Natural gas exposure

Question
Hi, about 5 months ago My dog and I were exposed to high levels of natural gas for about 8 hours. There was a leak in my townhome. At the time of the exposure my dog did not have any normal side effects (heavy breathing etc...) Then approximately 2 months after that incident he was diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma. He was completely healthy prior to his checkup. The timing just seems to be to coincidental for me to ignore. Has there been any research or information pertaining to natural gas exposure and cancer in animals? Thankyou for your time and would greatly appreciate any feedback.

Answer
Hi Tommy,
This is a hard diagnosis to swallow, I agree. But it takes longer than 2 months to get to stage 4 lymphoma. It can lie dormant for a long time before showing up in the form of swollen lymphs. I don't know of any connection but it would seem likely that your dog would develop respiratory issues before he would get any other disorder.

I don't know how you could not smell this gas for 8 hours or even survive that long? It's a miracle that you both lived!

You can certainly do a search for this information online but I have no resources for that. Cancer in dogs seems to be getting worse and worse. A lot of people blame it on food and since many feed really low quality foods I can lean toward that explanation myself. My pets eat Science Diet only and live about 5-8 years past their normal life span and in excellent health. I had one cat live to be 19, a dog to be 16 and my last cat to 15. None of my pets have ever gotten cancer.

So you might want to investigate his food source and see if there is a connection there. Some breeds might be more prone to this type of cancer as well. Dogs in smoking households also get cancer more frequently then in non-smoking households.

Let me know if you find anything online. You might want to call the nearest veterinary teaching college near you and inquire from them as well.

I hope that your dog does well on whatever treatment he is on.