Animal Success Stories
In the Spotlight
Over the years, many of UC Davis veterinary hospital’s patients have been featured in national and international news coverage. Their success stories were made possible by the dedicated teams of clinicians, staff and students who provide compassionate care on a daily basis.
Kabang
Kabang, a shepherd mix dog, was brought to UC Davis from the Philippines in October 2012 for surgery to repair massive facial wounds caused when her snout was torn from her face after being hit by a motorcycle. Sources claim she ran into the motorcycle to save two children in her family. With insufficient local veterinary care to treat her extensive injuries, Kabang was brought to UC Davis, where it was also discovered that she had heartworm disease and a type of infectious cancer. Treatment for both was necessary before her facial wounds could be addressed. She stayed with local caregivers and was successfully treated at UC Davis until June 2013. Kabang’s story was a worldwide phenomenon, covered by more than 1,000 media outlets on six continents.
Irish Streetsinger
In 2016, Thoroughbred Irish Streetsinger showed lameness while training. She became one of the first horses scanned using positron emission tomography (PET), an imaging technology pioneered at UC Davis. The PET scans picked up injuries not seen on other forms of diagnostic imaging, helping to better plan treatment and recovery procedures. By late 2017, Irish Streetsinger returned to racing, winning at Golden Gate Fields in 2018. Her journey was covered by Equine Chronicle, HorseTalk and other horse health publications.
Mayson
During the 2019 Camp Fire that devastated Paradise, California, Mayson the tabby cat panicked and escaped from his carrier and owner during a frantic evacuation. A week later, his owner saw his picture in a Facebook post from UC Davis veterinary school trying to identify owners of dozens of other injured cats that had been brought to the hospital for care. The Today Show featured a video of the joyful reunion between him and his owner. Their story was covered in the Washington Post, BuzzFeed News, the Huffington Post, CBS News, Yahoo News, and The Dodo among hundreds of other media outlets. Fortunately, Mayson recovered fully from burns to his paws.
Pickles
In 2017, Pickles the potbellied pig needed a blood transfusion to survive. His owner turned to the internet and found a 450-pound pig for sale, which she promptly bought and arranged for immediate transport to UC Davis. Following multiple transfusions and intensive care, Pickles survived. The donor pig was named Tickles, and the story of “How Tickles Saved Pickles” (now a children’s book) went viral. A frenzy on social media, the story also became a national hit on CBS News.
Madonna
In 2018, UC Davis veterinarians performed surgery on Madonna the koi to remove a softball- sized tumor from her abdomen. The tumor was nearly half the fish’s total body weight. Madonna recovered at the university for several weeks before returning to her home pond. Veterinary Practice News ran a feature article on the procedure, and the Times of San Diego published the news as part of a larger spread on fish surgeries.
Vanilla Bean
In 2015, several UC Davis clinicians collaborated on an extremely rare heart surgery on Vanilla Bean. Blood flow through the cat’s heart chambers was restricted and needed correction. The case truly highlighted UC Davis’ collaborative and compassionate care, as well as the value of being treated at a large research university’s teaching hospital. The New York Times and CBS News took notice, as did dozens of local newspapers and television newscasts from around the country.
Cinders
Following California wildfires in 2017, UC Davis veterinarians started treating burned animals with a novel approach pioneered by physicians in South America—covering their wounds with tilapia fish skin as a biological bandage. Collagen in the fish skin—sutured to an animal’s burns—hastens healing. Its first use on bears and mountain lions was covered by Reuters, ABC News, and NPR, prompting the team to be summoned to England in 2018 to treat a horse dubbed Cinderella or “Cinders” for short, whose face was burned by acid. The story became national news on the BBC and dozens of other English media. The procedure would later be used to treat a dog in Alaska (2019), marsupials in Australia (2020), and a total of 13 species worldwide.
Regrowing Bones
Little more than a decade has passed since a collaborative research team at UC Davis pioneered the use of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) to regrow sections of canine jawbones due to trauma or removal of cancerous tumors. The team, comprised of veterinary surgeons and biomedical engineers, expanded the early technique and have now successfully regrown a full mandibular arch as well as areas of a leg bone. The following dogs represent four of approximately 100 cases to date.
Whiskey
In 2012, Whiskey was one of the first dogs in the world to have a section of his mandible regrown using bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) to stimulate new growth. The procedure, pioneered and exclusively performed at UC Davis, stimulates the remaining jawbone to grow new bone cells, eventually filling the entire removed section (due to injury or disease— cancer in Whiskey’s case) and integrating with the native bone. Whiskey was featured in the New York Times, as well as many veterinary publications and California newscasts.
Frankie
In 2012, a severely injured terrier was found by campers in the woods of Northern California. Upon arrival at UC Davis, veterinarians found three fractures in a paw, a gunshot wound fracture of his mandible, several gunshot pellets in his face, a healed injury to his cornea, and cataracts in both eyes. Dental surgeons used BMP to regrow his nearly shattered jaw. After cataract surgery restored his sight and his other injuries healed, the lucky pup found a new forever home and was named Frankie. His long journey back to health was featured in an extensive Los Angeles Times feature on the UC Davis veterinary hospital.
Hoshi
In 2013, Hoshi the collie traveled from Montana to UC Davis to become one of the first dogs to have a full mandible arch regrown using the BMP procedure. Previous success with BMP allowed for the procedure to be expanded to more than just small sections of the jawbone. Cancer caused most of Hoshi’s lower jawbone to be removed, but since there was still healthy bone on each far side, the entire arch was regrown. Hoshi’s hometown veterinarian was delighted to read her story in Veterinary Practice News.
Ethel
Following the success of BMP to regrow jawbones, the procedure was used on Ethel’s broken leg in 2018. The 2-year-old Yorkshire terrier severely fractured her right ulna and radius, and several surgeries failed to heal the injuries. While UC Davis surgeons estimated there was only a 1% chance to save the leg, the BMP procedure worked, and Ethel walked again after several months of hospitalization. DVM360 chronicled Ethel’s case, stating BMP “works wonders.”