The Dog Cancer Survival Guide (46 page)

PRECAUTIONS

Check with your vet before using cordyceps, because it can have several effects on the body, which may affect other treatments. For example, it can increase the body’s natural cortisone production. If your dog is on other drugs that are related to cortisone – prednisone, prednisolone or dexamethasone – adjust the doses accordingly. In general, I recommend reducing cordyceps to one-third the doses above; ask your vet’s advice. If your dog has Cushing’s disease, do not give him cordyceps.

Cordyceps decreases blood sugar, so it should be used with caution in diabetic dogs, and possibly avoided altogether. Humans with high blood triglycerides (blood fats) can experience dry mouth, rash and stomach upset on cordyceps, so, if your dog has high triglyceride levels, you may want to avoid it.

You may have heard that coenzyme Q10 (also called Co-Q, CoE-Q, CoQ10 and ubiquinone) is a good supplement for cardiac problems. I recommend it for dogs who are on chemotherapy drugs, which are known for their toxicity to the heart (such as doxorubicin).

CoQ10 is a naturally-occurring antioxidant, produced in the body and taken in through the diet by eating red meat and organ meat (livers, hearts, etc.). Dog species in the wild probably get a lot of CoQ10 from their diet, because they eat the organs first, before turning to other parts of their prey.

Studies have shown that humans with a wide range of different cancers tend to have low CoQ10 levels, and supplementing with this potent antioxidant improves their survival times. In addition, there is some very interesting evidence that CoQ10 may help alleviate depression, which makes it very useful in addressing that facet of cancer care.

While I do like CoQ10 for patients at risk for heart toxicity, it has some bioavailability issues, so I do not recommend it for most dogs. If your dog is on doxorubicin and at risk for cardiac side effects, it’s a good addition to your cancer care plan (to get the most benefit, start CoQ10 before doxorubicin treatments begin). CoQ10 comes in softgels or capsules, which can be purchased in health food stores or from online retailers. Some vet clinics also sell CoQ10.

HOW TO GIVE CO-Q 10 TO YOUR DOG

CoQ10 is a fat-soluble supplement, which means that it does not get absorbed without some fat present. Mixing it into food, along with some krill oil or other omega-3 fatty acid (see the anti-cancer diet in
Chapter 14
), will help your dog’s body absorb the antioxidant.

Start giving your dog CoQ10 about a week before the use of doxorubicin or other drugs, which cause heart toxicity. Give roughly 1 mg of CoQ10 per pound of dog’s body weight, once daily (for example, if your dog weighs 50 pounds, give 50 mg). Depending upon your dog’s weight and the size of the capsule, you may have to split up capsules (if you can’t be exact in your dosing, get as close as you can).

Some dogs will experience an upset stomach (loss of appetite or vomiting) on a full dose of CoQ10, even if it’s given with a meal. In these cases, I recommend splitting the daily dose in half and giving it twice daily, which seems to work for the majority of dogs with sensitive stomachs.

PRECAUTIONS

As this supplement has anti-oxidant effects, the argument against its use may come up when a dog is on conventional pro-oxidant therapeutics such as: busulfan, carmustine, lomustine, chlorambucil, cyclophosphamide, cisplatin, carboplatin, ifosfamide, mechlorethamine, melphalan, thiotepa, dacarbazine, procarbazine, bleomycin, dactinomycin, daunorubicin, doxorubicin, idarubicin, mitomycin, mitoxantrone, plicamycin, etoposide, teniposide and radiation therapy. In the case of doxorubicin use, however, I feel the use of CoQ10 gives a benefit that outweighs any treatment negative. In the studies available, which were in humans and rodents, there was no loss of treatment efficacy with its use, combined with doxorubicin. The use of antioxidants to protect against heart toxicity is not new; the FDA approved the commercial antioxidant called dexrazoxane for this use in humans. (You can also read more about doxorubicin on
page 400
.)

CoQ10 can affect blood sugar regulation, so check with your vet about using it if your dog is diabetic.

CoQ10 safety studies have not evaluated its effects on infants, pregnant mothers or nursing mothers, so consult with your vet before using it, if your dog is pregnant or nursing.

“It was easy to get caught up in the insanity of trying to decipher what the vets were saying, looking for additional information to help with decisions, searching for others with similar experiences, and those things associated with such a horrible diagnosis that took away from the bond with the dog, the very thing we were scrambling around trying to figure out how to help. Doing the emotional management exercises, while a little underwhelming at first, were very valuable and reminded me”

- Brad Burkholder, Galt, California

T
he cutting edge nutraceuticals discussed in this chapter are being investigated for use in human cancer treatments because they are apoptogens: they trigger apoptosis in cancer cells. Each has been evaluated with placebo–controlled, double– blind studies and shown to kill cancer cells in test tubes and (in some cases) shrink tumors in laboratory animals – but they have not yet been developed commercially for medical use. I’ve used them and seen good results in dogs – results that, many times, replicate those published studies.

These apoptogens are studied in both U.S. and international laboratories, but they are not drugs. They are plant extracts (many of which contain bioflavonoids) and some of them come from food that you may eat on a regular basis. In addition to their impact on cancer, these agents create fewer and less intense – if any – side effects than most conventional cancer treatments. (I don’t think of natural–sourced apoptogens as a substitute for conventional treatments; in fact, some seem to work well when used at the same time.) As we continue to learn more about how these brand–new tools work, we may find that what we know today is only the tip of the iceberg.