5dogsmom

I wanted to say hi and introduce us. I'm the mom of Daisy Dog who is my just about 13 year old golden girl who was recently diagnosed with a tumor on her heart. We think it's a hemangiosarcoma -but I'm not letting anyone cut her open to get a tissue sample - we did that last year on her liver and it was not fun.

I'm hoping to learn from anyone else out there, about what they've been able to do for their dogs, and their successes. We are about 5.5 weeks into this with Daisy.

Her tumor actually ruptured and she went into cardiac failure (5.5 weeks ago). We gave her 2 emergency yunnan biayao pills in the ER thinking at that point we had nothing to loose. We managed to draw the ER vet that I CAN NOT STAND. (She's quick to push for euthanasia - even in perfectly outwardly healthy dogs who have a tumor "to avoid the pain the dog will experience down the road"... ) anyway - our situation did not look good - Daisy's blood pressure was next to nothing and her heart rate went from 200 + down to nothing. We thought that was it. We went in at 4pm and at 4:30AM she bounced up out of bed and insisted on going outback to go to the bathroom . They checked her and her bp was normal. The yunnan worked!

It is more than 5 weeks later and she's still out there (currently in the back yard) chasing the cats, playing etc and in good spirits. We were given hours to days when we left the hospital... 2 weeks at most.. (I hate it when vets (and doctors for that matter) put time frames on lives.

We are combining the alternative with the conventional for Daisy and although it's still early I'm hopeful.

Here's what we're doing (working with our oncologist, cardiologist and holistic vet)

She is on the following:

- We started with gleevec for 5 weeks - not sure if it worked but we just switched to masitinib (400mg 1 x day) (chemo)

- She is on 3mg of melatonin in the am and in the pm (slows tumor growth)
- Heart Qi (to help strengthen her heart - a Jing Tang herb)
- CAS Formula (strengthen immunity)
- Oncoplex (strong antioxident discovered at Johns Hopkins University) ($71/bottle online)
- Xue Fu Zhu Yu powder / tonic - for her heart and hemangiosarcoma
- Ozone therapy every 5-6 days (gotta find a vet who can do this! will kill cancer and help good cells be stronger
- K9 Transfer formula ($12 online)
- Super milk thistle to support her liver

She also is on yunnan baiyao 2 capisules 3 x a day (I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU DO THIS IF YOU AREN'T Already - it will keep the tumor from bleeding and help with circulation and clotting (good for heart attack patients, bad periods, and stroke too!)

We get it here (as does our vet & the hospital) ($4/ box)
Yunnan Baiyao (Yunnan Paiyao)

***in the center of the package is a small red pill. Covet these pills with your life!!! These are emergency pills. If your dog ever collapses stick one under his / her tongue immediately and it will go into their system fast. (it helps with circulation, as well as clotting if there is internal bleeding (or external for that matter) This is what saved Daisy. In the beginning I was also giving her 1 of these each week as an added security blanket when I'd run out to run errands. (no side effects)

We are also looking into 2 other therapies at the moment

1) Dr. Marty Goldstein's Smith Ridge Veterinary Center - Intravenous (IV) Nutrient Therapy
(his promotional website ) Dr. Marty Goldstein - Home Page

2) My veterinary oncologist has spoken with Dr. Burzynski who has had a lot of luck with humans and helping to get rid of their cancer through customized programs based on certain proteins missing in their systems. We're going to be working with him as she tries to convert over what he's done on humans to the canine world

We're also doing reiki, praying, and crossing our feet, fingers, toes and eyes.

She's always been on a home cooked diet - we just did a little adjustment - and got rid of all fruit and grains (sugars and carbs are what feeds cancer)

She eats chicken, turkey, steak, fish, avacado, brussle sprouts, broccoli, beets (they were added to the diet but I keep thinking sugar???) we removed the sweet potatoes and were told to remove all startches. Tomatoes are in, oranges if she's in the mood, celery and organic no sugar or salt peanut butter is a treat. Non-fat greek yogurt (also frozen is a big treat)

All her food is organic now too..


She's a 13 year old golden retriever who has been exceptionally healthy until last year when she had a sarcoma on her liver. We removed that through surgery and she was all clean.. but we got a little surprise 5 weeks ago that we didn't want


PROGRESS REPORT:
yesterday Daisy went in for her 5 week check up. She had blood work, an ultrasound (she has another less pressing one in her abdomen) and EEG. Blood work looks great! All was within normal limits!!! White and Red blood cell counts were even higher than before. She doesn't have any bleeding, and no fluid anywhere.

The tumor on her heart has grown a little bit, but the good news is that it is no longer hollow and at immediate risk for bursting. Something we were doing, or some combination of it, has made the tumor solid!!! She got the A-ok to go swimming, go for walks again - just no major wrestling with hip checking etc.

We changed her chemo yestrday because of the small growth in the tumor but I'm happy it's no longer in immediate danger of bursting. We think that's b/c of the yunnan baiyao. (this is a chinese medicine that was given to soldiers to stop bleeding when they were injured in the field so they could get back to the hospital. The US military uses it now too and it's becoming more and more commonplace in animal AND human hospitals - often given before surgeries.)

I hope some of this helps someone.. This is not a fun process- that's for sure. I'm just happy we have a great holistic vet, and great conventional vets, oncologists, surgeons and cardiologist (and Pet insurance)!

If anyone has had any experience with Dr. Marty Goldstein or Dr. Burzynski's method (human or canine) I'd love to hear from you!

Chris & Daisy

(This is Daisy from a week and a half ago)
http://www.facebook.com/v/1346840760566

jeanettesavill

HI read your piece on daisy keep fighting you sound like you are doing wonderful unfortunately il lost my dog to mass cell tumour here in uk not so much info and in wales particularily .i had not even heard of some of the things mentioned but i will pray for you and daisy good luck jeanette

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jeanette

Benpaws

Hi Friend,
You certainly seem to be doing everything possible for Daisy. I too lost my Benny almost a year ago at age 6 to Mast Cell Tumour Cancer. I don't know much about Hermangiosarcoma but they are doing a study on 50 Golden Retrievers in our area trying to find the genetic marker which leads to this type of cancer.

This is the link which you might want to read: www.smilingblueskies.com and check under "Studies in Cancer."

The girl who helped us greatly through Benny's illness started this site to raise funds and cancer awareness when she lost her beloved 6 year old Golden Retriever "Blues" to lymphoma in 2001. She was our "angel" throughout the journey with Benny.

My prayers go out to you.

Joanne

jeffers

its an inspiration to read about yours and daisy's fight. you are obviously devoted to her as i was to my cassie and i sincerely hope that she improves and stays happy. i will be looking into yunnan for myself. (i'd never heard of it before) its amazing what you can learn on this site and i wish you and daisy all the veery best.

Wendy

Hello,
I too am fighting the battle against hemangiosarcoma. My dog Tanner is a retriever/lab/heeler mix who was diagnosed a few months ago. The tumor is on his back hip and is to large for surgery. Tanner has gone through radiation and is currently receiving adrimyacin chemo treatments. While he has had no serious side effects from the chemo the tumor is not shrinking. There will be xrays and an ultrasound to see if the tumor has spread before proceeding much further. He had these tests back in Jan. and all of his vital organs were clear. I also completely changed his diet and give him only filtered water to drink. I was very interested in your post as I had not heard of Yunnan. I will definately research it.
Today I noticed the hair on Tanner's back hip where the tumor is- is all gone and his leg shakes while standing. I am very worried by this. Tanner has a chemo treatment on Wednesday so i will be able to show them and pray this is not an indication the tumor is growing.
I am praying for you and Daisy. Keep up the god fight!
Wendy and Tanner

jeffers

hi wendy so sad to hear about tanner, i hope the tests prove to be helpful as it seems you are doing the very best for tanner that you can. good luck to you both

mfhershiser

Hi, I'm Mary Frances and my dog is Rex, also a golden retriever 8.5 yrs old. He has lymphoma and I really admire all you are doing for Daisy. I'm doing some of the same for Rex but we are really just getting started. He was diagnosed about 3 weeks ago today. I'm interested in the milk thistle. I bought some but have been afraid to use it since I didn't know how much or what side effects it could have. I also bought echinacea for immunue support during chemo but after reading some of the side effects it has in dogs, nixed that. How much milk thistle are you giving?

Rex will have second chemo this week and we are very hopeful for remission. Doing all the grain free, low carb, cooking some of his food, cottage cheese and flax oil, whatever I can do. He feels good right now but has much less energy than normal. Also, if you want to give yourself a little break from cooking all the time, check out All Natural Dog Food and Natural Dog Treats by Sojourner Farms for premixed freeze dried, grain free food you can hydrate and use. You can add meat or buy it with meat. I'm also using Blue Buffalo Wilderness dry and canned foods. Totally grain free and high protein, low carb. I like using them to make sure Rex is getting all his nutrients. Using an antioxidant formula too and a "green" pill for extra greens and vitamins. He is on the wisconsin protocol for chemo and I've heard about 80% of the dogs treated with lymphoma according to this treatment protocol, go into remission the first time. Fewer the second time and shorter remissions but we are still hoping to have him around a lot longer.

Our best to you and Daisy from me, Rex, and Priss our other golden. I lost another one named Chelsea year before last to accute kidney failure. She was a fabulous golden as all of them are. I work with a couple of golden rescue groups in AL and GA. I've had Rex since he was 5 wks and 2 days old so I'm determined to keep him happy as long as I can. Sounds like you are devoted to your Daisy too. That's as it should be since they love us so much too. God Bless you in this battle, Mary Frances

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Meesh

Hi Mary Frances,
My dog Hamlet is undergoing chemo for lymphoma. We're on week 10 of our protocol. You can look through the posts for more info. But, I wanted to briefly tell you that we used milk thistle (plus Denamarin, Flagyl, Baytril and Hepatrophin) to get his liver enzymes under control. Hamlet is a chow/retriever mix around 70 lbs and was staged at stage Va, B-cell which means the lymphoma is in his bone marrow as well as his liver and spleen. I was giving him 400mg of Denamarin (which is just a combo of milk thistle and Sam-E) in the morning and 400mg of milk thistle in the evenings. Thankfully, his liver enzymes were all within normal range last week and he was considered in partial remission. I also belong to a support group on yahoo specifically for lymphoma dogs undergoing chemo - LymphomaHeartDogs - that you might find helpful/informative as well. Best of luck to you and Rex!
Michelle & Hamlet

GemBem

Good luck to all of you, I just wished I had found this sight sooner, nothing was really offered to me for this condition and my baby is now gone. Ebony was a flat coated retriever, and 9 yrs old. She got up one night and started limping on her front right leg. 10 minutes later she had collapsed on the floor, heavily panting and no signs of knowing we was there. I called out the vet and we managed to get her to walk to the car. On arrival to the vets he tried to get a line for fluids in, I'm not sure what type but they apparently diluted the blood so they wasn't able to see where the bleed was coming from. She was improving, bloods were nearly where they should be, she had been fully rested. The vet was very pleased with her progress. Then on the Monday 23rd August Ebony was having another collapse. I got her to the vets straight away. They explained that they was going to use different type of fluid. I went home and 1 hour later I got the call to say she had a tumor on the bottom of her heart and it was bleeding into the sac that's around the heart. The vet said he was positive that there was a tumor on her spleen as-well because the bloods were showing signs of it...I will never know now as my baby was put to sleep that day.
If I had found any treatment I would have moved heaven and earth to make sure she was still with me. Ive never been in so much pain as I am now and we all miss her terribly. I feel now that something could have been done and Ive lost my best friend to soon...the pain is incredible xxxxxx

I hope people get to read this and not jump 2 quick as to what the vet tells them

Benpaws

Dear Friend,

My prayers go out to you and I understand how much your heart is hurting with the recent loss of Ebony.

Maybe you could have done more, but do not let "guilt" take over. Ebony knew how much you loved her and she loved you back unconditionally.

Sometimes, we just have to make that final "decision" based on what we are told and none of us wants our dog to suffer great distress in the end. You made a selfless decision for your best friend and you were with her.

Take care of yourself and grieve as you must. Ebony is now free from pain and
always in your heart.

Blessings,
Joanne & Shadow