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

Dog Cancer Diet

End of Life Care in Dog Cancer

The end of life stage can be very hard on everyone. It often is gut-wrenching to see your dear companion start to say goodbye. Like any weighty decision, sometimes the emotions involved can paralyze our ability to choose. During these times it is so important to gain some clarity by seeking support in counselors, support…

Read Article

Hemangiosarcoma, Mammary Cancers and Plastic Link?

Many of you will remember a media stir over BPA, that stuff found in plastic baby bottles that could be hazardous. BPA is Bishenol A.  It is found in many different types of plastic. The most common is the clear, hard plastic called polycarbonate. BPA is also found in plastic food and beverage containers, “carbonless”…

Read Article

Where Do I Begin?

“I am overwhelmed with all the information I am reading to help my dog with cancer.” Does this sound familiar to anyone out there? Most of the readers of this blog are searching for information. Once a true malignancy has developed, the realities can feel utterly unacceptable. This leads to information gathering.  Whenever we are…

Read Article

Do Numbers Matter?

A lover of a dog with cancer needs to come up with an plan that makes sense. The first step in any plan is arming oneself with answers, or data that relates to the situation. There are two basic areas that we need to focus on. The first is what can we do to maintain…

Read Article

Everything is overwhelming…

Many dog lovers, especially those of you who just received the news that your dog has cancer, feel very overwhelmed.  This is very common and completely natural. So many questions arise.  How did this happen?  Where did the cancer come from? Why wasn’t this picked up before?  Is it the food? Vaccines? Chemicals? What do…

Read Article

Oncology and Beyond

I have been getting some questions lately about whether or not I am a board-certified oncologist.  Nope, and I do not try to be either.  Here’s why: Oncology is our word for the field of cancer medicine.  Oncologists spend a good amount of time doing chemo, and have broader interests usually  within the additional areas…

Read Article

Spice of Life: Curcumin and Dog Cancer

In researching topics for expanded treatments of dog cancer, I have discovered surprises aplenty. Because of the desire for options beyond surgery, chemo and radiation for dog cancer, I chose to look in areas that I would have ignored just a few years back. One of the hottest topics in cancer research right now is…

Read Article

Vitamin D and Dog Cancer

Dog lovers will do anything they can to help their dog with a cancer.  And you should! This can be one of the hardest times anyone will face. Many times the effort helps, and other times it may not. This, of course, is not due to any ill intention on the part of the dog’s…

Read Article

Apoptosis and Dog Cancer

Apoptosis and Cancer … what’s the connection? Every cancer shares six characteristics — and a LACK of apoptosis is one of those characteristics. Every cancer suppresses apoptosis, which is why boosting apoptosis in cancer cells can help.

Read Article

Cancer spread, Flax and Dog Cancer

Flax is one of the oldest crops known to man.  Even the ancient Egyptians cultivated it extensively. These days, we don’t see it around much, except in health food stores or the supplement shelves in grocery stores. So why am I writing  about this stuff?  Well, flax has some handy properties that someone  who loves…

Read Article

New Antioxidant Info For Managing Dog Cancer

Got some new stuff for everyone into vitamins and antioxidants in cancer treatment for their loved dogs. Recall we are talking about cancer treatment, not cancer prevention. These are two different categories gang, with different considerations. You may recall also that the big deal is that there has been concern with free radical scavenging, which…

Read Article

Is The Cause of Cancer Really Not Known?

Conventional vets (and I count myself among this group) suggest that the cause of cancer is not known. Well, this statement rests on a faulty premise, because there is no single cause of cancer.  Cancer is the product of many separate steps that all must occur before the disease happens. So of course the cause…

Read Article

Prejudice in viewpoints on Dog Cancer Care

One of the things I realized in my quest for defining what I’ve coined a “full spectrum approach” to treating cancer is personal bias. I am not talking about racial or sexual discrimination of course.  Rather, something I realized that we all carry within us, and I include myself in this, is the presence of…

Read Article

My Dog Has Osteosarcoma: Should I Allow Amputation?

Is amputation a good idea for dogs with osteosarcoma? Dr. Dressler looks at this decision from two perspectives. In this article: life expectancy.

Read Article

What about Ozone Therapy and Dog Cancer?

Ozone therapy is one of those things that people ask about sometimes.  Kind of an odd bird, ozone. What’s the deal with ozone therapy and dog cancer? First of all, what is ozone anyway? Ozone is a gas that can be administered after it is dissolved in liquid, most commonly either IV or as an…

Read Article

Dog Cancer and Food…what’s the Carbo Problem?

Everybody loves sugar. Late night snacks, movies, late afternoon….kids and grown-ups alike….and dogs like their carbs in dog food and in dog treats, which of course are changed in the body to sugars… Cancer in dogs loves sugar too.  Especially sugar.  Cancers tend to gobble sugar way more than fat or protein.  Cancer definitely has…

Read Article

But I want CLA for my dog with cancer!

Dear friends and fellow dog lovers, Here is the follow up on the CLA post… Just for the record, I don’t care for the stuff.  The forms of CLA are all mixed together usually.  At some point they will separate the forms of CLA in the mixture,  and then we can re-assess. At this time…

Read Article

Conjugated Linoleic Acid and Dog Cancer

I received a question about the use of safflower oil for a type of lyphosarcoma (lymphoma) in dogs.  The group of active ingredients in safflower oil is called the Conjugated Linoleic Acids (CLA). There are other things in safflower oil too that have effects, but this is a biggy. So should we be giving this…

Read Article
Ginger to help dogs with cancer. Raw piece of ginger root.

Ginger to Help Dogs with Cancer

Ginger to help dogs with cancer? YES! This inexpensive, great-smelling, pungent root is great for your dog. Learn why and how to use it.

Read Article

Help overcome dog food dangers: which oils for cancer??

Rochelle Lesser, who created and manages a great site for Golden Retrievers (and dogs in general), asked about krill oil on a recent post.  Here’s the skinny on why I like its cancer-fighting benefits (krill are those tiny shrimp that whales eat). First,  krill oil helps offset the omega 6 fatty acid excess I wrote about…

Read Article

Dog food and cancer: help fight this problem!

In the last post I wrote about one of the issues in most commercial dog foods contributing to dog cancer: omega 6 fatty acid excess. This is a group of fats that are found in large quantities in corn products, vegetable oils, and meat products like tallow and lard, to name a few sources. Dogs…

Read Article

Food and dog cancer: omega 6 fatty acids

Many people ask me if dog food has something to do with the development of cancer in their pet.  Before I devoted my time to studying the topic, I never gave it much thought.  Nah, I would say.  Dog cancer is mostly genetic, viral, a few carcinogens…who knows?  “There is no real cause of cancer”,…

Read Article
Scroll To Top