We Are The Cure Blog | Canine Cancer Information

One word is wrong in the title of this post.

Can you find it?

It is the word “should”.

There is no “should”.

There is no “right” way to feel.

There is no “right” way to act.

What is, is.

What you feel, is what you feel.

There is no more than that.

There is no judgment to your reaction.

If you cry, yell, are silent, laugh, focus on your work, get mad, turn towards friends, turn away, that is just the nature of what is. We all react differently and there is no “one” way. Just let it all be.

Be who you are. Be how you are. Do not allow it to mean anything about yourself. No judgment that you are good, that you are bad, you should feel this, you shouldn’t feel that.

Contributed by Alex in Welderland at www.custompeturns.com Twitter is @CustomPetUrns

Contributed by Nadine M. Rosin, author of The Healing Art of Pet Parenthood http://www.TheHealingArtOfPetParenthood.com

It always surprises me how willing we are to believe that if it’s being sold in a store (even a health food store), it’s safe for us and/or our pets. Recently, a friend of mine alerted me to a post he had read on a dog trainer’s blog about Rescue Remedy. Rescue Remedy is a Bach Flower Essence that has been around for decades, and is used homeopathically to clear the emotional/energy body of trauma. It’s great for dogs who have anxiety about thunder, fireworks, or going to the vet, to name a few. When I first started using it for my dog, Buttons, an 11-year holistic cancer survivor who liver to be 19, it was packaged only in liquid form. These days, it also comes in a spray (which I now use) and eatable candy pastilles (which I don’t). The official RR website also has a form packaged specifically for pets.
Long story short, the trainer had suggested that this pet parent try Rescue Remedy for her dog and the pet parent bought the candy pastilles and gave them to her dog. One of the ingredients listed on that label (pastilles only) is xylitol- a natural sweetener made of corn or birch bark; healthy for humans, DEADLY FOR DOGS!!!

In my opinion, there are two important things to consider here:

1. ALWAYS read the label. If you don’t know what something is, or how it might affect your animal, PLEASE INVESTIGATE. Most vets could tell you that xylitol is toxic for dogs. A simple google search: “xylitol dogs toxic” will generate all kinds of information.

2. Don’t assume anything, but do your own research. The reason why many wonderful herbs have gotten a bad rap is because people were not responsible in learning how to use them. Many herbs are incredibly medicinal at one dosage and highly toxic at another. I have read about herbs referred to as deadly in mainstream publications, that I know from personal experience are beneficial and non-toxic in proper dosage. On the other hand, just because it’s sold in a health food store, doesn’t mean it’s always healthy.

Until our sweet doggies can read and be informed to make their own responsible decisions, it is up to us to do it for them. On the other side of that coin, had I followed Buttons’ obvious opinions about a few of the men I’ve dated, I could have saved myself a lot of heartache!

It has been recorded that dogs can sense when an earthquake or tsunami is coming. Heightened sensitivity to changes in barometric pressure, tremors and other animals may allow them to ‘predict’ a future event, offering a scientific explanation for this particular type of event.

But what about those dogs that save lives? Service dogs are utilized for their ability to predict epileptic seizures or low blood sugar in diabetics, alerting their companion in advance to avert an potentially life threatening episode. It’s not just service dogs who preform these phenomenal acts; accounts of dogs with no training alerting their companions before life threatening attacks are common. How is this possible?

There have been accounts of dogs predicting heart attacks and perhaps most interestingly, cancers. Perhaps the explanation for this behavior lies in our canine companion’s acute sensitivity to changes in odors or changes in behavior that are missed by humans. Rather then being ‘psychic,’ perhaps in addition to science, our dogs are so in tune with that from which we are blocked, they truly can assist us in connecting to that which we are removed from, due to the convoluted structures of modern life.

New studies do conclude that dogs can ’sniff’ out cancer. A major study on this topic was conducted by the Pine Street Foundation, a research organization in San Anselmo, California and more studies utilizing canines to detect cancer are underway.

As dogs can have the ability to smell chemical traces in the range of parts per trillion, dogs are able to discern the breath of lung and breast cancer patients from that of healthy people. Cancer cells emit different metabolic waste from normal cells and these particles can be detected by dogs, even in very early stages of the disease. Previous studies have confirmed the ability of trained dogs to detect skin-cancer melanomas by sniffing skin lesions. It is hoped that dogs will also be able to detect prostate and other cancers by sniffing urine samples. Early detection is vital to a good prognosis for cancer patients and it may be the super-sniffers of dogs that are able to detect disease before any human-made screening methods.

Accounts of untrained house pets repeatedly sniffing or pawing at an area on a family members body are common, only for the human to later find out they have a cancer in the very region that the dog was so focused on. Clearly, the science behind the dog’s abilities are tapping into the natural capabilities of the dog.

This was a guest blog written by Hilary Sloan Canine Aficionado www.caninebark.com

After reading the great blog by our guest blogger Alex of Welderland, I started to think about when we had to put our three dogs down because of Cancer.  I don’t have to tell anyone reading this how hard that decision is, especially right at the time of doing it.

But my wife and I have discovered something that happens with our dogs.  Each dog in their own way, let us know when it was time.  I can still remember when we made the decision for Bailey.  He was the hard one because even with only days left, he was still strong but he could hardly breathe because the Hermangiosarcoma had spread throughout his lungs.

When Bailey let us know it was time, it was at night.  We brush our dogs every night before going to bed and Bailey loved that.  He was up on the grooming table and struggled to breathe but was wagging his tail because he loved to be on the table and brushed.  Then there was a moment when he looked at us in a way that said he was ready, Sara and I both knew without saying anything to each other that it was time, and we just hugged him what seems forever and cried.  The next morning we said good bye to him.

Each of our dogs that have died of Cancer have told us when it is time by a look or an action that in our case makes us know we did the right thing.  But doing the right thing still is not easy and I still sometimes have doubts.  That is why I think Alexandria’s blog was so powerful.

Lymphoma in dogs is one of the most common cancers. While between 80 and 90% of dogs will achieve a complete remission, with conventional chemotherapy protocols the median time to loss of first remission is between 8 and 10 months with median overall survivals ranging between 12 and 14 months. Only about 5% of dogs will be alive at two years. The last major breakthrough for the treatment of canine lymphoma was the addition of doxorubicin to combination chemotherapy protocols around 30 years ago. New therapies to break through this ceiling are desperately needed.

We have recently begun enrolling dogs with relapsed lymphoma in a new clinical trial to evaluate a new type of chemotherapy treatment. We are evaluating response and toxicity. Working closely with the human medical school we have developed a nanoparticle targeting agent. This molecule targets dog lymphoma cells and brings conventional chemotherapy agents to the cancer cells. This has the potential of making therapy for lymphoma both more effective and less toxic.

This work is funded by a grant from the National Canine Cancer Foundation. At the conclusion of the trial we will make more information on this exciting new treatment available on the website

From Wikipedia: “Well into the 20th century, coal miners brought canaries into coal mines as an “early warning signal” for deadly, toxic gases. The birds, being more sensitive, would become sick before the miners, who would then have a chance to escape or put on protective respirators.”

Is it any wonder that with the “pre green” proliferation of chemical laden cleaning and laundry products, building supplies, and monthly flea poison treatments, that our pets are developing cancer at such an alarming rate? In addition to protecting one’s animal from constant exposure to a myriad of possible household carcinogens, our having to negotiate the constant recalls and dangers of an unregulated, processed pet food industry can be an overwhelming and depressing nightmare. But there’s also a deeper issue: when it comes to these everyday toxins that we have become so unconscious about or accepting of, have our cherished, innocent pets become our modern day canaries?

There are MANY things we can do to prevent our beloved companion animals from ever getting cancer. When my 8-year old dog, aka: my adopted daughter, Buttons, was diagnosed with deadly carcinoma and given 6 weeks to live, I launched a massive personal research campaign into the world of holistic medicine. I soon came to learn that “holistic” didn’t mean symptom treating with natural remedies or herbs in lieu of pharmaceutical drugs. Instead, it meant clearing my home environment of all possible toxins, cleansing Buttons’ entire system physically and emotionally, and then giving her the proper nutritional support so that Buttons’ body could do what an unburdened body does best: HEAL ITSELF. Buttons went on to thrive for another 11 years. Exactly 1 week before her 19th birthday, she died peacefully of old age in my loving arms.

Contributed by Nadine M. Rosin, author of The Healing Art of Pet Parenthood TheHealingArtOfPetParenthood.com

I received a donation today like we do everyday.  This one came with a story and a picture like many do.  But this one seem to get to me.  It made me cry.  I did not cry because of the words but because of the what the words said and how the picture looked.

The donor proceeded to talk about Mia and how see went through her battle with Cancer getting steroids and chemo treatments and how she lost her battle with Cancer on February 28 of this year.  I get many emails just like this and everyone is very personal to me and I feel and understand their sorrow since I have lost three of my dogs in the past three years to Cancer.

Then the donor said that they were enclosing a picture of Mia waiting at the Vet for her Cancer treatment just two weeks before she died.  And that picture was what got me.  Look at her, how happy she is, so excited to visit her friends at the Vet. Two weeks later she was gone.  I must do more, we must do more.  The research is there, the technology is there, we just need to be there with our support.

Mia at the Vet

In 2004, the mapping of the dog genome was completed.  This effort was a collaboration of many individuals at many institutions and was funded by the National Institutes of Health. This was done at a cost of over $30 Million. Why did they do this?  Because they recognized that cures for cancer in people may come through studying and learning to treat this disease in dogs

There are several reasons that many cancer researchers believe this.  First, dogs like humans develop cancer spontaneously.  This is not the case in mice and rats in which the majority of cancer research happens now. Treating a mouse with a tumor that was injected into it is a lot easier to cure than a person with cancer. By learning how to treat a dog’s cancer, which has all the complexities of a human cancer, we are likely to come up with treatments that can also be used on people. Also, since dogs age faster than humans and they develop cancer at a younger age than people, cancer trials can be done faster and less expensively in dogs.

While the dog genome is about the same size as the human genome, there is less diversity in it, coming from many generations of breeding for specific traits and breeds.  This makes it easier to find the genes responsible for specific diseases, including many forms of cancer.

So in helping fund canine Cancer research you are also helping fight Cancer in people. For more information on the mapping of the genome of the dog go to http://www.genome.gov/12511476

It doesn’t matter if you lost a beloved pet from Cancer even if they were 12 or 15 years old. It hurts. They are still part of your family and you will miss them every day. But about a week ago I got a donation from a group of employees in memory of another employee who just lost their dog, Chatham to Cancer. Chatham was only 18 months old. And again although losing any aged dog is terrible, seeing Cancer take a dog that is still considered a puppy just breaks my heart.

Chatham 18 month old Labrador Retriever

When I look at the picture they sent of Chatham I see this happy pup full of energy and wanting to play. And, as a usual for a puppy, that is playing all day. Also when I see his picture I get angry. Angry that Cancer took his life. Then I get determined. Determined to find a cure.

I don’t even know what I can say to the owners of Chatham to ease their pain or stop the sorrow they feel when they enter the house and are not longer greeted by a bouncing, happy go lucky lab puppy.

I am sorry falls short in my opinion. I guess the most heartfelt would be “I am trying to make sure Chatham does not die in vain”