Winston the warrior! With an ulcerated carcinoma near his left eye* (lengthy read/lots of info)

[JocelynR]

My sweet boy has dealt with a growth on his face for quite some time now, he came to me at 4/5 years old from Animal Defense League and has been through quite a bit emotionally and physically, from struggling with allergies and being dependent on Apoquel and suffering with hip dyplasia as well as living with/coming from a very dysfunctional family with 6 other dogs... I took him in thankfully in 2016 and have kept him on a raw and cooked food diet for the past 2/3 years with some kibble mixed in(until recently when we went full raw) This helped him get off Apoquel and with regular exercise and massages myself or my boyfriend performed on his hips, they seemed to be doing great.


He is a Mastiff mix weighing 60lb and is approximately 10 years old now. He is the gentlest/sweetest boy you can imagine, and he even learned to bark for the first time at 6 years of age!


(side note) When I took him in it's like he became a puppy again! He was so happy to have his own toys and bed and home. I thought he was relatively very healthy and doing great until we started dealing with a growth on his cheek near his left eye......


His growth started as a mole he would scratch at and just continued to grow, as it got more and more irritated. (It maintained a relatively small size, the biggest the size of a quarter until recently when it has reached apx. The size of a pepperoni (4cm)!) He also mastered removing his Elizabethan cones... I started taking him to a local VCA in about 2018. The vet there wanted to remove the mass but upon a wellness panel, discovered he had heartworms so the removal was postponed for about a year and a half. He conquered his heart worms using a tincture called HWF from a really awesome company we found called Amber Naturalz, Here is the link to the medicine we used and their website! HWF For Dogs | Ditch The Un-Natural Chemicals | Supports A Clean Heart

VCA was not happy that I treated this naturally and did not believe the negative result we got when he went in for his retest. It was by the grace of God the Nurse we had that day mentioned a homeopath we had in town and We sought her help right away and said goodbye to the VCA for good!

Our Homeopathic Vet had so much compassion and believed that the mass was due to a tooth root abscess and wanted to perform a dental surgery. (His breath is pretty stinky) but I do brush his teeth at least once a week with VetzLife Oral Care Gel.


Sadly, our homeopathic vet passed away before we were able to do the surgery and it took us about a month to get in with another vet that was referred to us. (She passed February 2020 and we started seeing the new vet at the end of March 2020)

This vet stated she believed in integrative medicine, but seemed so disappointed and almost judgmental about Winston's condition. She pressured me into putting aside my homeopathic ways and as she stated "Why risk it"... so she prescribed Amoxicillin and Carprofen and later against my better judgement, convinced me into giving Winston 2 doses of HeartGuard+ Brown, Credelio Blue... and on April 6th she said we needed to eliminate his itchiness all together and gave him a Cytopoint injection as well... about 2 weeks after the injection Winston’s mass and left cheek swelled up, I rushed him to the vet in a panic. She sent us home with Prednisone and Doxycycline. She said to use these medicines until his wound would dry up a bit and we would finally do a wellness panel and prepare for surgery. She said there was nothing to be concerned with on the panel but that his thyroid vitals were low... She said she wanted us to get a second opinion from the Mission specialty vet in San Antonio, who is an Oncologist, the oncologist did an aspirate and said what I had dreaded all along.. That Winston had Cancer and His tumor was a Carcinoma... Worse than that she said that even they did not feel comfortable performing the surgery as the mass is in close proximity to his eye. We were told our only capable surgeons would be at the A&M Veterinary institute in College Station... (side note) I'm a full-time student and Work for an elementary school so I could not necessarily afford this continuing passing off and risks we were bring dealt with no reassuring answers.


This had left me at a standstill...I decided to take Winston s health into my own hands!! He started eating the cleanest diet I could provide of only Organic Cancer fighting Fruits and veggies and I closely followed Anthony William's Pet Health Blog and Information. I did start him on a multitude of supplements as well as CBD and weaned him from the Prednisone and Doxycycline as I read you should not stop immediately but rather start spacing out their doses until it can be relatively nonexistent. It was from Anthony's Pet Health Blog that I found HomeVet and the wonderful resources offered here. I am eternally thankful for that.


I've been giving Winston 1.5 Oz of celery juice every morning, followed with an afternoon smoothie of Wild Blueberries & Bananas and then a dinner of fresh organic veggies and supplements such as, Ester C, B12, Lemon Balm, Zinc, Turmeric and Curcumin, and sprinkled barley grass and spirulina on his food as well as Mary Ruth's Probiotics for Dogs... I pretty much got everything Anthony mentioned lol.. I recently even added Olive Leave and Pau D'arco to the list...


Yesterday morning the 17th, Winston woke up extremely swollen on his left cheek where the tumor is and seemed weak and slept all day... I broke out the Prednisone and Doxycycline as a quick fix and help as I knew if I rushed to my vet that is most likely what she would send us home with. The swelling went down substantially but later that night (the 17th) after a walk he started shivering! We cuddled and he eventually stopped and fell asleep. Thank GOD!


Today (the 18th) I had my first phone call with Dr. Jeff So I am feeling very hopeful!


As I studied more from the multitude of resources here, I learned that supplements can actually have adverse effects if they are not specific enough to Winston's own deficiencies.


SO this Friday we will be getting Winston the Paw5 Snuffle Mat, Onco Support, & Inflam-Ease from Natural Pet Rx .


In the meantime, I am cutting back on Winston’s supplements and focusing on Including Healthy foods. When we get the new holistic medicines Dr. Jeff recommended, we will only be taking those and continuing our raw fresh diet. I am thinking of still giving him the prednisone once a day until the swelling has gone down and I can get the new Holistic medicines in the mail.

*Attached is the documented diagnosis from the Oncologist May 4th 2020*

QUESTIONS;

Should I pursue surgery for the mass removal for Winston?

I read that Cancer patients should avoid carbohydrates and sugars, Does this include Natural sugars from fruits? As well as carbs from sweet potatoes?

Winston has also started eating grass fed beef. I am curious if he is in a condition to eat it raw? I have been cooking it stove top so far. He also is not the best chewer when he eats and swallows some veggies whole! Does anyone think it would be okay to blend up his food to help his digestion?


If you have read all of this, I am ever so thankful and appreciative of you!!!

I just wanted to share our story and am interested in any thoughts or help that could possibly be provided ?


Thank you to everyone at Holistic Actions! You are angels & Hero’s!


Peace & Health be with you all!!

Sincerely,

Jocelyn

 

[JocelynR]

This is Winston's Wound on March 6th, 2020. before taking all the medicines and Cytopoint from Our new vet. I truly believe these to have triggered the massive growth and inflammation.

 

[Dr. Christina]

First, Winston has been so blessed to have come to your home.

Thank you for sharing his healthy story. There are many lessons that others can learn from it.

The most important one right now, I think, is your concern about using drugs until the swelling is down. Some swelling can be the body naturally healing itself, so since you are now a patient of Dr. Jeff (if I read you correctly), be sure to check with him about continuing any drugs along with the homeopathic remedies.

Using drugs as a "quick fix" is mostly indicated if the symptoms are immediately life threatening. While we do not want our pets to "suffer", it is usually best to not suppress the body's attempt to heal itself. As you saw, the lump was smaller but he shivered a lot.

I would definitely not recommend surgery. In the homeopathic thread we have several posts on not removing or quickly stopping symptoms, especially skin ones. In 40 years, I saw better BEAM and quality of life when we could avoid removing growths.

One example was a 16 year old german shepherd who had a bleeding, oozing, horrible looking growth in the corner of one eye which had started several years before. Her attempts at homeopathic remedy selection made it worse, almost covering the eye. As we worked through several remedies, she became more active, gained back her hearing for a few weeks (that convinced a skeptical husband that homeopathy did something), and after 9 months completely resolved the tumor along with incredible energy and playfulness.

You may want to try some of the new cloth collars to stop the rubbing. Maybe a talk with a pet intuitive can help Winston stop rubbing the tumor.

I would definitely work with Dr. Jeff as to which supplements are needed, as you are so right that often too many can stress the body.

Maybe check if anyone near you has a BEMER machine to see if that helps him.

I would experiment with cooking the meat less and less to see how he does with a more raw meat (and organ meat) diet. Definitely it is best to very finely puree any vegetables - raw and cooked - for every dog's diet. Chunks can be given for fun and play if dogs like them. Puree for nutrition.

Hang in there, and check out www.Brighthaven.org for more guidelines working with potentially terminal problems.

Dr. Christina

 

[JocelynR]

Hello Dr. Christina, thank you so much for your response!

You are correct, I am indeed a patient of Dr. Jeff now, we started conversing about a week ago and I am very excited and thankful for the support ?

The picture where Winston’s wound is small, is from this March, the picture where it is larger is how it looks currently ☹
It blew up in size at the end of March after the dreadful Cytopoint injection. I am desperate to get the growth to decrease in size.

I am so relieved to hear it is best to avoid surgery! That is what my gut was telling me.

Hearing that story of the German Sheppard has given me so much hope! That is an incredible recovery!

+I am very curious as to what remedies worked for that dog? Winston too has had ear issues in the past from allergies and I do think his ears have been itching him lately. Do you have any recommendations for allergy ears? I know there are some ear rinse recipes on google, but not sure if I should trust them.

+ As well as any tips for dental health? His breath is quiet stinky and his gums are a little swollen, particularly where the tooth root abscess is on the same side as his tumor. He also has a gum growth/nodule on the opposite cheek, inside his mouth. As I stated on the first post, I do brush them once a week, but not sure if that is doing much. I also give him apples and cucumbers to crunch on as treats.

+I will certainly investigate Cloth Collars; do you have any recommendations of any? As well as any Pet Intuitives?

We tried this “Comfy Cone” with him, but it was Velcro and he would still get it off very easily...

***Yesterday, while I ran some errands Winston got out of his cone and got into the litter box! Unfortunately, this is not the first time he has done that, his bowl movements are still normal, and I do not see any differences in him as of yet, but is there anything I should do in situations like this where he gets into the litter? As it worries me greatly. I have started putting a gate there, so hopefully it will not happen again.

I will investigate if anywhere in San Antonio offers BEMER treatments. As well as Explore BrightHaven.org, I listened to the respiratory 5 talk with Dr. Gail and that gave me much hope.

Dr. Jeff and I discussed Onco Support as well as Inflame-Ease and of course a snuffle matt. I ordered all 3 yesterday and can’t wait to receive them for Winston! I am also waiting to hear back about a cancer Salve from Dr. D'Adam.

He is still taking 20 mg of prednisone, once a day, but we are going to start moving to every other day and stop completely once the inflame-ease comes in. But his cheek swelling has gone down substantially and the tumor is finally drying up somewhat and is developing a scab.

He is also loving his newly improved blenderized dinners and the rare cooked meat, we will work towards completely raw meat and be trying some liver soon!

+I had read on one post that cancer patients should avoid too much glucose or carbohydrates.. Does this include from fruits and veggies such as sweet potatoes, apples and berries?

Please let me know if you have any other suggestions,
& Thank you again Dr. Christina ?

God bless!

Sincerely,

Jocelyn

 

[Dr. Christina]

Since you are a patient of Dr. Jeff's, you will not want to give a homeopathic remedy except the ones he prescribes, which will be based on all of the symptoms, past and current. For acute cases (like Cindy Panera's thread on her own bee sting) you can select remedies. Because Winston has deep imbalance, if you give additional homeopathic remedies, even for an acute problem, they could interfere.

Learning how to repertorize (Monday Empower Hour), and reading about remedies can help you make suggestions to Dr. Jeff, and to notice symptoms you may have not thought of.

The remedy the German Shepherd needed was based on how the tumor looked, how she responded to the tumor (averse to touch), her deafness, personality and past medical issues. Nitric acidum was one of her remedies.

Keep reading about how our symptoms reflect the underlying imbalance. I know you are "desperate to get the growth to decrease in size", but your more powerful goal would be to improve energy, behavior, appetite, mood, - quality of life.

Check with Dr. Jeff about ear rinses to be sure they are not suppressive. Your goal is to merely soothe the ears right now, while restoring balance. Often dogs live very long lives with itchy ears. Rescue remedy or other flower essences (read Empower Hours on Flower Essences) can help. Put 4 drops into some olive oil, or mullein ear oil and drip a little in the ear. Or the herbal drops from Animals' Apawthecary is good. Almond oil can help.

Mouth odor is a reflection of imbalance, so it will improve as the tumor resolves and again, it may get worse then better, then worse, as changes are happening in the general vitality. Watch when he eats the apples and cucumbers - are they big enough pieces that he actually is biting into them so the teeth are in contact? You may want to try big hunks of raw meat/heart/tripe to see if he has to chew a bit longer. If he does not mind, I would brush daily.

Hoping others have suggestions for the pet collars.

One great source for intuitives is www.animaltalk.net. Kate Solisti (www.katesolisti.com) will be doing an empower hour July 20. Gail Pope recommends July Berrin www.thetemplecat.uno.

In the short term, do not worry about the litter eating. It is one of the early warning signs of internal imbalance, so as all the more serious symptoms resolve and no drugs are present - leave the gate open to see if that symptom resolves.

BEMER could be from a human, not necessarily a vet practice.

Dr. Christina