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Featuring Demian Dressler, DVM and Sue Ettinger, DVM, Dip. ACVIM (Oncology), authors of The Dog Cancer Survival Guide

Articles by Demian Dressler, DVM

What is Treatment Plan Analysis?

Imagine you want to spend some time somewhere.  Maybe the mountains, maybe the city…it is time for a trip. There are many ways to get there.  Perhaps having as much time as possible there is your main goal. Maybe you drive at breakneck speed to get there, wasting no time, and extend your time there…

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More On Being Your Dog’s Guardian

In the last post, we looked at how critical it is for you, as your dog’s guardian, to be in good mental shape to help your dog. This means paying attention to things that could hurt your ability to think clearly, act rationally, and really focus on the things that truly matter. There will be…

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Taking Care of Your Dog’s Guardian

The Olympics are a test in sports against the world’s most formidable athletes. To win in the Olympics, an athlete must not only tend to diet, practice, and technique.  An Olympian must use every edge to win, including managing emotions and the mind under intense pressure. Coping with a canine cancer diagnosis is an Olympian…

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Does Massage for Dogs with Cancer Do Anything?

Life quality is a major part of dealing with canine cancer. Since cancer is a disease that impacts a loved dog’s quality of life, it makes sense that we should pay attention to it.  Treatments designed to kill cancer cells are not enough. One of the overlooked areas in conventional veterinary medicine is that of…

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Life Quality: Is My Dog In Pain?

Physical comfort is very important for a dog’s life quality.  When it comes to canine cancer, life quality is a central topic that deserves much attention. Since the systemic cancers are so formidable and resist successful treatment, often increasing life span and maintaining a normal life quality are main goals. Life quality can be evaluated…

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Glutamine, Immunity and Canine Cancer

Cancer is a whole-body disease.  When we think about cancer, many times we tend to look at it as if it were just a single growth. A single growth is called a tumor. We can see tumors, either on the body of a loved dog or with a tool to see the inside of the…

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Magnesium and Dog Cancer

The strategy of Full Spectrum Care is used in the Dog Cancer Survival Guide to take advantage of anything that is safe and effective to get an edge on dog cancer. This means we have to look not only at chemo, radiation and surgery, but also on all those other things that might help a…

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Bone Tumors and Doxcycline

Osteosarcoma, and other types of canine bone cancer, can be especially hard for a dog lover to cope with.  Not only are most of these cancers very malignant, but often they require major surgeries to help deal with the immediate crisis. Once the decision is made and the surgery performed, we are faced with cancer…

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Surgery and Supplements: Bleeding Risks

All herbs and supplements are safe because they are natural, right? Wrong.  The word “natural” seems to mean harmless.  No side effects.  Non toxic.  But this simply is false information. Anything in the body, no matter what it is, can create a harmful. effect.  Drinking too much water, seen with swine sometimes, can give seizures. …

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Help Metastasis with Flax Lignans

In the world of Full Spectrum care for dog cancer, we try to look for anything that gives us an edge.  This edge could be related to survival, life quality, decreasing treatment side effects, or finding something that just works better than the old way. This is a major goal of The Dog Cancer Survival…

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After Cancer: Do Carcinogens Matter?

According to the National Cancer Institute, carcinogens are any substance that causes cancer. It makes sense that we would want to protect healthy dogs from carcinogens.  Since dog cancer is the number one cause of death, limiting a family pet’s carcinogen exposure is the right choice. But, what if your dog already has cancer? Does…

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Dog Cancer and Carcinogens Near You

How did my dog get cancer? When faced with a dog cancer diagnosis, this question needs to be answered. Most have heard of carcinogens.  For many, carcinogens are kind of “out there”, something that we have heard of and may have disregarded. For others, carcinogens are important. Especially if they are close to us. Do…

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Dog Cancer Clinical Trials

These days really seem like “ruff” times for many.  Bad economy, emotional strain, and a lot of general hardship. If you have a dog diagnosed with cancer, but you cannot afford expensive treatments, what can you do? There are several different options in The Dog Cancer Survival Guide.  I know that not everyone can afford…

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New Approaches to Squamous Cell Cancer

A cancer we see in from time to time veterinary hospitals is called squamous cell carcinoma. Even though it is not as common as other cancers in dogs, for any dog lover coping with this diagnosis, it is a huge issue. These cancers are not fun. First of all, especially in advanced cases, they are…

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Dog Food: Is There A Cancer Risk?

Naturally, when we talk about the  cause of cancer, diet is brought up. Many will immediately poo-poo the notion that what is eaten can have an impact on cancer development.  It is amazing.  Watch the condemnation without investigation. On the other hand, many feel there is a link, and there is evidence to support that…

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You and Cesar Millan

All of you going through coping with a canine cancer diagnosis are in the trenches.  Some are enjoying sunny days as they come, and some are in the depths of suffering. I remember hearing a song once, and although I am not sure who the artist was, what he sang crystallizes what many feel: “Nobody…

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Dog Cancer: Does Acupuncture Make It Worse?

There are few up to speed clinicians these days that will argue acupuncture is hocus pocus in cancer medicine.  If they do, the rest of us will point to this paper, and this one, and this one..and those are just a few. Now, Western clinicians are accepting that acupuncture does good things for pain, nausea,…

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Dog Cancer diet: Higher Protein Bad For Kidneys?

Time to bust another myth. How many of you have heard that “protein is hard on the kidneys?”  Well everyone, it is time for a reality check! This matters quite a bit for dogs with cancer.  Most of us with some interest in nutrition agree that there is sound logic that a high protein, moderate…

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Essiac: Could It Cause What It’s Treating??

For years, Essiac has been touted as an herbal anti-cancer remedy.  It got a lot of publicity and press, and has become entrenched in the minds of the alternative  health community. It is used to a great extent, and some use it for dog cancer treatment.  Let’s look at this a little closer. Many are…

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Intestinal Cancer and Curcumin for Dogs

Dogs will occasionally get tumors involving the stomach and intestine. Not as commonly as humans do, but we see it nonetheless.  And for those dealing canine cancer, it does not matter how common one or another cancer is if your dog has it! One of the approaches used to help these cancers are certain chemotherapy…

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The Shock of Dog Cancer

I was recently helping an English Lab named Amber.  Amber was diagnosed with a mast cell tumor by fine needle aspirate.  Amber’s humans, Beau and Heather, were devastated upon hearing this news. Like many dog lovers, they had heard that dogs could get cancer.  Sure.  Dogs can get the same diseases as people, right?  However,…

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What Makes Canine Lymphoma Different?

Canine lymphoma, also called lymphosarcoma, is a strange cancer.  Not that cancer is not strange in general, because it is.  But lympho is different. This cancer involves a certain type of white blood cell, the lymphocyte.  Most have heard that white blood cells are an important part of the immune system.  It turns out there is…

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Making Time for Full Spectrum Dog Cancer Care

There is a big difference between coming up with an idea to do something, and doing it. We humans are very good at deciding that we should do.  The problem is that many times we sort of lose track of this focus, and don’t totally follow through. This is a very important issue when it…

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Mirtazapine for Dog Cancer

Dear Dog Lovers, A newer drug is being used frequently lately, and I would like to make sure everyone dealing with a canine cancer diagnosis has heard of it.  This medication may help some dogs out there, so let’s keep everyone up to date. The drug is mirtazapine, also called Remeron. Now granted, many of…

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Dog Cancer Tests: Blood, Urine and More?

Healthy dogs should have early detection cancer screens.  The reason for this is that veterinarians often fail to eradicate cancer in a given dog.  The fact that cancer is the single number one cause of dog death should make this clear. If you have a dog of about 10 years of age or more, statistics…

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Neoplasine Update

Full Spectrum Cancer Care is a way of thinking about treatment for a disease that goes beyond what is conventional. This idea was put forth to try to help normal people get an edge on canine cancer. When we are faced with a problem that lacks real solutions, it is time to start thinking outside…

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Dog Prostate Cancer: Intraoperative Radiation

Prostate cancer in the dog is very different from that in people.  Not because the cancers themselves are that different, but because treatment success is different. This has not been good news for our dogs.  The success rates (due to surgical techniques, mainly) for dealing with human prostate cancer are much better than for dogs.…

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Escaping Dog Cancer Days, part 2

In the last post we looked at a challenging topic: being happy and at the same time time coping with canine cancer. Since so much of humanity’s attention is on the pursuit of this commodity (happiness), let’s spend a little more time on it.  One of the previous points made was that it can seem…

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Escaping Dog Cancer Days

Most, if not all of the readers of the Dog Cancer Blog have an interest in being happy. Why not?  Dealing with a dog cancer diagnosis can be the most challenging and daunting task faced in some one’s life.  During this time it can be quite a struggle to be happy.  The sadness, frustration and…

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Is Dog Cancer Treatment the Same as Prevention?

I’ve been thinking about a distinction that deserves way more attention from those who want to be their dogs’ primary health advocate. Why are distinctions important? One meaning of distinction is, “the act of making or keeping distinct”.  So there is action implied in distinctions.  Many time actions are built in to words because they…

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