Immune Suppression
Prednisone for Dogs: Uses for Dog Cancer and Other Medical Conditions, Side Effects, Alternative Options, and More
What is prednisone for dogs, why is it prescribed so often, and how can it help your pup? Read on for everything you’ve ever wanted to know about prednisone for dogs—including uses, side effects, dosing, and more…
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Full Spectrum Cancer Treatment for Dogs to Optimize Your Dog’s Life Quality and Longevity
Forget dogma: Full Spectrum Cancer Care includes ALL cancer treatment for dogs that work, no matter where they come from. Just what helps YOUR dog.
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Giving Your Dog Chemotherapy at Home, Safely
Have to give your dog chemotherapy at home? Dr. Susan Ettinger, DVM, Dip. ACVIM (Oncology) has tips to keep you and your loved ones safe.
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Prednisone for Dogs: When to Start with Lymphoma
Prednisone for dog lymphoma may be recommended. It’s true, it treats lymphoma, and is used a lot in chemo. BUT … using it too soon could be a mistake.
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Spay/neuter and the association with cancer in dogs: part three
Spay Neuter Golden Retriever: Early spay and neuter have several profound long-term effects for one of our favorite breeds.
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Heterocyclic Amines in the News
I’m happy to report a news article highlighting one of the subjects, carcinogenic heterocyclic amines, discussed in the Guide. The Mercola article discussed a publication about finding this substance, PhIP, in dog fur (as an aside, not all dogs have fur, as some have hair, but that is a different story!). PhIP is in a…
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Is There A Reason For All This Dog Cancer, part 2
In my last post, we looked at some of the connections between the environment, diet, and cancer development. We also examined how similar cancer is to the body’s reaction to an injury, as if it were healing a damaged or wounded organ in a deranged way. Today, I’ll continue some of my thoughts about why…
Read ArticleImmune System Fuel
Dogs with cancer, especially widespread cancer, have a lot of different health issues that need special attention. The cancer has a way of overtaking and affecting many different body systems. In order for us to beat the odds in any consistent way, we need to tend to each of these different cancer effects. As readers…
Read ArticleAbnormal Immunity and Cancer
Cancer is a very strange and horrible creature. The disease in very similar in dogs and people, and this post will use information from human literature so you can apply it to your dog. There are several ways the immune system is involved in cancer. One of the problems afflicting cancer patients is their immune…
Read ArticleMan Meets Dog With Same Brain Cancer Treatment
A recent article in USA Today featured a man who met a dog receiving the same kind of experimental brain cancer treatment. Two years ago, John Huls underwent surgery, chemotherapy and radiation for a brain tumor. He opted against continued chemotherapy and radiation for brain cancer treatment due to side effects. He then enrolled in…
Read ArticleCCNU Use for Lympho Rescue Protocols
Chemotherapy in dogs is used differently than in people. In people, there are protocols that might in some cases eliminate the cancer for many years. In dogs though, the cancer usually comes back, many times in months. (For this reason, we use a wide variety of treatments above and beyond chemotherapy in the Guide). However,…
Read ArticleWhen Infection Looks Like Cancer
Many times cancer can be misdiagnosed as infection in dogs. How does this happen? Cancer diagnosis is not as strait forward as it may seem. The reason for this is that we do not always have a simple test for internal cancers. The standard of care in testing for cancer is a biopsy. To get…
Read ArticleChemo side effects: What should I do?
Chemotherapy does have side effects that need to be considered. About 5% of these will require your pet to be hospitalized, on the average, and there is a 1% chance of fatal reactions overall with chemotherapy. Although I have not seen any published data, unpublished estimates on overall risks of any side effect are roughly…
Read ArticleWhy Test For Heartworm But Not Cancer?
I was recently thinking about a little problem us veterinary professionals are faced with. We seem to have forgotten about relative risks. A relative risk is simply the risk of something in comparison to something else. Take the risk of cancer versus the risk of heartworm in a dog on heartworm preventative. Now, I am…
Read ArticleFantastic fungus and dog cancer..medicinal mushrooms!?
Yes, you read that right. Certain kinds of mushrooms have immune boosting and anti-cancer effects. Some examples of these mushrooms include Shitake (yes, the same one we eat in Chinese restaurants), Maitake, Reishi, Cordyceps, Coriolus, Agaricus and Cordyceps. The good folks over at Aloha Medicinals have known about this forever. I spoke with Dr. John…
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