Just thought I would give everyone an update on the dog as it has now been 3.5 months since his diagnoses.
there have been many ups and downs with Tommy. Just when I thought he was pulling through he would go down again. The good news is he has been consistently good for about 2 weeks. There is no longer any blood visible in the feces and the amazing thing is he even managed a 3 mile walk yesterday lunch time, although he was very tired all day. I no longer have to give him supplements / food in a syringe as his appetite is amazing. When I was out yesterday he even jumped onto the kitchen counter and eat an entire birthday cake!
Despite these positive developments I can definitely see a sizable lump at the back of his bowel very close to the anus. My guess may be that the other cancer has gone but this remains. Due to the place of the cancer I wonder if it would be better to administer supplements (Curcumin ?) directly into the Anus? It will then be in direct contact with the cancer, without having to go through the digestive system?
As for supplements the only thing he has at the moment is:
Curcumin
Sellenium
Resveratrol
C600
I stopped the Vitamin C a long time ago as I found it was making him sick and did not seem to help. After all dogs synthesize their own vitamin C.
His diet consist completely of chicken or fish with plenty of vegetables (Broccoli, peas, carrots etc)
I am very tempted to try another cycle of Mebendazole where I will give it to him for 3 days with a 2 week gap. What do people think? Does anyone have any other recommendations?
Thank you for posting the news. This is really impressive considering the seriousness of your dog's condition. It sounds like he may be healing or at least you've given him some respite from all the extreme discomforts he was experiencing.
He's definitely feeling better if he can successfully attack a whole birthday cake. A certain amount of enjoyment is huge, even when maybe it's not so healthy!
I have found with my dog, (very similar symptoms to yours but older) that exercise needs to be used with caution. Though he absolutely needs to walk and play regularly, he weakens easily and can also have a lot of post-exercise pain. This fluctuates a lot. Twice he has been 24 hours or less away from euthanasia. But always, he rallies. So I measure out the amount of exercise much like I do with his meds. Pain control was very helpful, again has to be managed carefully, as one med is an opiate and the other is an NSAID. I also add fats in moderate amounts; coconut oil and pastured butter, and raw pastured beef and lamb fat.
I am also giving him bone broth as much as possible. Part of his problem is leaky gut, which is probably what gave the intestinal cancer a way to grow and infiltrate. Another part of his problem is pain and weakness from wrecked joints and bones. The bone broth addresses both problems, though pain management with conventional drugs is equally important. Though he was never overtrained in a fashion that would wreck his joints, he was indoors a lot and did not, until he got sick, have an optimal diet. I believe the processed dog food and inclusion of "trash food" such as soy meal, corn meal, etc in his dog food over time, degraded his gut, immune system, his joints, and this ultimately caused and accelerated cancer. He was also always very vaccine sensitive, to the point where I had to stop having him vaccinated due to seizures and anyphilactic shock.
Good luck with anal administration of supps andor meds. If he will tolerate it and you can carry on with that for a while, it could possibly do the trick to take out his cancer.
I don't understand enough about Mebendazole to comment helpfully, but if you think it helped him before maybe it's worth a shot if you can guard against the negative side problems. Even if it's not directly acting on live parasites, it is possible that parasitic cysts were causing part of his problem, so Mebendazole could be really helpful. Those cysts can probably become cancerous if the dog's immune system and gut are already compromised.
Some recommendations I was given, from a naturopathic vet and from the farmer who raises my grassfed meat:
Bonebroth is therapeutic, the vet gives it to her 3 and 7 year-old dogs with great results
Probiotics can be very helpful for dogs with digestive problem, possibly healing or preventing cancer.
Raw food is therapeutic, grind up the veggies though, and do not include onions, garlic, or avocado
Give dogs raw bones frequently (raw bones act as a heavy sedative on both my dogs!)
The Farmer said he's seen many a working dog heal from similar symptoms on a diet that includes a lot of bone broth and raw fat from grassfed livestock, mostly beef and lamb. He gives away the bones and fat, so he doesn't have a profit agenda on this recommendation.
I'm very glad you updated, I was wondering what was up and hoping for the best. Tommy's story is very impressive. He got lucky having you as his caregiver!