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I am reading through the posts now, I have been thinking of changing his diet. He is on a grain free fish based dog food now but he does get fruit and some veggies added to his diet now. The cancer is slow growing as he has had for at least 5 years now. All our vets have always said he looks healthy and blood work comes back looking good. He is 16 and still has no problem putting out 2 yr old husky in her place. I am worried about the tumor being in other organs, we have an appt with a specialist in 2 weeks to do an ultrasound and see what more info we can find.
Unfortanetly, we are stationed in a rather small town. The specialist is 2 hours away and so far I have not found a holistic vet. We are more interested in quality of life for him. I will look at that book that was suggested.
I am reading through the posts now, I have been thinking of changing his diet. He is on a grain free fish based dog food now but he does get fruit and some veggies added to his diet now. The cancer is slow growing as he has had for at least 5 years now. All our vets have always said he looks healthy and blood work comes back looking good. He is 16 and still has no problem putting out 2 yr old husky in her place. I am worried about the tumor being in other organs, we have an appt with a specialist in 2 weeks to do an ultrasound and see what more info we can find.
Unfortanetly, we are stationed in a rather small town. The specialist is 2 hours away and so far I have not found a holistic vet. We are more interested in quality of life for him. I will look at that book that was suggested.
Do what you can diet wise, and order supplements online. I get many of mine from Amazon. I would definitely cut out the fruit (these are carbs) and use dark green vegetables - broccoli, spinach, kale, green beans for example. Make absolutely certain there are no traces of grains in any form in the dog food (no rice,barley, rye flour etc). Reducing inflammation is important since inflammation breaks down cell walls and leads to disease.
The way we look at it, labs typically live 12-14 years, and if we can give our dog quality of life at this point, that's the goal for us, as it is for you. I hope you'll have good news from the ultrasound and find that the cancer hasn't spread!
Thank you Southward bound, I just saw your posts today. I am going to get the book you recommended. I am working on the diet but, I think getting there. I also found that our market only sales yams. Thank you for that information.
Thank you Southward bound, I just saw your posts today. I am going to get the book you recommended. I am working on the diet but, I think getting there. I also found that our market only sales yams. Thank you for that information.
Is it an "international" market? They say that yams are hard to find in a common local market. If you look closely, you can tell them apart. Sweet potatoes are typically more uniformly shaped and have tapered ends (pointed ends). Lots of times they are called yams when they're really not.
Sweet potatoes typically have a smooth skin, while the skin of yams is rough and somewhat shaggy.
Although the terms are generally used interchangeably, the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires that the label "yam" always be accompanied by "sweetpotato."
My seven year old yellow lab Rupert had surgery on a tumor on Monday that was inconclusive from the aspiration so it was recommended we remove it. It was encapsulated and narrowly excised- so goods news it wasn't attached to any muscle. It came back from pathology as spindle cell sarcoma and because of the mitotic level (17- yikes) is rated intermediate to high grade. We have a consult with an oncologist on Tuesday but am very interested in this blog regarding holistic approaches. I currenlty feed him a natural dog food from the pet store but it does contain some grain. Is there another dog food I can use or should I make his meals. I read about the book but can someone give me a recipe I could try? It's overwhelming trying to figure all this out and I'm heartsick over the thought of losing him. Unlike most of these other posts this tumor was not slow-growing and I'm worried the tumor may have sent out some cells that are growing as we speak.
I'm willing to do anything I just need some guidance.
Also- where can you get the freeze dried liver?
Thank you so much- this thread has been so helpful and it's nice to feel all the support.
If it's any encouragement here, my mom's Lab had an aggressive, large, malignant melanoma debulked from her upper jaw at age 13. She was given 6 months to live - as is typical. It surfaced after my mom died. She had no treatment, radiation etc. Just antibiotics. I fed BARF (raw) and some kibble. They told me when it came back, to expect it to come with a vengeance and not be able to have another surgery.
Three years later, age 16, she had no other recurrence or physical problems at ALL. We assumed it was a wrong lab result. Then my bulldog died (her housemate) after a long dramatic illness...and right away the melanoma came back in the exact same spot. She still played daily, wasn't lethargic etc, and ate like a champ up until the end. We just couldn't get the bleeding to stop, otherwise she seemed typical for her age.
Be vigilant, but be positive and keep the stress down in the dogs' lives as much as possible.
Thank you, Runswithscissors for the encouragment. And how wonderful that you took such good care of your Mom's dog-not everyone would have done that. I'm so very sorry for your loss- for your Mom and your two four legged companions. Losing the ones we love (whether two or four legs) is never easy.
I'm thankful for this thread and will keep you posted on Rupert's progress.
My seven year old yellow lab Rupert had surgery on a tumor on Monday that was inconclusive from the aspiration so it was recommended we remove it. It was encapsulated and narrowly excised- so goods news it wasn't attached to any muscle. It came back from pathology as spindle cell sarcoma and because of the mitotic level (17- yikes) is rated intermediate to high grade. We have a consult with an oncologist on Tuesday but am very interested in this blog regarding holistic approaches. I currenlty feed him a natural dog food from the pet store but it does contain some grain. Is there another dog food I can use or should I make his meals. I read about the book but can someone give me a recipe I could try? It's overwhelming trying to figure all this out and I'm heartsick over the thought of losing him. Unlike most of these other posts this tumor was not slow-growing and I'm worried the tumor may have sent out some cells that are growing as we speak.
I'm willing to do anything I just need some guidance.
Also- where can you get the freeze dried liver?
Thank you so much- this thread has been so helpful and it's nice to feel all the support.
Hi Rupertsmom -
The dog food we used (Wellness whitefish and sweet potato) had very small amounts of grain, but the vet said to get him off all grains, period. So I started cooking. It's actually not hard. You could cook a pot of dark green vegetables (kale, collards for example -- steam them in very small amount of water on a low simmer about 20-30 minutes), divide it up into mealtime portions for your dog and refrigerate. That could be enough for 2-3 days of meals, and if you have more, you can just freeze the portions in individual freezer baggies. Our dog weighs 64 lbs, so he gets about 2 cups of vegetables, 1 medium size microwaved sweet potato (cut up) and enough mackerel for protein to equal about 1/4 of his meal. Zero carbs help starve the cancer cells.
And he gets his supplements in his meal. I usually press the tablets/capsules into the sliced sweet potato
and he gobbles it all up.
I thought it would be a pain to cook for him, but it's not. I can microwave a bunch of sweet potatoes and freeze them to keep on hand, just in case I happen to run out. And it's amazing that dogs don't get tired of eating the same thing day after day. I make small changes now and then, but nothing that would give him digestive upsets.
You can get freeze dried liver at most pet supply stores, or online. I get it from Amazon.com since we have free shipping. It comes already cut up into little cubes.
Here's a wonderful recipe you can try. I didn't know how great kale tastes until I made this soup.
½ lb (8 oz) fresh kale
2 cups chicken stock (I use low sodium kind)
2 cups water
2 tsp olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
¼ cup lemon juice
1 tsp grated lemon zest
Salt to taste
½ tsp pepper
1. Coarsely chop kale, discard thick stems
2. Bring chicken stock and water to boil in medium saucepan, set aside
3. In large saucepan or soup pot, heat oil over medium heat and add onion,
Cooking until translucent, 5-6 minutes
4. Add broth, kale, lemon juice and zest to onions in soup pot. Bring to a boil
and reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper.
The original recipe has brown rice but I took that out because it's still carbs, and I don't use salt so that I can share it with our dog. I can always add salt to taste in my individual bowl. I came to really like this soup! Now, when cooking it for him, I mainly just cook the kale in stock or water, throw in a whole onion (remove it before serving), and sprinkle with a bit of ginger and garlic. I don't use lemon zest in his version. You can be creative and use what you have on hand -- add zucchini or spinach, occasionally carrots. Just be sure to make his diet changes gradually.
You could, very simply, saute some spinach and zucchini in a bit of olive oil. Make a couple days' worth, depending on whether you feed once or twice a day.
And, yes, runswithscissors has a good point about keeping the stress levels as low as possible. Good reminder.
Wishing you the best! Once you get in the groove, it'll come easy, and it's SO worth it!
Hi Southward Bound- Thank you so much for the recipes. I'm going to try some kale/spinach and the mackerel. I have a question my dog weighs the same as yours so are you feeding him the 2cups and sweet potato once a day or twice? And are you using canned mackerel and how much is it for 1/4? I'm trying to figure this out but any help would be much appreciated. I have him on Buffalo Holistic Salmon and Sweet potatoes which isn't supposed to have any grain but I'm all for feeding him what I know doesn't have any.
Thank you again- I'm glad you started this thread.
Hi Southward Bound- Thank you so much for the recipes. I'm going to try some kale/spinach and the mackerel. I have a question my dog weighs the same as yours so are you feeding him the 2cups and sweet potato once a day or twice? And are you using canned mackerel and how much is it for 1/4? I'm trying to figure this out but any help would be much appreciated. I have him on Buffalo Holistic Salmon and Sweet potatoes which isn't supposed to have any grain but I'm all for feeding him what I know doesn't have any.
Thank you again- I'm glad you started this thread.
You could call the company and ask them directly about carbs and grain in the kibble. It sounds like a good food but sometimes grain products are called by different names that I don't readily recognize, so I would ask.
To answer your question, I feed twice a day and -- if he looks like he's losing weight, I up it to three times a day (I am doing that now as I want him to put on a little bit of weight.)
He gets 1 med. sweet potato, one can dark vegetable (about 2 cups) and a small can Pampa Mackerel. Pampa has two sizes. I used to buy the larger size and give him 3 of the fish in each meal but when Walmart added the smaller size ($.98) I started buying that and use the entire can. The small can seems to have smaller fish. The larger can is $1.38 and appears to have larger fish, and 4 instead of 3. I really just estimate it, and the 3 fish seem to be about right.
I hope I explained that clearly enough. Thank you for asking.
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