This Little Piggy BTHO Breast Cancer
Story by Rachel Knight, VMBS Marketing & Communications
If Miss Piggy had a doppelganger, it would be Molly, a potbellied pig who enjoys dressing for the occasion, being in everybody’s business, and spending time with the people and animals she loves.
When Molly began shying away from the things that bring her joy, Amanda Wallis, Molly’s owner, knew something was wrong. Then, Wallis found a small growth on Molly’s belly and wondered if that might be the source of her sudden change in personality.
When the small growth started growing rapidly, Wallis knew Molly needed veterinary help and called the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital (VMTH). In the end, it took help from veterinarians in both the large and small animal hospitals to save Molly’s life.
A Special Mentor For A Special Swine
“She’s the sweetest pig,” Wallis said. “She’s very friendly with people and she listens well. She’s not your typical pig who wants to sleep, eat, and, for the most part, be left alone. She follows me around and is into whatever task I’m doing. She’s very active, and when the doorbell rings, she thinks it’s for her because she knows she’s a star. That’s all because of how she was raised.”
Molly was originally adopted by Wallis’ cousin Danielle as a young piglet.
“I think Molly learned to be very friendly from Danielle,” Wallis said. “My cousin had a big family — seven kids, plus her and her husband — so Molly grew up in a very active environment.”
Wallis said Molly quickly began to mirror Danielle’s outgoing personality, and the rest of the family took notice, soon seeing Molly as a piece of Danielle.
“Molly was Danielle’s baby. She always wanted a pig, and when she got Molly, Molly quickly became her eighth child,” Wallis explained. “The feeling was mutual. Molly loves everyone, but her favorite person was Danielle.”
One Year, Two Illnesses
When Danielle was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome — a condition in which the body’s immune system attacks the nerves, causing weakness, numbness, or paralysis — she knew her time with Molly would be cut short.
“She was dying, and she wanted to find homes for all of her animals,” Wallis said. “Because I already had my potbellied pig named Bacon, she asked me to take care of Molly. I said yes without hesitation.”
Danielle continued to visit and have FaceTime calls with Molly, but her disease progressed quickly and she passed away in 2020. About a year after Danielle’s death, Wallis noticed the small growth on Molly’s belly.
“I kept a closer eye on her and the growth, and, suddenly, the growth kept getting bigger and bigger within just a few weeks,” Wallis shared. “I knew she was sick and I knew she had to go to the vet, so I called the VMTH at Texas A&M. I was like, ‘I cannot lose this pig. You guys have to save her.’”
Wallis — who has been bringing her animals to the VMTH for several years — knew that Molly needed the collaborative, specialized care that the Texas A&M veterinarians offer.
“We only use the Texas A&M vet hospital because I like that it is a one-stop shop,” Wallis said. “We don’t get that in Austin. It is worth the two-hour drive for me to know that my animals are getting the best care available.”
Fighting Cancer With Texas A&M Veterinary Excellence
At the VMTH, Molly was placed under the care of Dr. Shannon Reed, a clinical associate professor at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences and Molly’s long-term veterinarian.
“When Amanda brought Molly to us for the mass, it looked more like a small bump under the skin, so we took a small sample of the mass to help us diagnose it,” Reed explained. “The results came back, and Molly was diagnosed with a mammary carcinoma, which in humans is commonly referred to as breast cancer.”
Once the veterinary team knew what they were fighting, they worked with Wallis and Molly to develop an appropriate care plan that included help from veterinary oncologists Drs. Emma Warry and Michael Deveau and veterinary radiologist Dr. Jay Griffin.
“She completed five rounds of radiation to shrink the tumor and then had surgery to remove the cancer,” Reed explained. “Because cancer travels through the lymphatic system, we removed the mammary gland that included the original bump as well as the mammary glands directly above and below the affected gland that shared lymphatic tissue. We sent the glands off for histopathology, and the results let us know that we had successfully removed Molly’s cancer.”
Molly completed her cancer treatment and rechecks every six months for about two years. She was recently determined to have officially beaten — or as Texas A&M Aggies tend to say, beat the hell out of (BTHO) — cancer.
The Cancer Free Life
Thanks to teamwork between the Large and Small Animal Teaching Hospitals, the VMTH regularly helps large-animal patients BTHO cancer, Reed explained. However, mammary gland cancer treatment for pigs like Molly is a relatively undocumented disease.
“There isn’t as much literature on mammary gland cancer in pigs as there is in other species,” Reed explained. “This is partially because the majority of pigs don’t make it to an age where we typically see these kinds of diseases popping up. Pigs also have a unique mammary gland pattern. They’re not like cats and dogs or even humans. When helping patients like Molly, we work very collaboratively. This helps us inform treatment plans with knowledge from experts on treating specific animals, fighting cancer, and preventing and addressing complications that may result from intense treatment plans like those required to beat cancer.”
Thanks to her Texas A&M veterinary team, Molly is whole hog on the spotlight once again.
“She is back to her normal, crazy self,” Wallis shared. “She is just as busy as ever. Nothing slows her down. She still runs across the yard and does her pig zoomies and soaks up all the attention we can possibly give her. She was at Texas A&M for several months when she was fighting her cancer, and it made our house feel empty. Now that she’s back, she’s healed and back to her old self. I tell everybody, ‘Go to Texas A&M; they saved my girl.’”
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For more information about the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, please visit our website at vetmed.tamu.edu or join us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Contact Information: Jennifer Gauntt, Director of VMBS Communications, Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, jgauntt@cvm.tamu.edu, 979-862-4216
