Find a holistic vet AND a western vet

Find a holistic vet and a western vet that you trust.

Come to a balance of traditional and holistic. I have found that the animals who do best are getting treatment and advice from their western vet and their holistic vet. Consider seeing an oncologist (cancer specialist) to learn about all your options, even if you are against doing chemotherapy. Sometimes that means surgery and acupuncture. Sometimes it is herbal therapies with prednisone. Sometimes it is chemo with acupuncture and herbs to help with side effects and keeping appetite and immunity up. This is not a place to either/or. Use everything that is available. You don’t have to choose between the two.That being said it is very important if you are combining treatments to find a western vet who is open to you working with a holistic vet and a holistic vet who is open to western treatments. In some cases they are the same person who practices both modalities. 

Homemade Chicken Dog Treat Recipe

Homemade Chicken Dog Treats

NO MORE CHINA DOG TREATS. ANOTHER RECALL AGAIN.

Homemade Chicken Treats for My Dog

Need:

o   Chicken breasts
o   Costco: Kirkland, skinless, boneless, breast; 13 to 16 per bag (Consider: beef, liver, turkey)
o   Baking sheets or pans for baking and drying
o   Tin foil (optional)
o   Cutting surface and knife
o   Oven
o   Storage/freezer containers or bags
o   Space in freezer


1. Storage
o   Put market bag(s) of chicken in fridge (not freezer) overnight for next day cooking
o   Bag instructions state that cooking frozen is ok

2. Cooking
o   Pre-heat oven to 375
o   Chicken is placed uncovered on sheet (with tin foil is best for reusing sheets for drying)
o   No seasoning, no salt
o   Bake semi-unfrozen chicken at 375 for ~ 50 minutes
o   Bag instructions suggest less time, but looking for thorough cooking

3. ‘Chips’
o   Slice thin, 1/8 to 1/16”
o   Cut while still warm
o   Cut ‘medallions’ by cutting at angle rather than down, especially at thin end of breast. At ‘fat’ end, can be cut down.
o   Use flat of fork to hold chicken while cutting. Avoid poking holes in chicken with fork
o   Resist the staring dog

4. Drying
o   Spread chips on a baking sheet. Do not stack
o   Bake at about 200 degrees for 2+ hours. Wedge oven door open an inch or two while baking
- Length of time depends on thinness and other factors
- Flip the chips during cooking at about 1 ¼ hours, until crisp. Looking for leathery to crisp texture after cooled.
- The ‘white’ of the meat should be gone
o   As chips will be stored in the freezer, they do not have to be jerky
o   Continue to resist giving the dog all the chips now.

5. Storage
o   Store chips in plastic freezer bags in the freezer; not truly dried, must be frozen
o   Date the bags
o   Take one bag from freezer at a time and keep in fridge for current use

DOXICYCLENE STOPS CANCER ANGIOGENESIS

DOXICYCLENE

One of the cheapest, safest, and most easily obtained Rx through a vet? Doxycycline.  Now, doxycycline is not that great of an antibiotic.  It actually has fairly limited use as an antibiotic.  Some use it for dental infections, but it is most commonly used to treat certain blood parasites. It's an older antibiotic with new novel uses.

Some exciting news about doxy?  It has anticancer effects!

Doxycyline helps suppress angiogenesis (new blood vessel formation that feeds tumors and robs the body). In this way it slows tumor growth. It blocks enzymes called matrix metalloproteinases (MMP’s) that digest the tissue around tumors, allowing new blood vessels to be formed. Check it out here.

Not having access to as much blood supply, the cancer cells are less able to metastasize through the circulation.  This lessens the spread of some cancers. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12486404

In the lab, this drug can induce apoptosis (normal, healthy, programmed death) of cancer cells.  This is a direct action on the cancer cells, and may have some usefulness in cancers. 


Pretty cool.  I know this is not holistic or natural, but this is low side effect profile. And cheap if you get the vet to write you a prescription that you can take to your regular pharmacy. The vets make a huge markup on Rx and you will need this long term.


Long term use alternating this every other day with Meloxicam(Metacam) an NSAID (1 day Doxy next day Meloxi) is basically the NAVY protocol or Metronomic protocol and has shown good results at keeping things reasonable for a while. Try to reserve Prednisone for worst times.

Commonly Used Herbs in Dogs With Cancer

Commonly Used Herbs in Dogs With Cancer and Their Possible Benefits

Alfalfa - antioxidant with cancer preventing properties

Aloe Vera - helps fight infections, antioxidant, boosts bone marrow

Artemsisin - see wormwood and article in blog  I USE THIS

Astragalus - boosts immune system, anti-inflammatory properties

Burdock Root - removes toxins from body, blood cleanser, stimulates bone marrow, antioxidant

Cat's Claw - shrinks tumors, immune stimulating properties, anti-inflammatory properties I USE THIS

Charparral - a desert plant used to treat tumors

Dandelion - provides nutrients, supports liver function

Echinacea - immune boosting properties, raise white blood cell counts, stimulates lymphatic system

Essiac - an herbal formula containing several herbs, useful in fighting certain cancers. I USE THIS

Flax - cancer fighting chemicals, antioxidant, and antiangiogenesis properties I USE THIS FLAX OIL MIXED WITH COTTAGE CHEESE AS IN BUDWIG DIET

Garlic- antioxidant properties, stimulates white blood cells in bone marrow, inhibits growth of cancer

Ginseng - antioxidant properties, protects against cancer formation, Red ginseng stimulates natural killer cell function,
inhibit tumor invasion, and has antiangiogenesis properties. I USE RED GINSENG AND YU NAN BAI YAO

Goldenseal - potent anti cancer properties, anti-inflammatory, beneficial for digestive tract

Hawthorn - antioxidant properties, useful for cardiac side effects from some chemotherapy drugs (doxorubicin)

Hoxsey - an herbal formula containing several herbs, may be useful in fighting certain cancers

Licorice Root -  anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, stimulates immune system by enhancing interferon and
T cell production.  "Natures cortisone".  I USE THIS

Marshmallow - antibacterial and immune-stimulating properties

Milk Thistle - protects liver, reduces toxicity from chemotherapy  I USE THIS

Mistletoe -  extract Iscador is a cancer therapy, stimulates immune system, encourages cell death (apoptosis),  and
possesses anti-tumor and anti-metastatic properties.

Oregon Grape - alternative to goldenseal, stimulates white blood production from the bone marrow, anti-cancer
properties, supports liver function  I USE THIS

Red Clover - contains nutrients, blood cleanser, can be applied directly to skin cancers

Saw Palmetto - said to help with prostate cancer in dogs

Turmeric - inhibits the growth of cancer, induces cancer cell death, antioxidant, and stimulates immune system

Wormwood -  (active compound is artemisinin) controls infections, selective killing of cancer cells when
administered with supplemental iron. I USE THIS

Yellow Dock - cleansing herb that stimulates liver function, high iron content

Laboratory studies are expanding the clinical knowledge that is already documented in traditional texts. The herbs that are traditionally used for anti-cancer treatment and that are anti-angiogenic through multiple interdependent processes (including effects on gene expression, signal processing, and enzyme activities) include Artemisia annua (Chinese wormwood), Viscum album (European mistletoe), Curcuma longa (curcumin), Scutellaria baicalensis (Chinese skullcap), resveratrol and proanthocyanidin (grape seed extract), Magnolia officinalis (Chinese magnolia tree), Camellia sinensis (green tea), Ginkgo biloba, quercetin, Poria cocos, Zingiber officinalis (ginger), Panax ginseng, Rabdosia rubescens hora (Rabdosia), and Chinese destagnation herbs. Natural health products target molecular pathways other than angiogenesis, including epidermal growth factor receptor, the HER2/neu gene, the cyclo-oxygenase-2 enzyme, the nuclear factor kappa-B transcription factor, the protein kinases, the Bcl-2 protein, and coagulation pathways. 

Here is an updated blog page on the herbs I AM USING AND HAVING RESULTS WITH and the dosages for my 90 pound lab.

Holistic Vet visits Lucy at home April 18, 2011

After much research, I find that her path to Quality of Life will not be radiation or chemotherapy. It buys so little time in a dogs life. Remember they age 7 times as fast, so cancers timeline path is 7 times as fast as humans. It MIGHT buy a few months to maybe 8 months *on average*, and your dog will not feel good and it will surely stress them out. Surgery cannot be done on nasal cancer so you cannot remove it and buy time like with some other cancers. Plus, not to sound harsh as I love her dearly, I breach the subject of cost to you of a few weeks of radiation can be thousands of dollars (as in $8K to $10K) and is not done just anywhere. Usually quite a drive to a treatment center usually (unless you live right in a large city or university) and has to be done for a few weeks. Stress and anesthesia(the dog must be verrrry still) for the dog for many days.


UPDATE
I will be going back and forth creating and editing posts previous to this post and some that follow because of my late start on creating this dog cancer blog discussion group. There is sooooo much research I have done, and, as of March, 2012, she is in remission. 12 months after nasal cancer diagnosis. Not only no symptoms at this point but also many months past her so called 'shelf life' expectancy. Wow is right.  I now really feel the need to help others by sharing the information. Information not usually given by regular vets, holistic vets, or it seems oncologists. Even Holistic vets don't use every trick in the book. Not my practitioners, nor many of the people who talked about their journeys I tearfully followed on the many support groups on the web.


I used E. All of the Above, except for of course radiation or chemo.


I wanted to work with a holistic vet because this was the sort of path we were taking and to also verify the hundreds of hours of research I did  trying to pull together all the information into some sort of summary dog cancer treatment from the hundreds of websites, discussion groups, dog cancer clinical trials, etc. on supplements and alternative treatments or even black box prescription medications (a med used for treatment of something not labeled or FDA approved for ).


The holistic vet came and felt I was giving too many supplements and wanted me to just give her 2 herbal formulas that cost $90 a bottle. Ack. Plus, not much confirmation on my research. But Linda at Gold Country Holistic Vet is great very nice vet. Please use her if you live in Nevada County. So after she left I researched the 2 Chinese herbal formulas that I didn't buy because I wanted to think about it. They were " Wei Qi Booster ", an immune system booster, and " Stasis Breaker ", a tumor 'buster'. Anecdotal evidence and testimonials about these were found and I researched each herb in the powdered formulas. Looked good. But I still was going to give Lucy EVERYTHING else. Not taking any chances.


There will be much more to come about Yunan Bai Yao to stop the bleeding itself, Low dose Naltrexone, Antioxidents and when to give them, immune boosters (why give chemo when it will also kill the immune system?), Budwig diet, dog food reviews that align with general cancer needs and more. Please Please stay tuned as I flesh this all out.