{"id":12379,"date":"2021-06-24T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qa.vet.purdue.edu\/news\/?p=12379"},"modified":"2025-12-02T09:17:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T14:17:40","slug":"pvr-s2021-chemotherapy-usually-intended-for-dogs-is-treating-a-red-foxs-lymphoma-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/pvr-s2021-chemotherapy-usually-intended-for-dogs-is-treating-a-red-foxs-lymphoma-2.php","title":{"rendered":"Chemotherapy Usually Intended for Dogs is Treating a Red Fox\u2019s Lymphoma"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Purdue University Veterinary Hospital<\/a> and Wolf Park Collaborate to Treat an Unusual Patient<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n
\n
\"Chris
The most rewarding part of Joker’s treatment for Dr. Chris Fulkerson, clinical assistant professor of veterinary medical oncology, has been seeing his tumors responding and watching him live his life as normal. (Purdue University photo\/John Underwood)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Purdue University Veterinary Hospital <\/strong>works with many patients across species. None are more unusual perhaps than Joker, a nine-year-old silver-phased red fox undergoing treatment for lymphoma. Joker resides at Wolf Park, a nonprofit conservation facility located in nearby Battle Ground, Ind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a routine medical check in November, his handler, Kimber Hendrix, noticed small tumors on his tongue. Wolf Park\u2019s veterinarian, Dr. Julia Becker (PU DVM ’99), sent a biopsy to the Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory<\/a> at the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine, where Joker was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma by Dr. Mario Sola (PU DVM 2014, MS 2018), assistant professor of diagnostic pathology. \u00a0Dr. Becker then referred Joker\u2019s case to Dr. Christopher Fulkerson (PU DVM 2010, MS 2014) clinical assistant professor of veterinary medical oncology in the College of Veterinary Medicine.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Fulkerson hadn\u2019t previously worked with a fox patient. He and his team couldn\u2019t find any literature about this type of lymphoma in foxes, so they are treating Joker based on a protocol often used for dogs with lymphoma. This chemotherapy protocol mainly uses chemotherapy pills, which the team thought was most likely to be well-tolerated and successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Dr. Fulkerson, Joker\u2019s behavior is similar to that of a dog. He is as wild as possible at Wolf Park, but is social and trained for medical procedures. \u201cHe\u2019s a really laid-back fox,\u201d Hendrix said. \u201cHe\u2019s a sweet guy to work with. He\u2019s a great animal ambassador.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Dr.
Dr. Chris Fulkerson treats Joker, a silver-phased red fox, at the Purdue University Veterinary Hospital. (Purdue University photo\/John Underwood)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Joker has been at Wolf Park since 2015, when he was rescued after being found under a porch. His laid back personality \u2013 accompanied with a knack of playing practical jokes on his den mate Scarlette \u2013 make him a favorite among visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To minimize his stress and anxiety, as many procedures as possible are conducted at Wolf Park. Since January, Dr. Fulkerson has been going to Wolf Park almost weekly to administer Joker\u2019s treatment and check his laboratory reports. On these days, Joker is rewarded with a special treat: an egg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joker responded well to chemotherapy. After a few weeks of treatment, his lymphoma was in partial remission, meaning most of the lesions had gone away or were substantially decreased in size. He continued to undergo chemotherapy treatments until mid-April. The hope is that over time, complete remission is achieved with the disappearance of all lesions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe follow his lab work really closely to make sure that the chemotherapy drugs aren\u2019t having any adverse effects on his white blood cell count. This drug can also cause liver injury, so we monitor his liver function and liver values. That all has been good throughout all the treatment, with no signs of obvious chemotherapy side effects,\u201d Dr. Fulkerson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In captivity, red foxes can live 12-14 years. Each day, Joker engages in training and enrichment with staff and volunteers, and he has plenty of energy to play with his enrichment objects. Hendrix said that even during treatment, he hasn\u2019t had any bad days.  He just recently celebrated his ninth birthday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Fulkerson said that the most gratifying and exciting part of Joker\u2019s treatment has been seeing his tumors responding and seeing him living his life as normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was wearing my mask because of COVID-19,\u201d he said of a recent visit, \u201cBut I told his handlers if they could have seen my face under it, I probably had one of the biggest smiles I\u2019d had in the last year just from seeing him frolicking around and being excited and happy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Chris
After a treatment at Wolf Park, Dr. Chris Fulkerson rewards Joker with his favorite treat: an egg. (Purdue University photo\/John Underwood)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Purdue has offset the cost of some of Joker\u2019s procedures with teaching funds. Joker\u2019s lymphoma already has been a good learning case for diagnostic imaging, oncology, and pathology.  Following Joker\u2019s progress may help with treatment of similar cases in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The remaining costs, as of now, have been fully funded through donations to Wolf Park, although more need may arise in the future if further treatment is necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hendrix said she\u2019s thankful that Wolf Park has been able to partner with Purdue on Joker\u2019s treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just really have loved the partnership that has blossomed between Wolf Park and Purdue throughout this,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019d love for there to be something that comes out of this to help other exotics so that people learn more about the progression of the disease, can help other animals under human care, and can do more for them. Anything that can be learned from his case would be wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Fulkerson agrees. He and his team plan to compile a case report on Joker so that this treatment option is documented to help other foxes diagnosed with lymphoma in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the great things about being at Purdue and being an academic veterinarian is that we can see some of these unusual things, we have some resources we can bring to help us learn about them, and then we can share that information with other veterinarians to help other patients in the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Purdue University Veterinary Hospital works with many patients across species. None are more unusual perhaps than Joker, a nine-year-old silver-phased red fox undergoing treatment for lymphoma. Joker resides at Wolf Park, a nonprofit conservation facility located in nearby Battle Ground, Ind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":11559,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,31,29,27],"tags":[97,1963,1960,1959,745,811,193,2027,196,560,62,1958],"class_list":["post-12379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-staff","category-hospitals","category-our-people","category-services","tag-cancer","tag-christopher-fulkerson","tag-fox","tag-joker","tag-oncology","tag-pvm-report","tag-service","tag-silver-phased-red-fox","tag-spring","tag-summer","tag-vcs","tag-wolf-park"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12379"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31823,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12379\/revisions\/31823"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}