Dog sniffs out owners brain tumor?

Steve Werner suspected his health was in trouble even before his golden retriever, Wrigley, started sniffing around. His symptoms were vague back in June - occasional ringing in his ears, a general feeling of unease. His doctor couldn't pinpoint a problem. Tests came back negative.
Then in July, Wrigley his dog started to behave strangely. Every day when Werner would curl up next to his beloved canine at his Brentwood home, she would turn, focus on his right ear and sniff doggedly.

"I thought it was just a friendly sniff," Werner said. "But after four or five days, I realized she seemed to be focusing on something. At some point, I noticed she was always sniffing at the opening of my right ear. She would set herself up and intently smell my ear."

One day, Werner was watching TV when a feature about cancer-sniffing dogs grabbed his attention. What he heard propelled him back to his doctor's office.

An MRI of Werner's head revealed a brain tumor the size of a pingpong ball that had spread into the inner canal of Werner's right ear - the very ear Wrigley had been sniffing persistently.

Werner, 40, had a rare nonmalignant tumor called acoustic schwannoma. If not caught in time, it could have caused a stroke or permanent facial paralysis. He underwent surgery in Los Angeles in February to remove it and has been recuperating at home.

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