Honey the Dog Survives 5 Years Past Lymphoma Diagnosis, Passes Peacefully in Her Sleep
Molly Jacobson is a writer and also the editor of The Dog Cancer Survival Guide, published by Maui Media. A lifelong dog lover and self-professed dog health nerd, she is all too familiar with dog cancer. She has been supporting readers of this blog since the beginning. Molly earned a BA from Tufts University, and after a career in bookselling and book publishing attended The Swedish Institute to become a licensed massage therapist in New York State, licensed by the medical board. Her fascination with health is both personal and global, and she is most proud of how this site and the associated publications have revolutionized not only our approach to dog health, but our own health.
Updated: May 15th, 2024
Summary
This True Tail comes from Lyn in New York City. Honey survived aggressive T-cell lymphoma five years past diagnosis!!
Sometimes you just need some Good News, am I right? Especially if you have a dog with cancer.
Well, I have a wonderful story to share with you, about a dog named Honey who not only beat her cancer but lived well past her “expiration date.”
If you’ve read The Dog Cancer Survival Guide, you know that we include dozens of “True Tails.” These little snippets of stories from former readers are meant to inspire and inform and make the reader feel supported by other dog lovers.
On page 166, you’ll find the following True Tail from Lyn in New York City.
Honey the Dog’s True Tail of T-Cell Lymphoma
“My mixed breed/pitt was diagnosed with t-cell lymphoma in October 2009 when she was nine and a half years old. At that time I found The Dog Cancer Survival Guide on the internet and have used it as my guide to Full Spectrum treatment.
That has included a full course of chemo (Wisconsin Protocol, and recently a modified second course).
As soon as our vet was sure she was able to handle the chemo with little side effects, I added a number of complementary protocols based on Dr. Dressler’s book: we switched to grain-free dog food (a mix of wet and dry) and ordered Apocaps (at that time it was still distributed in powder form). I also incorporated K-9 Immunity caps and Salmon Oil into her food.
As it is difficult to get a dog to take the caps, I open them and add to her food. In the case of the Apocaps – which she gets twice a day half hour before meals – she gets the cap contents mixed with small bits of boiled chicken in the chicken broth – and loves it.
Everything else (we have recently added liver and joint support meds proscribed by our vet) is crushed and added with the K-9 Immunity to her dried food, which is then pre-bagged for an entire week’s servings and added to her wet food.
Although this seems complicated, we have it quite organized, and she has been thriving so far.
I think it is necessary to mention that there is a significant financial cost to taking this path. In our case, I believe the complementary protocols – particularly Apocaps and the K-9 Immunity caps – are what kept Honey’s immune system strong enough to hit the lymphoma hard (we were told t-cell was an aggressive form), and we have had the resources (and ongoing results) to make that decision an easy one.
Our primary vet told us that Honey only had a few months without treatment, and our oncologist was wary because it was the t-cell, not b-cell, variety. It’s now a full year and a half since her initial diagnosis and I’m hoping she can make it through at least one more summer so she can go up to our lake and muck around with the frogs and chase chipmunks again.”
And here’s the text of an email I received from Lyn in early 2015:
From: Lyn P*****
Subject: Honey
Message Body:
Just wanted you to know that Honey the Dog, featured in your book The Dog Cancer Survival Guide, passed away peacefully this week. She was 16+ years old. Diagnosed with cancer and treated with chemo over 5 years ago, on Apocaps and K-9 Immunity ever since. She wagged her tail until the end 🙂
That’s an amazing achievement, and one we should celebrate. There really is hope for dogs with cancer!
As always, quality of life is the goal. If you don’t have a copy of Dr. Dressler’s amazing book, I think you should get one. I know it’s helped me personally, and hundreds of thousands of dogs over the years.
If you have your own True Tail you would like to share, please let me know in the comments or on this page.
Warmly,
Molly Jacobson,
Editor, The Dog Cancer Survival Guide
The book that Lyn used to plan Honey’s full spectrum cancer plan is less than $10 in digital form and sold everywhere fine books are sold.
More True Tails
Riley the Dog Thrives Despite Soft Tissue Sarcoma and Lung Cancer
Molly Jacobson is a writer and also the editor of The Dog Cancer Survival Guide, published by Maui Media. A lifelong dog lover and self-professed dog health nerd, she is all too familiar with dog cancer. She has been supporting readers of this blog since the beginning. Molly earned a BA from Tufts University, and after a career in bookselling and book publishing attended The Swedish Institute to become a licensed massage therapist in New York State, licensed by the medical board. Her fascination with health is both personal and global, and she is most proud of how this site and the associated publications have revolutionized not only our approach to dog health, but our own health.
Hi Molly, our precious beloved Jack who is an American bulldog and is 12 years old was diagnosed with lymphoma cancer and was told if he was on the prednisone regime it would be three months textbook case that he would live. After doing research I backed him off of the prednisone to one every other day and added a supplement with us variety of mushrooms and also an immune builder life gold, he is now going on seven months. His lymph nodes have come back in his neck one behind one leg and one in his chest. We took him to the vet and she was amazed that he was still alive. She recommended him going back on a high dose of prednisone to see if the lymph would go into remission again but did not think he has a long to live. We are interested in giving Jack Apocaps as we’ve read some of the reviews however we are very confused with what to do with prednisone? will that negate the effectiveness of the Apple caps? Or should we not do prednisone at all ……which would give him the best quality of life? I do believe in doing the immune boost, life gold and the mushroom extracts has helped him to live as long as he has…. however the lymphs have come back… We would greatly appreciate your recommendation. Thank you so very much, Julie
Hi Julie! Prednisone is used for lymphoma as a cancer treatment, so you really need to follow your vet’s advice about how to treat cancer. It can also be really dangerous to go off it completely, especially after long-term use — please see this article about “everything prednisone” and look at the discussion about stopping. https://www.dogcancerblog.com/articles/full-spectrum-cancer-care/conventional/prednisone-for-dogs/
Apocaps can certainly be used alongside pred, but Dr. D likes to recommend dropping the dose to half-dose. This is not because they interfere with each other. It’s because two anti-inflammatories given at the same time can increase the risk of GI upset. The same reason you wouldn’t take aspirin and ibuprofen at the same time — you would get an upset tummy. Apocaps is a MILD anti-inflammatory, so using it half or quarter dose is generally safe. Here’s an article on their website. https://help.functionalnutriments.com/article/40-using-apocaps-cxcxe-with-prednisone-or-other-oral-anti-inflammatory-prescription-medications
Pred is, quite frankly, a miracle in terms of quality of life. It is a serious drug, as the article above will tell you, and it has pretty significant long-term side effects. But lymphoma is a serious disease, and left untreated dogs usually only live a month. I had an uncle who was prescribed pred to combat the symptoms of a chronic illness, and the doctor’s advice was this: “pred will shorten your life, almost certainly, BUT your life will be nearly pain-free and you will be able to do anything you want while you are alive. Without pred, you may live longer, but you will stay in this pain, because we just don’t have anything else that works as well.” He chose the pred, and was never unhappy with the decision. He also significantly outlived his prognosis even with the pred … he said because he was so happy and felt great, his body just kept going.
I think if you focus on quality of life, you’re doing great. Apocaps, in my experience, is a great quality of life addition, but it’s not a substitute for pred or any other treatment. I would add it in if your vet agrees, and keep it to half a dose. Great job, Julie!