What Really is Holistic Dog Food?

Holistic Dog Foods for Dog Cancer Diets




This is a definition I found.

"Holistic foods use the highest quality, "human-grade" ingredients and never any artificial colors or chemical preservatives. Additionally, holistic foods never contain cheap fillers such as corn, wheat, soy, glutens or animal by-products. These fillers are hard to digest, contain little nutritional value and are known to cause health problems in dogs and cats. "


But very wary when you see this word on ' Holistic Dog Foods '.
 ALWAYS read the ingredients. And always get Grain Free versions. And price has nothing to do with anything. Don't let a pretty foil bag fool you into buying either very expensive dog food or not that great a dog food. I really think the pet food industry is actually not that well regulated with quality or terms usage.

And a reminder on grain free...
If you have dogs with uncontrollable itching and there's no fleas involved, it's definitely the food you're feeding him/her. Do some research and you'll find that grain based kibble can cause itchiness, hot spots, yeast infections, and reoccurring ear infections. Grain-free kibble is the best way to go. It's worth a little extra money to avoid vet costs.
Another reminder, just because it's grain free doesn't make it low carb. Just about every grain free, even though it is higher protein and less carb than the usual suspects, doesn't make it low carb. Dogs need high protein, medium fat and low carb. They were built this way....carnivores...
There is a bacteria colony that lives where the stomach dumps into the small intestine and this bacteria has a tendency to foam when it comes into contact with grain or white potato. This can cause acid indigestion or burping, or even cause the dog to throw up a bit. Try switching to a raw*, raw*/kibble mix or a kibble that is grain and white potato free to see if it clears up.


*Dogs with cancer should not have raw foods due to their compromised immune system.




Here is a video on protein, fat, and carb myths exposed by a vet

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.

March 31st 2011 - The Diagnosis

After seeing Lucy's nose bleed just a little every few weeks for the last few months I brought her to the vet. I always thought it was just rough play or her chewing on logs. Yes, logs. She is a large lab.


I researched on the internet what it might be. Foxtail maybe, Aspergillus fungal Infection, injury (but not likely due to duration of nose bleeds over 3 or more months, or.... cancer.


The vet couldn't find anything visually with a scope (dog's noses don't allow for much inspection due to the complex nature of their sinuses so they can smell a molecule) and the x-ray showed some vague cloudiness. X-rays are not good at showing soft tissue. A CT costs alot, an MRI even more and many vets don't have anything other than x-ray. So they had to keep her under a general anesthesia and do a biopsy as far in the nose as they could go and send to a lab to find out if some kind of infection or something worse. The nose bleeds also got worse fast. Now I noticed the bleeding was mostly on one side. Not gonna think about it.


Cancer. No NO NO NO NO! You think anyway. Over and over waiting for a diagnosis that you can live with. So... they call a few days later.
Canine Adenocarcinoma. Yes, they are sure. Usually dogs only live 4-5 months on average with no treatment. Given referral to vetinary oncologist to go over options. Radiation. Chemo. For my good old dog Lucy.


So, I am a 48 year old man who cries now in the bathroom a few times a day over this. She is always with me. She is only 7 years old. C'mon God.