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Dr. Demian Dressler is internationally recognized as “the dog cancer vet” because of his innovations in the field of dog cancer management, and the popularity of his blog here at Dog Cancer Blog. The owner of South Shore Veterinary Care, a full-service veterinary hospital in Maui, Hawaii, Dr. Dressler studied Animal Physiology and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California at Davis before earning his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University. After practicing at Killewald Animal Hospital in Amherst, New York, he returned to his home state, Hawaii, to practice at the East Honolulu Pet Hospital before heading home to Maui to open his own hospital. Dr. Dressler consults both dog lovers and veterinary professionals, and is sought after as a speaker on topics ranging from the links between lifestyle choices and disease, nutrition and cancer, and animal ethics. His television appearances include “Ask the Vet” segments on local news programs. He is the author of The Dog Cancer Survival Guide: Full Spectrum Treatments to Optimize Your Dog’s Life Quality and Longevity. He is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Hawaii Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association of Avian Veterinarians, the National Animal Supplement Council and CORE (Comparative Orthopedic Research Evaluation). He is also an advisory board member for Pacific Primate Sanctuary.
Updated: October 25th, 2019
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Dr. Demian Dressler is internationally recognized as “the dog cancer vet” because of his innovations in the field of dog cancer management, and the popularity of his blog here at Dog Cancer Blog. The owner of South Shore Veterinary Care, a full-service veterinary hospital in Maui, Hawaii, Dr. Dressler studied Animal Physiology and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California at Davis before earning his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University. After practicing at Killewald Animal Hospital in Amherst, New York, he returned to his home state, Hawaii, to practice at the East Honolulu Pet Hospital before heading home to Maui to open his own hospital. Dr. Dressler consults both dog lovers and veterinary professionals, and is sought after as a speaker on topics ranging from the links between lifestyle choices and disease, nutrition and cancer, and animal ethics. His television appearances include “Ask the Vet” segments on local news programs. He is the author of The Dog Cancer Survival Guide: Full Spectrum Treatments to Optimize Your Dog’s Life Quality and Longevity. He is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Hawaii Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association of Avian Veterinarians, the National Animal Supplement Council and CORE (Comparative Orthopedic Research Evaluation). He is also an advisory board member for Pacific Primate Sanctuary.
I have found this an incomparable resource as I deal with a mast cell tumour.
I apologize–if this has been addressed, I cannot search it correctly; Do you have any sort of review or insight into the newly available (here at least!) FreshPet food? At first glance it seems to have the right ingredients, cooked at low temp…
Dr. D
I came across your site for your Apocaps while I was searching for help and hope after my whole family and our 10yr old German Shorthair heard the diagnose of transitional cell carcinoma. You see, not one vet that I took her to even considered doing a biopsy to confirm this, yet they just referred back to the text books and actually told us that this is the most common form of cancer among spayed female dogs.. Not even those at Cornell University Animal Hospital in New York State came up with anything else to say, other than putting her down. I prayed for one last hope. She was a rescue dog and we have had her now for four years. And with rescue dogs, you’re not privy to what has truly gone on with their health. I only new that she was on prednisone for most of her life for allergies and if she was to be off it, she would have severe UTI’s. I thought this to be strange, but with the advice of my vet at that time, she was weened off the prednisone and never had a UTI. However, the newest vet that I have found has mentioned to me numerous times that she can not settle with the previous dx and feels something is missing. With her diligent work, we found a surgeon who re-examined my baby and confirmed that the mass everyone was feeling and diagnosing as cancer just was not in the usual place. So he was very confident that the mass could be removed and my dog can go back to peeing normally as she did before. Well, surgery was performed, the mass was not removed because it was at the base of her urethra and the size of a marble. He was able though to take several well needle aspirations to send onto the lab. We were now told to brace ourselves for what type of cancer this is. When the results came back, there was no stating of it being “inconclusive” nor did it state “cancer”, what it did state is “inflammation.” Now we were given the dx of granulomatous urethritis. I know this is an autoimmunity and I know you specialize in cancer, however, my question to you is this. In order for my dog to strive, her immune system must be fit and it is not. It is being taxied with prednisone and Imuran daily (well for at least now). Will your Apocaps help to strengthen her immune system or are these pills strictly helpful with those who have cancer. Thank you in advance.
Hi Laura,
there are some compounds in Apocaps that assist with both inflammation (luteolin, curcumin, apigenin, etc) and also with immune dysfunction (beta glucans). I would run it by the vets though to be sure they are in agreement.
Best
Dr D
my 10 yr old chihuahua had xrays taken and 3 spots were found and she gaggs and chokes all the time and sleeps alot…what can i do to help her?? I have no $ to take her to the vet…tony
Just wondering if it is okay to give freeze dried chicken necks to dogs with cancer? I’m not sure if they have preservatives or anything else added to them.
I wasn’t sure where to post this, but I have an extra pack of Yunnan. My dog Tyler was taking it for his Hemangiosarcoma, he passed on Sunday and I would like to be able to help someone else out (no charge).
Dr. Dressler,
Permit me to make a suggestion as regards your excellent EverPup supplement that I have been purchasing for our Goldendoodle.
At the required two scoops per day, any given jar lasts but 2 weeks, requiring frequent re-orders. Please vend a jar containing sufficient product for a full month.
Hello Dr. Dressler. I’ve been down the cancer road many times before and am now facing it (I fear) with my oldest pug. He turned 14 in April and has some other health issues that require Phenobarbital and Anipryl on a daily basis. He is on a grain-free diet from Honest Kitchen and supplements with Sam-e, CocoTherapy and Honest Kitchen’s Quiet Tea (valerian that helps him and us sleep through the night).
Of course you can’t make specific recommendations for a dog you’ve never examined, but I’m wondering if anything in the Apocaps would be contra-indicated with the Pheno or Anipryl? We may have to start steroid therapy as his health is fragile and surgery to remove more of the mass (mast cell tumor on paw) is not feasible and I will not put him through chemo/radiation.
We adopted him when he was 8 and he’s been on high-quality diet and supplements since then, which is probably why even at 14 with his health issues (brain tumor, alzheimer’s, blind, deaf) he lives a pretty happy life and isn’t ready to go anywhere just yet 🙂 I won’t hesitate to start the Apocaps just want to make sure it won’t interfere with anything else.
Thanks much in advance,
Lisa and Vince
Dr. Dressler I purchased the Dog Cancer survival guide for my dog Tyler who had Hemangiosarcoma. The book was very helpful and gave some great information. However, he lost his battle Sunday night and is resting peacefully. My question is you talk about a dog food for dogs with cancer, but do you recommend one for dogs without cancer. I have a German Shepherd and would like to keep her as healthy as possible, I can’t imagine going through this again. Thanks!
I would disagree with regards to the crucerferous vegs and a diet rich in them. The reason is These types of vegs are not only hard to digest but dogs dont have amalayse to help break them down until it gets to the small intestine. With that in mind there isnt a whole lot of it in the small intestine so I question how much plant matter dogs should really have in there diet when youlook at there ansesters. There is one other issue we see as well. The crucerfus vegs cause thyroid supression if eaten daily. In the practice I work at we are seeing this allot with dogs that eat this tyoe of vegs daily. We especiall see this in raw fed dogs because most of the commerically prepard diets have them in it. We love raw food but to much of a good thing can cause other things to fall apart. If you think of the early 1900’s when we didnt have refrigeration we ate only what we could grow and store without spoiliage. So those types of vegs were not plentifull like they are today. We typicall only ate them in the fall when they are grown. HTMA paterns can show us this before it becomes a disease it shows whow the pitituary adrenala nd thyroid are functioning. It does take time for this to become clinical so wouldnt you rather know before there is supression of the thyroid before it become a disease so you can correct it when you can? Unfortunatly most vets do not understand what this all means or believe in it. I have found this tool to be very helpfull in the treatment of many diseases. The interesting thing I find is that raw fed dogs that have cancer do not want to eat any carbohydrates. Maybe because certain types of carbs can feed the cancers becuase of the hight glycemic index they have. My own dog was treated with chinese medicine angiostop and revivin as well as a few other supplements and always had a hair test ev 3 months to moniter his progress to see what was still stored in the body in the form of excess mineral or defficiencies as well as heavy metals.The goal is to get the dogs into balance so the body can function optimally to fight this dreded disease. Blood work was also done not as often since it typically didnt say a whole lot about his cancer which was mast cell sarcoma. He is 3.5 yrs out without any side effects and so far no more cancer either. He continues to do very well without the drugs:) or cancer. Just my 2 cents. K
Dear Katie
thanks for your input.
A couple of items to bring to your attention:
1. Sulphorane and IP3 are not carbs and do not require amylase specifically
2. note I did not say a diet “rich” in cruciferous veggies- if you read the diet you will see there are controlled amounts as opposed to a diet “rich” in them
3. the dog cancer diet includes diegestive enzymes, low temp cooking, and pureeing of veggies to aid in assimilation
4. the dog cancer diet addresses the issue of veggie intake in dogs (nutrients from prey species are originally from plants)
So they are good points and I would suggest further reading- thanks!
Dr D
PLEASE RESPOND:
My 11-year-old Rat Terrier Murphy has a recurring Mast cell tumor that was recently excised it was grade II,pathology came back as miotic level 0-1/10hpf no signs of metastasis. I’m feeding raw food Steve’s Real Raw Food Turkey Benadryl, Tagamet Vit. C low fat cottage cheese 2x’s daily and Nordic Natrurals Pet Cod Liver Oil,probiotics. Please tell me if I should stop adding fish oil to my dogs diet,I can’t find any information that high quality fish oil contains histamine or not,I DON”T want to add any histamine to our dog,Murphy’s diet.
Thanks,
Robert
Dear Robert,
the problem only exists when there are tons of mast cells left in the dog or there was no surgery. You can use krill oil instead. This is a low proirity issue for your dog based on what I believe to be the case (not having hands on the dog I am not sure though).
There are other items to think about
I would not be doing cod liver oil btw- over time you may see certain vitamin toxicities depending on the doses you are using. Raw diet is debatable:
I hope this helps
Dr D