatory processes)."Stretching out the abdomen can help briefly relieve pain, much like in humans when we eat a large meal."Lymphoma in dogs where we see 'lumps and weight loss' (as described in the article) tends to be sub-typed as multicentric lymphoma, a lymphoma which affects the lymph nodes around the body, some of which are in the abdomen."Diagnosis tends to come from palpation of superficial lymph nodes such as the popliteal (behind the knee) and axial (in the armpits) rather than a dog doing this prayer position, however the two are not mutually exclusive."Dr Foreman explains how