Natural Pet Health

A crash course on canine cancer, for all dog lovers. Covers prevention, diagnosis, treatment options, side effects, diet, supplements and home care. Medical animal writer Kaplan shares journey with her own lymphoma survivor, Bullet. A must read for those who have a dog with cancer…. More >>

Help Your Dog Fight Cancer: What Every Caretaker Should Know About Canine Cancer, Featuring Bullet’s Survival Story, 2nd Edition

It is because of the ineffectiveness and toxic side effects of prescription medication that Natural Remedies are gaining popularity.

Dogs Are Sicker Than Ever

Today, Diseases like dog diarrhea, diabetes, Crohns Disease, and IBS, are epidemic. Unknown diseases are frequently misdiagnosed! Almost every dog over the age of ten has some form of canine cancer. The number of dogs maintained long term on prescription medication is at an all time high. The pain, suffering, and expense are daunting. What is causing these problems?

“Fully 90% of all disease is caused by an unhealthy digestive system.” Royal Society of Medicine Great Britain

Three Causes of Dog Diarrhea, Dog Cancer, and Most Everything Else

While pursuing longevity for domestic pets, the medial fraternity did not probably bargain for the accompanying risks of cancer, which is mostly seen in older pets. Moreover, as long as we feed an unnatural diet to our pets and abuse the environment, pet owners are likely to continue facing problems with cancer in their pets. Seeing pets die slowly killer diseases like dog liver cancer and lymphoma in cats is indeed not something that any pet lover would want.

Many of us do not realize that it is natural for animals to resort to ‘self treatment’ in the wild. Most of them nibble at things that are actually not their natural diet. It has been seen that this happens only when the animal is not completely healthy and therefore is actually a means of herbal self medication. This forms the basis on which herbal and natural medicine for pets is based.

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.

If cancer was treatable with conventional cancer therapies it would have ceased to be a dreaded disease. The fact, however, is that cancer is as frightening today as it was when it first became known to medical science.

The irony is that patients are compelled to submit to therapies that we know are not extremely efficient. In addition, conventional cancer therapies for canines are tantamount to poisoning your dog. These conventional therapies are as fearful as the disease itself. To make matters worse there is no true freedom of choice because alternative therapies are denied approval due to lack of institutional support.

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:

Adapted from The Healthy Pet Manual: A Guide to the Prevention and Treatment of Cancer by Deborah Straw (Healing Arts Press, 2005). http://www.care2.com/

Garlic has been given medicinally to humans and animals for at least 4,000 years. In the past 20 years, 2,000 studies have been performed on garlic’s impact on our most serious, widespread illnesses. One report concluded that the herb may have direct benefits against the “seven major diseases of our time: Hypertension, hyperlipemia (high cholesterol), heavy metal intoxication, infectious disease, free-radical damage, cancer and immune deficiency disease.”

According to Walter Last’s research, garlic protects against metastases and inhibits the growth of existing tumors. It also strengthens the immune system and allows the liver to detoxify more effectively.

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.

Given that your dog has lived with you and provided you with comfort as a companion, it is your duty to take care of your pet if he is found to be afflicted with a specific disease. The amount of care and companionship that your dog may need increases and becomes more important especially if the disease is terminal in nature.

Cancer in dogs is one such disease where detection happens in the later stages, rendering treatment almost immaterial and useless. In such cases, love, care and comfort are the three things that you can provide for your dying dog.

The success of any cancer treatment is directly related to the stage at which it is detected. There are strong possibilities of cancer in dogs spreading to vital organs making surgical removal an impossible task.

All cancers do not occur as tumors that can be seen on the surface of the body. And therefore these tumors are not too easy to notice and monitor. In many cases malignant cancer symptoms manifest themselves as symptoms that are related directly to the organ it affects.

Symptoms like gastrointestinal bleeding or diarrhea are associated with a tumor in the stomach, small and large intestines or colon. Similarly, cancer in hormone producing organs surfaces in the shape of endocrinal disorders and brain or spinal cord tumors are associated with neurological symptoms.