What Is The Best Supplement for Dog Cancer?
Dr. Demian Dressler is internationally recognized as “the dog cancer vet” because of his innovations in the field of dog cancer management, and the popularity of his blog here at Dog Cancer Blog. The owner of South Shore Veterinary Care, a full-service veterinary hospital in Maui, Hawaii, Dr. Dressler studied Animal Physiology and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California at Davis before earning his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University. After practicing at Killewald Animal Hospital in Amherst, New York, he returned to his home state, Hawaii, to practice at the East Honolulu Pet Hospital before heading home to Maui to open his own hospital. Dr. Dressler consults both dog lovers and veterinary professionals, and is sought after as a speaker on topics ranging from the links between lifestyle choices and disease, nutrition and cancer, and animal ethics. His television appearances include “Ask the Vet” segments on local news programs. He is the author of The Dog Cancer Survival Guide: Full Spectrum Treatments to Optimize Your Dog’s Life Quality and Longevity. He is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Hawaii Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association of Avian Veterinarians, the National Animal Supplement Council and CORE (Comparative Orthopedic Research Evaluation). He is also an advisory board member for Pacific Primate Sanctuary.
Updated: February 22nd, 2019
We are faced with some hard choices when in a war against dog cancer. The truth is, as dog lovers, often we feel pretty undergunned and overwhelmed, with choices that range from not-so-great to downright awful.
One of the difficulties many have is the choice among the supplements discussed in this blog or in The Dog Cancer Survival Guide. In the Guide I write about a rotating plan, using the main supplements for a period of about 2 weeks or so and then rotating to new ones.
Get a copy of this informative guide to learn more on supplements, diet, and other tools that could help your dog with cancer
Why is this?
The answer lies in the information we have available, or lack thereof.
As it turns out, actual studies yielding information comparing the effects of a given supplement with the effects of another supplement simply do not exist. We are not talking about test tube studies here, everybody. Test-tube studies are all over the place and can be meaningless when used in living animals.
I am referring to a comparison, in living bodies, preferably dogs, between EGCG and curcumin, as an example. Or Artemisinin versus Neoplasine. And so on.
The data simply is not yet available to us!
So what do we do? The answer is this: we rotate between them. In this way we are able to average out the effects so we get an overall benefit that was greater than if nothing was used. Say Luteolin works really well for a given dog’s T-cell lymphoma, but in another dog with hemangiosarcoma it does not work that well. Or it works well in early lymphoma but not in late lymphoma.
Since we just don’t know, but we can gather evidence that it has worked in lab animals, test tubes, and in my personal research in some dogs, well, let’s use it! But can we bank on it for all dogs with all cancers at all stages? No, we cannot.
Thus, use a couple of your big guns, for 2 weeks or so, and rotate to new ones. You can keep the leftover pills for the next rotation!
Best,
Dr D
Dr. Demian Dressler is internationally recognized as “the dog cancer vet” because of his innovations in the field of dog cancer management, and the popularity of his blog here at Dog Cancer Blog. The owner of South Shore Veterinary Care, a full-service veterinary hospital in Maui, Hawaii, Dr. Dressler studied Animal Physiology and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California at Davis before earning his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University. After practicing at Killewald Animal Hospital in Amherst, New York, he returned to his home state, Hawaii, to practice at the East Honolulu Pet Hospital before heading home to Maui to open his own hospital. Dr. Dressler consults both dog lovers and veterinary professionals, and is sought after as a speaker on topics ranging from the links between lifestyle choices and disease, nutrition and cancer, and animal ethics. His television appearances include “Ask the Vet” segments on local news programs. He is the author of The Dog Cancer Survival Guide: Full Spectrum Treatments to Optimize Your Dog’s Life Quality and Longevity. He is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Hawaii Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association of Avian Veterinarians, the National Animal Supplement Council and CORE (Comparative Orthopedic Research Evaluation). He is also an advisory board member for Pacific Primate Sanctuary.
[…] that was greater than if nothing was used,” explains Dr. Dressler in his blog post “What is the Best Supplement for Dog Cancer? “. . .use a couple of your big guns, for 2 weeks or so, and rotate to new ones. You can […]
Hi Dr. Dressler,
My 13 yr old Shi Tzu had just found sufferring in diabetes and a big tumor (or lump) right below the heart, near lung. Dr has not determine what it is but probably cancer. As he is at old age, has 3-5 level heart attack and bladder stone before, we decided not take him to do the operation. What supplement can we treat him to reduce the tumor(or lump) and probabilty of cancer?
Best regard,
CC
Dear CC,
I would spend some time learning about the Dog Cancer Diet, beta glucans (K-9 immunity), apocaps, artemisinin, omega-3’s, and the other approaches discussed in this blog and the Guide. You can use the search bar on the right side of this page, and for more complete discussions get the Guide, which is easy reading.
I send you best luck
Dr D