Dog Cancer Treatments

“Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.” -Roger Caras

Your dog has cancer. What are you going to do?

Weighing Options

The first possible choice is to do nothing at all at this point. You could wait until your pet’s suffering has reached an intolerable level and then bring his or her life to a close. Another option is to euthanize your dog immediately. I would not recommend either of these courses of action or inaction. No matter how advanced the cancer is, even if there are only weeks left, there are things you can do that can quickly reverse the disease process and greatly extend your dog’s life. Simply switching to healthy food, for example, can produce rapid and dramatic results.

As part of making this decision, you may want to consider what the normal life expectancy of your dog is. Life expectancy depends on many things and varies greatly. Just as with humans, no one can accurately predict how long a dog will live. Generally, dogs weighing under twenty pounds live 15-18 years while giant-breed dogs have the shortest life spans – 6-9 years. You can look up the average life expectancy of your dog’s breed by performing an internet search, such as “(your dog’s breed) life expectancy.”

If your dog has a tumor and surgery is an option, you should go for that intervention right away, as long as the risks and costs are acceptable to you. Although it won’t guarantee a cancer-free future, the advantage of cutting out the present manifestation of disease without delay is obvious. Once the tumor has been removed, you can – and must – follow up with further treatment protocols to prevent a recurrence. Even though he or she may appear healthy, you cannot be certain that s/he has been permanently cured as the cause of the cancer has still not been addressed.

Whether or not surgery is an option for you, there are some crucial decisions you will need to make without delay.

The first is: are you going to opt for conventional or non-conventional treatment? Conventional treatment includes interventions like chemotherapy, radiation, and pharmaceuticals, all of which are prescribed by a veterinarian. Non-conventional treatment focuses on nutrition, supplements, stress reduction, and other modes of holistic healing. These may be provided by specialist practitioners – or by you, on the basis of personal research.

The factors you would consider in making this choice include cost, effectiveness, quality of life issues, practicality, and assumptions. Let’s address these one by one.

Cost

The following chart compares the estimated costs of conventional treatment and those of the non-conventional treatment outlined in this book. Any costs that would be incurred no matter which option you chose (e.g., follow-up veterinary visits) are omitted here. The figures below should be taken as rough guides only; actual costs will depend on many individual and local factors.

Estimated Dog Cancer Treatment Costs (6 months)

Conventional	Non-Conventional
Radiation $2,000 – $6,000	Food $900*
Chemotherapy $2,000	Supplements $300 – $800
Pain Medication $240
Antibiotics, other meds $240
Total $4,480 -$8,480	Total $1,200 – $1,700

* Estimated cost of upgrading from standard commercial pet food to high-quality food.

Effectiveness

In assessing effectiveness, one must be alert to the way terminology is used by veterinarians. In vet speak, a dog with lymphoma is considered “cured” by conventional treatment if it survives eight months. That means that even if the cancer returns in nine months, the treatment is considered successful and a cure. Less than 20% of dogs who receive conventional treatment live for two years.

So, when you hear that a certain treatment has an 80% success rate, take it with a grain of skeptical salt. That claim is not a guarantee that your dog will live out its normal life expectancy or even live for more than eight months. Though different cancers vary in their treatment outcomes, conventional treatment rarely produces what you and I would recognize as a definitive, lasting cure.

With the non-conventional treatment I gave my dog Fergie, she lived for an additional two years, four months, and eighteen days. The vet had given her only 4-6 weeks. Unfortunately, there are few studies that show survival rates for dogs that receive unconventional treatments. Many honest vets will tell you, however, that they have seen amazing results from such treatment.

Quality of Life

Among the side effects your dog may experience with chemotherapy are:

• Decreased appetite, vomiting, and diarrhea, sometimes requiring hospitilization;
• Drop in white blood cell count, increasing susceptibility to infection;
• Hair loss

Additional medications are usually required to treat the above side effects which may further compromise the immune system.

Possible side effects of radiation include:

• Hair loss;
• Radiation burn, which resembles a blistering sunburn;
• Inflammation of mucus membranes when the gums; tongue, cheeks, throat, or similar tissue is a target of the radiation (e.g., with nasal or oral tumors). The mucosa may ulcerate or blister;
• Foul-smelling breath (halitosis);
• Drooling;
• Difficulty eating. A small dog could require a feeding tube if a large portion of the mouth is in the target area;
• Dry eye or irritation of the cornea if the eyes are in the target area. Irreversible cataracts and retinal degeneration may develop later with certain types of radiation treatment;
• Potentially fatal delayed side effects such as softening of the spinal cord, scarring of the kidney or lung, and bone death.

Antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs that are used to treat these side effects may have side effects of their own.

A New Wonder Drug?

In June 2009, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first drug ever specifically developed to treat cancer in dogs: Palladia, manufactured by Pfizer Animal Health, Inc. News reports touted this as a major step forward in veterinary medicine. The drug is said to work by killing tumor cells and cutting off blood supply to the tumor. Pfizer claims that tumors disappeared, shrank, or stopped growing in about 60% of treated dogs in clinical trials.

Palladia was specifically approved for mast cell tumors in dogs. These tumors are most commonly benign and localized (non-systemic), appearing as lumps on the skin; some are cancerous. There are also malignant, systemic types, found in the liver, spleen, gastrointestinal tract, or bloodstream.

At first sight, the report of the new drug was impressive. But closer examination made it clear that Palladia is far from the Holy Grail. The drug may indeed shrink tumors – but only until they start growing again. Palladia is a treatment, not a cure.

Further, dogs with systemic tumors were excluded from the study; only cancerous skin tumors were treated. But, for such tumors, surgery has an excellent cure rate unless the tumor is well advanced. Why would Palladia be used, with its broad array of toxic side effects? Nearly half (46%) of the dogs in the study suffered diarrhea, while 39.1% developed anorexia, 35.6% lethargy, 32.2% vomiting, 17.2% lameness, and 14.9% weight loss.

Holistic dog cancer treatments generally have no side effects if the correct dosage and protocol are followed.

Practicality

How do conventional and non-conventional treatments compare in terms of tasks, time, commitment, etc.?

If you decide to treat your dog with radiation, multiple treatments will be needed, the exact number varying by case. You will probably have to bring your dog to the clinic once a week. The dog will be sedated for the procedure.

If you opt for chemotherapy, either it will be administered intravenously in multiple treatments at the clinic or you will be instructed to give pills to your dog at home.

Should your dog suffer from any of the side effects mentioned above, you will likely be administering more medication to treat them.

Non-conventional treatment will require that you commit yourself to the following.

Study. You will need to spend the time to educate yourself about treatment choices. You have already begun to do this.

Treatment. After deciding on a course of treatment, you will need to buy the necessary food and supplements. Some of the supplements can be found in health food stores, while others will need to be ordered either online or by telephone from their respective distributors.

Preparation. You will be spending perhaps fifteen minutes per day on preparing food and administering supplements. (Most supplements can be mixed in with the food.)

Calculation. At first you will need to calculate the appropriate dosages of supplements, based on the weight of your dog.

Record Keeping. I recommend that you draw up a Supplement Schedule showing the dates on which supplements will be administered and the respective dosages.  Each can be checked when done, so that you have a complete record.

Assumptions

Conventional and non-conventional approaches are based on diametrically opposed assumptions.

Conventional treatment is based on the assumption that if a tumor is killed at its site with toxic chemicals and/or radiation, the patient is cured of cancer.

Non-conventional dog cancer treatments are based on the assumption that cancer cells are present in the whole body and not just at the site of the tumor. A cure is effected by enhancing the body’s own immune response and creating an environment in which cancer cells cannot survive.

Obtaining a full understanding of the differences between the two approaches to treatment would require a substantial amount of study. And even more time would be needed to learn how they can be applied to your dog. The purpose of Dog Cancer: The Holistic Answer is to get you started on the path of curing your dog with non-conventional treatment in as little time as possible.

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