Panza, a Cancer Survivor

Let’s hear it for little Panza who is doing well despite cancer.

Cancer is a devastating disease that affects half our dogs and one-third of our cats. For many forms of cancer we don’t have tremendous success with conventional approaches. For example, even with surgical removal of a cancerous spleen (hemangiosarcoma), dogs live an average of 19-61 days. Panza had surgery last February and, 6 months later, is still doing well.

Several things contribute to Panza’s ability to live beyond the normal lifespan of a dog with a splenic tumor, the most important of which is her family’s love. Every day she has fun. Panza receives short walks and weekend outings. She receives hot, home-cooked food, skin care, & baths.

In addition, holistic therapies have helped extend Panza’s life:
1. Premium nutrition with emphasis on proteins, fresh deeply pigmented fruits and vegetables
2. Herbs such as Yunnan Pai Yao that help limit bleeding
3. Herbs such as Blood’s Palace that promote movement of energy and prevent “blood stasis”
4. Homeopathy for toxin clearance
5. Acupuncture tune ups

When Panza’s family first began working with me after her surgery in February, we were realistic. We discussed the possibility that Panza, like many pets with this type of cancer, could develop a sudden internal hemorrhage and die. Still, we created a plan that looked at Panza’s overall health, including her allergies, arthritis, tendency to diarrhea with a diet change, anal sac scooting, and proceeded. We came up with a whole new way of feeding her. We selected ideal supplements, fatty acids, vitamins and herbs. We acupunctured her weekly, then monthly. We did everything we could from a holistic veterinary perspective, including prayer, and Panza has benefited.

Panza is one example of how well a pet with a loving family can do given holistic veterinary support. In upcoming Caring for Pet blog entries, we’ll talk about some of the others.

HERE’S TO PANZA’S FIRST SIX MONTHS FOLLOWING SURGERY FOR CANCER!

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Anesthetic and Non-anesthetic Dental Cleaning for Pets

Should your pet have dental work done by a veterinarian while it is anesthetized? Or, can your pet take advantage of the less expensive non-anesthetic dental work that is being offered by some vet clinics?

There’s a big difference in the price of anesthetic dental treatment compared with the price of non-anesthetic dental treatment, but there is also a big difference in what can be done to your pet’s teeth. How do you know which is best?

Here are six questions that I use to help clients understand whether anesthetic or non-anesthetic dental treatment would be best for their pet:

1. Does this pet have a truly stinky mouth with abscesses? Yes, then it’ll need teeth pulled, so please request an anesthetic.

2. Does this pet have painful teeth that should be extracted? Yes, then please request anesthetic.

3. Does this pet hate to have its mouth handled? Yes, then allow it to be sedated. This either can be full-blown anesthesia or an injectable sedation rather like valium.

4. Is this pet naturally haywire? Yes, then request sedation or anesthesia so the miniature jack hammer used to bust off tarter will not accidentally put a hole through the roof of your pet’s mouth.

5. Does this pet have a so that positioning it in a technician’s lap for the nonanesthetic dental can be painful? Yes, then request anesthesia or sedation so your pet’s head and neck can be positioned and maintained in comfortable way.

6. Does this pet have serious dental problems and serious heart, kidney, or liver disease? Yes, then request a sore neck nesthesia, but also request a cardiac and blood oxygen monitor, IV fluids, and herbs to help the liver detoxify the anesthetic.

Anesthesia scares many pet families and they are right not to take it lightly. If families have pets that are calm and have minimal dental disease, they’re candidates for anesthesia-free dental care. If pets are aggressive or regular rodeo candidates, they need anesthesia or sedation. If the dental disease is severe, pets need anesthesia.

There’s a delightful video on non-anesthesia dental care by Jan Rasmussen, the author of Scared Poopless. The video is at http://www.dogs4dogs.com/.

After you watch the video and answer the questions above, you’ll have a good idea whether your pet is a good candidate for non-anesthesia dental care.

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Pet Nutrition and Yorkshire Terriers

Good pet food is essential to good pet health.

Food, in addition to love and exercise, keeps our pets healthy. So why, when we’ve so many pet foods available to choose from, do we have such unhealthy pets? Wait, you don’t think of pets as unhealthy? Think again. Half of our dogs develop cancer. One third of our cats develop cancer. About one in five of our large spayed dogs becomes incontinent. Bladder problems in cats are so common that they support many cat-only practices. One in ten dogs that I see has severe allergies. More than half the dogs I see have painful arthritis, bothersome enough that they limp. Does this sound like health?

What’s food got to do with all this suffering? Well, our pets’ bodies are made from what they eat. If they eat great food, they’ll have healthier bodies.

Great food is not great advertising. Purina, Pedigree, Science Diet, and Hills have great advertising, but not good food. Prove this to yourself. Compare the ingredients of these foods with what your pet would eat if it were in the wild. Actually think about your pet’s genetics and what its ancestors ate for thousands of years.

Here’s an example: Yorkshire Terriers developed in Yorkshire England. Historically, that is, for thousands of years, Yorkies would have been fed beef, wheat, and barley but they would not have been fed fish, avocado and tomatoes because these foods are not native to England—the shipping of produce around the world has come only in the past few hundred years.

One of the aspects that develops over centuries is the DNA for digestive enzymes. Thus, our Yorkies naturally developed digestive enzymes that work best with the foods they normally received, such as beef. This is why offering Yorkie packaged foods with corn, fish, avocado, or soybeans is likely to produce a dog that is not optimally healthy.

Appetite is not the key to whether the food is good for a pet. Sure, a Yorkie may enjoy eating food with corn and soy but that doesn’t mean it’s good for your Yorkie to eat every day any more than eating at McDonalds every day is good for our kids.

We’ll cover more breeds and food issues in upcoming Caring for Pets blogs.

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Pet Euthanasia and Quality of Life

The Quality of Life Score was developed by Dr. Xie of the Chi Institute in Florida. Filling it out helps us evaluate how a pet is doing and whether euthanasia would be wise.

Pets in great health have scores of 500; good health, 400-500; ok health, 300-400; poor health, 100-300; exceptionally poor, <100.>Quality of Life Score

To obtain the score, figure out the Life Score, then subtract Pain Score, and reach the Quality of Life score. Follow these steps:

1. LIFE SCORE

For following six categories, rank 1-100 with 1 being lowest score and 100 being absolutely wonderful. Add the points for a Life Score.

• Overall happiness


• Urination (difficulty or leakage)


• Defecation (difficulty or leakage)


• Appetite


• Activity & Mobility


• Mental status

2. PAIN SCORE
Give a pain score from 1-100 with 1 being pain-free and 100 being incredible pain.

3. QUALITY OF LIFE SCORE
Multiply Pain Score X 2 and subtract from Life Score

Complete QoL score as often as is helpful. For very ill pets, QOL might be done daily. For moderately ill pets, QOL might be done weekly or monthly.

Be sure to give scores for the present circumstance, not for how your pet was yesterday or how you hope it will be tomorrow.

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Pet Euthanasia, A Thank You

It’s difficult for holistic veterinarians to deal with euthanasia as often as we do; we all suffer when dogs and cats are ill and dying.

To help clients during the end of a pet's life, I encourage them to use both the heart (right brain) and the analytical, critical left brain. Most of us with dying pets have a sense of what is in our hearts, but we don't know how to critically evaluate this emotional situation with our left brains. To help the left brain contribute to the decision of when and if to euthanaize, I encourage pet families to complete a Quality of Life sheet. The QOL sheet gives us a numerical sense of where the pet is and how it is progressing one day to the next. We’ll post a Quality of Life sheet on the blog in the next day or two so you can see what's involved.

Here is an example of how a client, Lois, felt after we discussed euthanasia and Buddy's quality of life. I saw Buddy when visiting Dr. Nancy Keller’s Healing Heart Hospital. To Lois, and all those who’ve expressed thanks at how we work together to make euthanasia decisions, I say, “You’re welcome.”

Dear Sue,
I wanted to say how much I appreciated the time you spent with our little family while you were here in Florida. Your quality of life quiz was exactly what I needed to be clear about how Buddy really was doing and what made the most sense for him.

Your gentle nature and the beautiful way you handled Buddy and Hope were just what we all needed that day.

Buddy died two days later. Nancy said he “rocketed” out of his body and I believe that. He was a very active dog and sickness was not part of his nature.

Once I was ready, he let me know that he was ready. I think he had been sticking around until I got a clue.

We miss him very much, but are using the Spirit Essences you recommended and I know they are helping all of us…including the cats.

Thank you for being such a wonderful doctor and such an extraordinary person.
Our Best Regards,
Lois L,

While I can share Lois’ letter with you, sorry I can’t share the cookies she sent. For the cookies, the hard working staff at Founders Veterinary Hospital say, “Thank You!”

Euthanasia is the most difficult decision that I help pet families make. It's an honor to have your trust so that we can make these decisions together.

We'll post a Quality of Life sheet soon on the Caring for Pets blog.

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What causes black hair to fade to brown?

Calypso is a primarily black mixed-breed dog (probably Aussie & Shepherd) with some areas of black hair that are turning slightly brown or copper-colored. His skin and coat are healthy and shiny, so we know it’s not an infection or unusual endocrine disease. What, then, could be causing Calypso’s coat to fade? Let’s consider

• genetics,
• hair loss,
• sun bleaching,
• drugs, and
• food,

and see what is most likely to cause this change.

Genetics that changes black hair to brown
I don’t suspect Calypso’s change in hair color is due to genetics. There is a genetic tendency called aurotrichia (gold hair) in some dogs, but usually these are Schnauzers

Hair loss
Let’s check if Calypso has two coats, an outer coat of long guard hairs, and an undercoat of a different color. If Calypso has black guard hairs that have been shed to expose a brown undercoat, we could have an apparent coat color change. But, that’s not happening as Calypso’s bronze hairs are long guard hairs, all the same length and texture.

Sun bleaching
Can Calypso’s bronzing be due to sun bleaching? No. This fella doesn’t spend hours outside on the deck, and is usually walked early in the morning or later during the day when the sun isn’t bright. And, if it were due to sun bleaching, we’d see the effect mostly on the topline. Calypso’s bronzing is in small areas, a little off the topline, over the ribs.

Drugs that change hair color
Next, we check whether Calypso’s change in color could be due to drugs, since some drugs affect the skin and hair. Calypso isn’t on steroids, antifungals, chlorambucil, or antacids, such as Pepsid. So, no drugs commonly known to change coat color are responsible for this bronzing.

Foods affecting coat color: copper, tyrosine, zinc
Copper
Let’s check the diet. A deficiency of copper or of tyrosine can cause bronzing. Is Calypso getting healthy portions of the following copper-rich foods--oysters, shellfish, beans, nuts, kidney & liver, whole grains, sesame seeds, barley, turnip greens, and molasses? Ok, most of us can’t afford healthy portions of oysters and shellfish, but we trust Calypso is getting some of the other copper-rich foods, especially liver.

Tyrosine
Is Calypso getting healthy portions of the following tyrosine-rich foods-- tofu, chicken, turkey, fish, avocados, lima beans, yogurt, cheese, bananas, and avocados? We suspect he is, because he receives home-made chicken stew frequently.

Zinc
What if Calypso is getting healthy amounts of copper-rich and tyrosine-rich foods, but he is getting even more zinc-rich foods? Because zinc interferes with copper absorption, zinc-rich foods can decrease the amount of copper he is able to absorb. Zinc rich foods include: oysters, legumes, cereals, & meat, such as lamb, beef, poultry, and pork. If Calypso is getting more of the zinc-rich foods than copper-rich foods, we may have an imbalance that causes bronzing of black hairs.

In addition, feeding milk and eggs interferes with copper absorption.

What should Calypso’s family do?
Rather than add vitamin or mineral supplements, Calypso’s family should vary the food he’s receiving and increase the amount of copper-rich foods. If the bronzing continues, Calypso should be given enzymes so that he can absorb more of the copper he’s being fed. If this doesn’t work, we will add a mineral supplement, and do some lab work to ensure his organs are all functioning properly.

Black hair fading to brown is another example of how important food is to pet health.

As always, food should be part of our solution to pet health issues.

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What Kills Dogs? What Kills Cats?

Top 3 diseases that kill dogs: cardiac, cancer, kidney.
Top disease that kills cats: kidney.

Can we do anything about these diseases? Yes. Lots.
Nutrition, herbs, acupuncture, and homeopathy are great tools for helping sick pets. Over time, we'll talk about how each method benefits these pets.

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