Patenaude

Nearly 11 years ago, I adopted two dogs from the Connecticut Humane Society. Their names, Maggie and Claire and they are sisters. Last August of 2009, Claire had an incident where she had some bleeding from her month. Shortly after that, a black mass quickly developed and I took her to an emergency vet. They, as I, believed it was melanoma. They advised me to take her to a more suitable facility for treatment, Ocean State Vets in Rhode Island. They removed the tumor and another that had developed in her lymph nodes in her neck. Shortly after, we started with the vaccine which was predicted to give her two more years of quality life. Afterward, the tumor in her lymph nodes grew back, but never really got very large. Also, the regular chest x-rays on her lungs (every three month)always showed that they were clear. Then this July of 2010,Claire developed a limp in a front paw. We had heard that the cancer can spread to bones. We took her to her regular vet who prescribed some medication which helped her limp. Since she was scheduled for another vaccine treatment and x-rays at Ocean State, he suggested that they x-ray her leg than. When we did, we were informed that not only did they discover destructive lesions on her elbow, but a large mass in her lungs that weren't there three months ago. This was all suspected as melanoma. The vet told us Claire had maybe 4-6 weeks left. Unfortunately, Claire's health declined rapidly and within two weeks she was gone.
I am not sorry for anything that I did for Claire. Maybe I should have gone the holistic route, as one of my friends tried to convince me to go. By the time I was willing to try, Claire was too weak to injest anything but some water. I did what I thought best and everything stayed well until last month. One issue that I do have is I am worried that her sister, who I still have, may also develop melanoma. I'm not sure on what to do except check her for lumps. Has anyone out there been though anything similar to this? I also hope that my story will help anyone else going though the same thing that I am.

Benpaws

Dear Friend,

Please know that my prayers will be with you and I am so sorry to hear about Claire's story with Melanoma and ultimately dying. It is good that you feel you did everything you could for her and really much was out of your hands since the cancer had spread.

It is understandable that you would worry about Maggie and perhaps now would be the time to change her diet to "grain free, high in protein, filtered water, perhaps the Budwig Protocol of well blended organic cottage cheese with organic cold-pressed flaxseed oil." I used to prepare this daily for Benny who lost his battle with Mast Cell Tumour Cancer at age 6. He weighed about 28 pounds and got 1/2 cup of the mixture divided in 3 equal portions. I made it fresh daily.

You might want to check with an holistic vet and find out supplements which might boost Maggie's immune system and keep her healthy. We gave Benny wild salmon oil capsules daily along with other supplements. A friend of mine is giving her healthy dogs seal oil which she also takes herself and finds it higher in antioxidants than any other fish oil.

By doing this you will not only boost the present health of Maggie but could very well prevent her from ever getting cancer.

We don't know how Benny got his cancer, but he had almost 18 very good months once we changed his diet. We fear that yearly vaccinations could have been the culprit so with our new puppy Shadow we are just getting " titers" done yearly to check his blood levels and his immunity. He just had his annual checkup and his results were "high" so NO VACCINATIONS this year. He gets a "Rabies" shot every 3 years which is the law! We so hope we can keep the demon CANCER away from this outstanding puppy.

God Bless you and good luck with Maggie. Please let us know how things are going.

I am sure that you will get some excellent information from others here.

Joanne & Shadow