Natural Pet Health

Despite a good prognosis for some types of cancer, due to the fatality and toxicity of the medication associated with it, pet owners are often confronted with a dilemma whether to go for a treatment or not. Most of the times, cancer in dogs occurs in old age making dogs more vulnerable to the side effects of conventional treatment. Surgery has a limited scope in as far as it can only excise parts of the tumor.

There is a dire need for exploring new areas of cancer treatment. Despite significant developments in this field, a lot more needs to be done to develop new strategies and drugs that target only cancerous cells and spare the normal cells.

The development of any new treatment needs to be done keeping in mind that any medication should cure the disease with a minimum of side effects. To achieve this goal the therapy has to target and destroy only the cancer cells while it allows the normal healthy cells to live.

Let us try to understand how radiation and chemotherapy work to kill malignant cells. These therapies make use of the fact that malignant tumors have cells that grow rapidly by division whereas the normal cells are mostly in a resting stage. Chemotherapy attempts to intervene at the DNA function of cells to divide and multiply thus leaving the normal cells alone.

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The question what causes cancer has been one of the most frustrating questions for scientists involved in cancer research. Despite huge amounts of funding and resource being spent on the subject, there is still an element of doubt behind what causes cancer. At the most we know what the risk factors are because most of the causes carry an element of doubt along with them.

An important risk factor behind the development of lung cancer in humans is cigarette smoking. But cigarette smoking does not cause cancer on its own because there is strong evidence of many heavy smokers who do not develop cancer. Genetic predisposition and a change in genetic messages caused by carcinogens combine to cause cancer. For example, age may be one factor that has been identified.

This is because advancing age allows for a series of changes in the body that can lead to the transformation of normal cells into cancerous ones. Risk factors are important in as much as they have the ability to affect genes responsible for normal cell functioning.

In dogs and other pets, risk factors like smoking and other items of human use are of little importance. Most of the factors that increase the risk of feline cancer and cancer in dogs can be classified under two categories:

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The spleen in the body is the storehouse of blood. It also functions as an organ for destroying old red blood cells and holding blood for emergencies. It is an important part of the body’s immune system. Located just below the stomach, in emergencies such as a hemorrhage, it springs into action to provide blood for replenishing the loss. Even though life can be normal without a spleen, its absence, however, predisposes infections.

The spleen constitutes of a red soft surface containing two different types of pulp - white and red. While the red pulp functions as a mechanical filter removing unwanted substances from the blood, the white pulp helps to fight infections.

A growth in the spleen signifies abnormality and the presence of cancer cells needs to be investigated. A growth leading from the red pulp is usually a rare malignant neoplasm characterized by rapidly proliferating anaplastic cells known as hemagiosarcoma. It is derived from blood vessels lining blood-filled spaces.

Growths arising from the white pulp are either mast cell tumors or a lymposarcoma, which is the more common type of feline cancer rather than canine cancer. Two third of all spleen tumors signify cancer in dogs . Again about two third of all malignancy in spleen arises from the red pulp causing hemagiosarcoma.

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Recent studies reveal that the food that you feed to your pets has a significant role to play in the development and progress of cancer in dogs as well as feline cancer .

You should feed animal proteins to the dog and avoid proteins sourced from grain and plants. Plant based protein causes more harm than good even to healthy dogs. If your dog is suffering from cancer, plant protein can promote the growth of cancer cells rather than restrict it. Feeding raw meat is a better option as commercial foods may not be prepared properly. Raw beef, chicken, turkey, fish, lamb, goat and pork are natural foods for dogs and they supply the necessary proteins and fats that help in strengthening the immune system.

Some foods like sugar, for example, may actually promote development of cancer in dogs. Pets get energy from fats and proteins. The carbohydrates derived from grains provide no benefit to them. Grain is broken down in sugar, which in turn causes a multitude of problems including yeast infection, allergic dermatitis, stomach upsets and cancer. For a dog suffering from cancer all carbohydrates should be sourced from foods that have a minimal effect on blood sugar levels.

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We all know that temporary treatment and relief from cancer in dogs is possible but a permanent cure is not, especially when metastasis has occurred and affected vital organs. Small localized cancers are curable and a dog can live a normal life. Benign tumors do not technically fall under cancer and can be removed surgically without fear unless of course a vital organ is involved.

Treating cancer, including canine and feline cancers with chemotherapeutic drugs is beset with dangers. Most veterinarians are against the use of these drugs since the affects are sometimes worse than the ailment. Mostly veterinarians suggest chemotherapy if the dog owner insists and is adamant to prolong the life of his dog, irrespective of its quality.

If you are looking for a better quality of life rather than just adding the number of years, you should look towards a holistic treatment for cancer. A natural approach is devoid of toxicity, has no side effects and attempts to fight cancer cells in a natural way. Success, of course, is not in your hands but you can provide a comfortable life to an already beleaguered animal.

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Cancer is actually an uncontrolled growth of cells resulting from an accumulation of changes in the structure of the genes that control cell division and multiplication. Melanoma is one of the several malignant neoplasms, usually of the skin. The affected cell is mostly melanocytes, a cell in the basal layer of the epidermis that produces melanin under the control of the melanocyte-stimulating hormone. Benign and malignant skin tumors are a common form of canine and feline cancer.

Melanoma cancer in dogs occurs commonly in dark skinned animals, usually in areas under haired skin, as small, dark brown to black lumps. In certain cases they may appear as large flat wrinkled masses. Other areas where melanomas can also appear include mouth, digits and behind the eye. A swelling or increase in size of lymph nodes is the first clinical sign of a malignant melanoma. Although the pigment called melanin is the distinctive characteristic of such tumors, some melanomas may not display a darkly colored pigment.

Malignancy is established with the aid of a microscopic examination. For this purpose a small piece of the tumor is cut off and evaluated. The pathologist then grades the melanoma according to how rapidly the cells are proliferating. This gives an estimate of the likelihood of metastasis.

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The liver is a multifunctional organ in the body. It is involved in practically all the biochemical processes that go on in a healthy body. It transfers food into energy, detoxifies waste materials, synthesizes proteins and also serves as a blood reservoir. It is natural for any disorder in such a versatile organ to affect other parts of the body. Moreover its capacity to act as a life preserver is so enormous that it can function efficiently even when nearly 70 to 80% of its mass is affected by any disease, even if it is liver cancer in dogs.

The natural corollary of the liver’s multifunctional role and its reserve capacity is that the liver can keep your dog alive despite a major infection or a huge tumor. The fact that the symptoms of liver cancer in dogs tend to be non specific or mimic symptoms of other disorders adds to the problem. More often than not the symptoms can remain hidden till the disorder has advanced to an untreatable stage.

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With the amount of funds, time and effort that has gone into cancer research, one would think that it is high time that there was a permanent cure or vaccine to prevent the disease. Despite the enormous progress that has been made in this field, science is still far from a permanent solution for human as well as canine cancer.

Every now and then we keep on hearing about vaccines for different types of cancers. For example a study revealed that the human papilloma virus was significantly effective in preventing vulval and vaginal cancer lesions in women. Another significant development reported in recent times is that of a conditional approval of a vaccine for canine melanoma.

It is difficult to treat advanced melanoma regardless of whether it occurs in humans or dogs or as a form of feline cancer . In later stages the melanoma is extremely resistant to chemotherapeutic drugs and radiation. This resistance led to a need to look for new modes of treating the deadly cancer. The emphasis was on developing a vaccine that would rein in the immune system.

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The location of oral and pharyngeal cancer presents an immediate danger to the life of the dog. The growth causes an obstruction in the oral passage that is difficult to operate and excise.

Benign oral cancer in dogs presents a good prognosis as it does not spread and invade the bones or other tissues like malignant tumors. Benign tumors are well defined and limited to an area while malignant tumors metastasize to nearby as well as distant organs of the body. Treating malignant oral cancers often poses a challenge to surgeons as they are difficult to access. There is aslo an accompanied risk of disfiguration as well.

Early detection is elemental to the success of treatment. Symptoms of oral cancer normally appear in the mouth as:

* Abnormal lumps.
* Overgrowth of gums.
* Bleeding.
* Lesions and sores.
* Difficulty in chewing and swallowing.

But these symptoms do not surface in early stages like the symptoms of liver cancer in dogs and show after it is already too late.

Three types of oral cancer are known to develop in dogs and cats. Oral feline cancer is rarely benign.

* Squamous cell carcinoma.
* Fibrosarcoma
* Malignant melanoma.

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The situation with regard to pet cancer has undergone a dramatic change. With advancement in pharmaceuticals and surgical procedures, it has now become easier to diagnose, treat, manage and improve the quality of the life of you canine friend.

To understand how tumors and cancer in dogs start, it is important to first get an inside view of how your dog grows in size. Similar to the growth process of any mammal, the cells in your dog also multiply by division. This process starts right from the time when a female egg is fertilized by the male sperm. Over and above the replacement of the cells that die over time, there are new cells that are formed.

As the dog matures into full size, cell multiplication is curbed to a certain extent. Now only dead cells are replaced as per the needs of the body organs. If the immune system is weak, the factors responsible for regulating replacement of dead cells are compromised. This results into an unregulated growth of cells that can leads to a single cell giving rise to a mass of cells that the body does not need. This unregulated growth of a mass of cells results in a tumor.

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