The Dog Cancer Survival Guide (35 page)

With this advice and your vet’s input, you can make an informed decision about what your next steps are ... and be confident that you will have no regrets later.

Many of the treatments Dr. Ettinger and I recommend – whether they are chemotherapy agents, other pharmaceuticals, dietary changes, botanical nutraceuticals, or brain chemistry modifications – have potent effects on the body. For this reason, I strongly urge you to check out treatments with your vet and/or oncologist.

Be aware that some vets may not be open to hearing about Full Spectrum treatments. They may not believe that anything unconventional could work for cancer, and some may worry that even discussing these treatments is offering you “false hope.”

If you encounter this resistance, my best advice is to remain calm and kind. None of us really knows what will work for your dog – including Dr. Ettinger and myself – so getting upset or deciding that your plan is “the right one” is counter-productive and not in the spirit of Full Spectrum care.

Every recommendation made in the pages of this book is backed up by thorough and extensive research. Sometimes, seeing real-world research helps to loosen up a resistant mind.

If your vet can’t support the treatments you want to use, because he doesn’t believe they will work, you can refer him to
Appendix E
for references. Every recommendation made in the pages of this book is backed up by thorough and extensive research. Sometimes, seeing real-world research helps to loosen up a resistant mind.

If your vet gives you a concrete reason not to use a treatment – for example, because it will interfere with another drug your dog is on, or because it will harm him due to some other factor – then, by all means, take your vet’s advice. Dr. Ettinger and I cannot offer you advice which replaces that of your vet or oncologist, and we did not write this book with that intention. Your vet or oncologist is going to have the fullest picture of your dog’s health from a medical perspective.

(There is value in a second opinion, too. If you and your vet are in disagreement, bringing in another opinion can help you to decide what to do. I include lot of advice about how to work with your vet in
chapter 22
, including a long list of questions to ask your practitioners. )

You have probably heard of Lance Armstrong, the champion bicyclist, who not only fought cancer and won, but also, went on to win the Tour de France. Lance is an icon of persistence, courage, and belief in self. That’s why I find it so interesting that Lance looks up to children for their ability to face the odds. He once said about cancer, “If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: Give up or Fight like Hell.”

Whether Lance faced cancer or the Tour de France, he encountered several obstacles at once, just as you are, with your own dog’s cancer. It may help you to remember that dogs – much like children – have no interest in or knowledge of their odds.

Dr. Ettinger put it perfectly when she said that helping dogs is easier than helping the guardians, because dogs – bless their hearts – don’t know they have cancer. They don’t know they’re supposed to be scared. They don’t have to obsess over whether a treatment will cause side effects, or whether they will outlive statistical survival times.

“If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: Give up or Fight like Hell.”

-Lance Armstrong

You may have heard words as devastating as “two weeks” or as relatively hopeful as “one year” – but your dog has no worry or fear about his prognosis. He simply exists.

Part of him is gloriously, gorgeously
alive
.

To the degree that you can adopt Lance’s child-like, hopeful, flexible, open-minded attitude, your Full Spectrum mindset will benefit immeasurably. It’s what got Lance through cancer and kept his feet spinning and his heart pumping in those long, grueling bike races.

To fully address your dog’s cancer, I advise systematically working through five separate steps. It may seem a little involved, but it’s worth your time and effort. Here are the five steps, each of which is covered in detail in the following chapters:

Step one:
Conventional Treatments (and how to manage their side effects)

Step Two:
Nutraceuticals

Step Three:
Immune System Boosters and Anti-Metastatics

Step Four:
Dog Cancer Diet

Step Five:
Brain Chemistry Modification

Depending upon many factors, you may ultimately choose to use tools from each step, or only from certain steps. For now, I recommend you become familiar with each step, so that you can make informed decisions later.

As you read through the next five chapters, your Full Spectrum plan will start to take shape. No matter how urgent it seems for you to take action immediately, I recommend holding off until after you have read the final part, called Making Confident Choices. In that section, you’ll find more information about life expectancy and life quality, and I will help you walk through the decision making process in a step-by-step fashion. There are many medical and personal factors to weigh, and approaching this in a systematic fashion usually results in a plan you fully understand and can follow with confidence.

A
ccording to studies, conventional medical cancer treatments usually cost between $5,000 and $8,000 – which is often reason enough for guardians to walk right out the door. Much depends, of course, upon what treatments are used. Single treatments, like surgery, may cost $2,000 (or less), while multiple or multi-modal treatments that include surgery, chemotherapy and radiation might soar to $10,000.

This chapter provides a general overview of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy treatments, including how to manage their side effects. For specific information on conventional treatments for common dog cancers, look in Dr. Ettinger’s “From the Oncologist” section. Here, she describes the most common dog cancers in detail, including how each affects the body, what diagnostic tests are usually run, and prognostic factors. She also gives her advice about the best-of-breed conventional treatments for each cancer. Make it a point to read her introductory remarks and her chapter on your dog’s cancer. Also, if she mentions specific chemotherapy drugs, be sure to look them up in the chapter on chemotherapy,
Chapter 41
.