The surgical animal

He kept sniffing my right breast for a whole five daysrdquo a 62yearold lawyer friend said to me about her Labrador Oscar as she narrated the story of how she discovered she had cancer ldquoHe even on occasion dug his snout into my bosom to tell me something was amissrdquoOscar had been with her for the past eight years after the unexpected death of her husband She had no children and he was given priority over everything including her highprofile clients who came to consult her at the home office she worked out of Oscar was always aroundmdashattending meetings briefings and the mediations that took place in the officemdashand if anyone had a problem with him they were explicitly told that they had the choice to leave ldquoMy dog knows more law than you dordquo she had once told a client who requested for the hound to be taken to another room while discussing a sensitive matterldquoSo for the first few days I simply passed it off as him being hornyrdquo she said in her usual unruffled style ldquoBut he would not let people get close to me and suddenly became very clingy I could not understand what was going onrdquoldquoThis can happen with pets if you change their routine or they are unwell themselves if they canrsquot see or hear properlyrdquo I interjected having heard a few such stories ldquoBut did you check for a lump could you feel one in your breast at allrdquoldquoNo I couldnrsquot feel onerdquo she exclaimed gesturing animatedly ldquoI could only confirm that there was something after I went to my doctor and he pointed it outrdquo The mammogram showed it was the size of a pea and she went ahead and had the growth surgically removed while it was still in infancy This required her to be only on oral chemotherapy which she has been tolerating without any side effects and she is currently in remissionldquoHe really deserves an Oscar for all the drama he created in making you aware of this and prodding you to get diagnosedrdquo I told her ldquoBest male actor in a supporting rolerdquo she acceded with a gratified laugh now that this was all behind herDogs have a sense of smell that is several hundred thousand times stronger than that of humans It helps them detect various chemicals that the body emits when a person is ill imagine what bad body odour must do to them With astounding accuracy a canine can smell lung cancer on someonersquos breath pinpoint a mammary tumour or detect bladder or prostate cancer in someonersquos urine If your pet is paying special attention to certain parts of your anatomy itrsquos time you do the sameSome dogs can detect epileptic seizures 3040 minutes before they occur They can sniff out the odour of a seizure or may be picking up an energy frequency or vibration that the human emits prior to a seizure Science can only prove what it knows but animals know so much more There are organisations that provide service dogs for people with epilepsy and in several cases this has been lifesaving the reactions exhibited by these dogs before the onset of a seizure has given epileptics valuable timemdashtime to take their medication which prevents or reduces the severity of the seizure and time to move somewhere safer where an injury is less likely to occurBased on this research scientists are trying to build electronic noses that are as powerful as their canine counterparts As of now however enoses are not nearly half as effective Dogs have also been able to diagnose the Coronavirus with greater than 95 per cent accuracy and in some countries they are used to screen patients at airports and railway stations In our country they ought to be trained to bite those carrying fake RTPCR test results to travelAs part of the Zoroastrian funeral rituals a dog is brought near the dead body to confirm that the individual is truly dead before they are carried away It also could be that we Parsis donrsquot trust our doctors fully and need to wait for one final lsquolabrsquo result It is also believed that a dogrsquos gaze is considered to be purifying and drives off demons The bridge to heaven our scriptures say is guarded by dogsI recently went for a trek with a bunch of friends The moment we got out of our car a handsome German Shepherd appeared at the foot of the hill the kind whose shaggy neck you couldnrsquot help but jiggle in your palms He was black brown and golden and had decided to hike with us as if he was instructed to by some higher power Sometimes he led the way and other times he walked behind but he never left my side He growled at others at the edge of the cliff to secure our path I wondered if he was sent to protect and guide us and I felt a deep connection with him We fell in love instantly It felt as if a part of my soul was awakenedBut this dog kept doing something strange He kept sniffing my backside Intermittently After these recent stories I had come across I wondered if he was detecting rectal cancer and I freaked out my mindrsquos eye imagining myself post surgery and radiation sitting with a colostomy jutting out of my abdomen until it dawned on me that the dog was really only after the scrumptious chicken sandwiches in my bag packThe moment we reached the top he wolfed them all instantly demystifying all the spiritual significance I had given him so far In his language I guess I was barking up the wrong treeAnimals speak to us all the time Itrsquos we who need to evolve to understand what they are telling usThe writer is practicing neurosurgeon at Wockhardt Hospitals and Honorary Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at Grant Medical College and Sir JJ Group of Hospitals