Life Quality
Sleep, Dog Cancer, and Melatonin
Melatonin and dog cancer … why this powerful natural hormone produced inside your dog’s brain can help fight cancer. Inexpensively!
Read ArticleThere’s No Expiration Date … But Here are Some Warning Signs That a Dog Is Dying
What are the warning signs that my dog is dying?? Learn what signs to look for, and how to handle them.
Read ArticleImproving Life Quality with Hospice for Dogs
Hospice for dogs is not about giving up: it’s about focusing on comfort and closeness.
Read ArticlePlaydates for Dogs with Cancer
Dogs are social animals just like us. And, our dogs can get lonely even with our company, especially if they’re the only dog in the house. Dr. Dressler covers this topic in chapter 15 of The Dog Cancer Survival Guide, which talks about life quality and “brain chemistry modification” strategies as step five of Full…
Read ArticleIs My Dog Still Happy?
When your dog has cancer, one of the biggest questions weighing down your mind might be, ‘is my dog still happy?’ When we humans have cancer, we’re not happy … so of course, we wonder if our dogs are happy when they get sick. Here’s what we think at this point in the field of…
Read ArticleLavender Oil for Dogs
Is lavender oil for dogs an indulgent luxury, or a necessity? You’d be surprised!
Read ArticleBetter Life Quality: Play with Your Dog with Cancer
How important is it to play with your dog with cancer? Very!
Read ArticleHow to Know If Your Dog Is In Pain
One of the most surprising, and frankly, upsetting, things that we have learned from Dr. Dressler, author of The Dog Cancer Survival Guide, is how often over the years we’ve missed signs that our dogs were in pain. And now that we know what the signs are, we’re very different caregivers. There are many signs…
Read ArticleHow to Help Your Dog with Cancer When He Won’t Eat
When your cancer dog won’t eat, it’s really frightening. It makes you think they’re close to the end, right? Don’t panic – try these things to help.
Read ArticleBeta Glucan-containing mushrooms in the news again!
Beta glucans are back in the media, this time is the form of a new mushroom extract. This of course will not be surprising to our regular readers or anyone who has read The Dog Cancer Survival Guide, since the use of these compounds are part of the full-spectrum approach to canine cancer. This approach…
Read ArticleTime and the Joys of Life in Dog Cancer
We are very busy in modern life. It seems as time goes on, the faster it speeds by. Dog cancer is connected in many ways to time. There is the question that is most pressing: “How much more time do I have?”. This is an important piece of information to get, along with the odds…
Read ArticleBetter and Longer: End of Life Care
An article in the New England Journal of Medicine was just published that showed that human cancer patients lived both longer and better with hospice care. Patients with a type of lung cancer lived almost 2 months longer with hospice care than those who did not. Similar trends have been seen with other terminal diseases…
Read ArticleTreatment Plan Analysis in Real Life
Yesterday, a 13 year old Rottweiler came in to the hospital. She had been limping, and there was a swelling in her front leg, down on the forearm. It was firm and slightly warm to the touch. The area was about 4 inches long. We took X-rays of the sore leg. The films showed a…
Read ArticleLife 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…
Read ArticleMaking 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…
Read ArticleManageable Challenges and Life Quality
Manageable challenges and life quality: your dog with cancer NEEDS to feel good about himself. Continue to challenge her, to boost her sense of self-esteem!
Read ArticleLife Quality in Dog Cancer: Dr Dressler’s Joys of Life Scale
When we are dealing with cancer in our loved dog, especially the bad cases, we immediately enter into a new way of thinking. We start to have thoughts about life quality assessment. We are put in a position where we are in control of life and death (euthanasia) decisions. Sometimes in a very sudden way,…
Read ArticlePain in Dog Cancer and Life Quality
Many have concerns their dog may be in pain. And rightfully so, since pain is a definite negative. Pain control is a massive topic all by itself, and it is by no means strait forward. There are different kinds of pain. Sometimes dull, throbbing pain happens in cancers like osteosarcoma (bone cancer). Severe pain in…
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