Is Optimism Appropriate in Dog Cancer?
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: January 13th, 2021
Summary
Are we setting ourselves up for disappointment by holding on to optimism when it comes to dog cancer treatments?
I recently received a message from a guardian who felt that perhaps the approach in The Dog Cancer Survival Guide leaned towards “pushing the positive”.
Her feeling was that when one’s own dog does not live to published median life expectancy, taking an optimistic approach was not that useful. Her dog lived 6 months after diagnosis.
Now, here’s a story that shows the opposite side of the coin:
A couple of weeks ago, I had a birthday picnic with family in the park up on the side of the mountain where I live. A woman ran up to me with tears in her eyes and a bottle of wine.
She explained that I had given her dog an extra 6 months of life after she had given up based on what the previous vets said. She hugged me and gave me the wine as a gift.
So, who was “right?”
Is it better to think “Wow, another six months!” or “Oh, no, only six months!”?
The woman who felt that the 6 months of added longevity was too little time to warrant an optimistic mindset?
Or the woman who felt that the 6 months extra was an undreamed-of treasure?
Well, it all depends on the viewpoint of the person looking at the situation.
Neither is right, and neither is wrong, either. However, the woman who gave me the wine seemed more content and at ease with her decisions.
And that maybe the nub of it: what’s “right” depends on how well we are thinking.
The Human Mind: Great Servant, Terrible Master
When one is dealing with a challenge, the mindset taken sets you up for success (or failure).
The mind is a strange thing. It sometimes takes us places that don’t always serve us or produce the best possible outcomes. That’s in part because when we are dealing with strong emotions (and who isn’t when it comes to dog cancer) it changes the way our mind works.
In short, stress makes us less smart than normal. It’s harder to think, it’s harder to take in information, and it’s harder to made decisions. That’s why I always say your first priority should be to get the right mindset. Here’s a chapter from my book that describes this mindset and why it is so important.
Sometimes, left to its own devices, the mind can actually lead us to make decisions that later we wish we hadn’t. Often this is because there is missing information, or because we choose to only look at some of the information.
Again, stress makes it nearly impossible to gather the data we need to make good decisions.
I cannot say for sure, but I suspect that the woman who felt the book was “too optimistic” may have been filtering out the many, many, MANY times I say that there is no silver bullet when it comes to dog cancer.
There is no one cure for cancer that we can reliably give. That’s true for every single cancer case. There is literally no guarantee.
If you ignore all those warnings and just focus on how many lifestyle changes, supplements, diet changes, and conventional treatments may help, yes, perhaps I can see that it’s too optimistic.
But I suspect that her grief and fear made her skip over the important information about median survival time not being a guarantee for individual dogs.
She thought “oh good, survival time is 6 months” and thought it applied to her dog. Even though median survival times are not guaranteed timeframes.
If your dog has cancer you should get this book.
So Should We Embrace Optimism?
But, what about this question of optimism in the face of a dog cancer diagnosis? Once we get our emotions calmed down and take a look at our dog’s unique situation, should we be optimistic, even when the numbers aren’t?
Well, I think so, yes. Why?
Because: dogs.
Dogs are optimistic. So I think we should be optimistic too.
You don’t have to be optimistic about everything, you realize. Perhaps your dog’s case was caught really late, and you are pretty sure the worst-case scenario will be your scenario.
You can still be optimistic about changing the diet, because your dog will like it more.
You can be optimistic about using supportive supplements and medications that help her to feel better quickly.
You can feel optimistic about your relationship with your dog, even as you pre-mourn.
You don’t have to be Pollyanna. But you can certainly embrace optimism about something, anything, related to your dog.
Optimism Is a Brave Choice
Optimism also counters cancer. Cancer itself is a profoundly negative issue.
Discussing cancer is negative.
Survival times can be negative.
Finances can be negative.
Dealing with life while also dealing with dog cancer can be negative.
Treatments can be negative.
So … just about everything about cancer is negative.
If one allows this to overwhelm the outlook, it can be paralyzing as a guardian.
But paralysis does not help us to manage cancer.
That’s why, as veterinarians and dog lovers ourselves, Dr. Ettinger and I deliberately choose to approach dog cancer with an optimistic slant meant to fight all this negativity.
And the wonderful thing is that most guardians have been able to not only help their dogs but also help themselves by tipping the scale to a more positive outcome.
Do we have a cancer cure? Not yet. But there is a lot that can be said for doing what can be done to maintain positivity during times as difficult as dog cancer.
Best
Dr D
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.
Hi, i just wanted to let you know about the experience my family has just been through. Our beloved holley a 7 year old kelpie was diagnosed with lymphoma on 26/10/11. She passed away on 25/09/12. We had the opportunity to go overseas at the end of 2011, but all decided to used that holiday money to put her through chemotherpy and other treatments. I read Dr D’s book and took on a few of his ideas and suggestions. The reality is we only had 11 more months with her, but in those months we had the chance to use the power of our words and touch to tell her how much we love her and what she means to us, whether it really did help her or not i cant really say, but we do get a little comfort in the fact that we tried so hard for her and we had some of our most precious moments in that time. She left us being the most loved and cherished dog.
Thanks for sharing with the group, Jacquie.
Dr D
Sometimes all we have is our optimisim!! Thanks Dr. D!
Mary
🙂
One of my new year resolutions, is to be more optimistic about our boy living with TCC. I have tended to get too downhearted whenever logan has any GI upset, wont eat his meals (he has been a strange eater on and off for years!) Or just seems a little deprssed himself. Of course positvity cannot in itself ‘cure’ cancer alone, but it can create a far better environment for our canine family to thrive in as they live with cancer. And we all feel better when we have a more positive attitude, dont we?
Yes Garry, it comes down to attention management and how that impacts everything….thanks for your input!
Dr D
I have posted here before regarding various issues with my 14 year old Cocker mix who is battling epitheliotropic cutaneous lymphoma. He started chemo in August 2012, nothing every put him in remission, maybe it stabilized the skin tumors for about a week but then everything went back. He is currently only on Pred 20 mg a day and 4 fish oil caps a day, Transfer Factor and Budwig. The disease has now progressed to his face and head , all the tumors are bleeding and have heavy exudate and he has total alopecia, dry crusty skin with black and green scabs all over. The onc told me there is nothing more we can give him as far as chemo. I am financially wiped out. He somehow continues to eat very well, he is on a home-cooked diet, but very lethargic. Where do I go from here? I don’t really believe in euthanasia. What can I do to make him more comfortable? Surely there must be something besides ending his life. I might mention that I am an RN and have been with many patients that were dying and on hospice. Unfortunately, I don’t have the money the afford hospice for my dog, just as I am sure that none of myprevious patients would have been able to afford hospice wereitnot for Medicare. Thank you in advance for your answer.
Dear Estelle,
there are some methods in the Guide that are not being used.
Discuss all with your vet.
How about:
1. drop the dose of pred so you can use Neoplasene and Apocaps??
2. Why not supplement with safflower oil or CLA directly? this plus flax lignans basically gives you a more potent budwig plan.https://www.dogcancerblog.com/blog/conjugated-linoleic-acid-and-dog-cancer/
3. Why are you not using beta glucans while on transfer factor? At this stage it seems appropriate (no, we don’t have evidence that mushrooms stimulate lymphoma and you could use biobran instead anyway…maybe with berez drops for a little kicker)
These are some initial thoughts,
I hope this helps
D
I so totally agree with Dr Dressler about the mindset of the Guardian being so important. I treat animals with cancer every day of my working life and we know that our dogs pick up the emotions that we humans project onto them – when they are still coping with their disease and living life to the full despite cancer, any upset and negativity in the Guardian can make them anxious and confused. It is not possible to be free of all negativity when your dog has been diagnosed with cancer as we all know but every moment you have with your dog is so precious and it is so easy to lose the joy of the moment – negativity robs us of being present with our animals. There is a time for sadness and grief but positivity in life wins every time for me even in the letting go – and even if the time left is short.
Sue,
good points, thank you.
Dr D
I agree wholeheartedly! I learned so much from the Guide that helped me choose the right treatments for our dog Haley. She lived for 8 months following her initial diagnosis, and the last 2 months were an unexpected gift. We were able to feel positive and confident with our decisions right up until the end. Thank you Dr
s Dressler and Ettinger.
Thanks Julie, that means a lot.
Best
Dr D
I had Foxie, who was given a month to live after discovery of insulinoma (sp). She lived 4 years and walked again with herbs. Junebug, my therapy dog had chemo and naturopathy acupuncture and herbs and lived one more year rather then the 1 month without help she was given.
I deal with rescue and hospice, and tell everyone it doesnt matter if 1hour, day or month that they have, it is that they were loved and loved you that is what counts!
Even though it’s unrealistic, ask anyone, no amount of time would ever be “enough”. Like the lady in your story, thanks to you I got an additional 12 months, at least. Was it enough? Of course not. But it was certainly better than just the median 6 month statistic I was given. And, to be honest, it was this very lesson in the original dog cancer survival guide that even made this possible. I had given up and I was ready to pout and cry my way through the next 6 months. Then I read about how to be the best guardian I could be and realized I needed to cherich these last months, not waste them so my last memories were shrouded in misery. I couldn’t ignore the situation, of course, so I gave myself permission to grieve for a week but after that it was nothing but positive thoughts and actions. Had it not been for your advice, I might not have even tried the full spetrum diet. And now when I tell people I lost my dog to cancer, I don’t end the sentence there. I get to add, “But he lived a year longer than expected!” I’ll always be grateful for that.
Being optimistic allowed me to give my dog the best in her remaining days. My dog only lived 6 months past the initial diagnosis of bone cancer. I thought it was discovered early. The dog had only recently started to limp and her bone was still hard. She went thru the amputation and 4 chemo treatments. I tried Budwig diet, K-9 Immunity Plus, Apocaps, modified citrus pectin but still only got 6 months. But because I remained optimistic, the dog never gave in and remained active and happy until the last couple of days when the lungs were clearly not providing enough oxygen. Based on work done at U of PA, I know my dog had a very aggressive bone cancer. (Her tumor expressed the antigen Her-2/neu.) Immunology testing have chemo found that her lymphocytes failed produce adequate D4 & D8 cells. Still, we had a great 6 months and she was still trying to chase rabbits.
Dr D,
What a great post! I often tell Guardians to be “cautiously optimistic.” First get educated with available options, statistics, response rates, expected side effects. And then I recommend hope and faith. I have Guardians so worried about if the dog will get sick or will they beat the statistics, that they forget to enjoy each day with their dog. The negative energy is not good for them or their dogs. So be positive, and enjoy the days you have together. Dr D, thanks for such a great post!
With hope and faith, Dr Sue
Why thank you, Dr Ettinger!!!
🙂
D