This site is lovingly dedicated to Sven, my Great Dane who passed away with cancer on 12 February, 1999. I believe he lived about 7 months longer than expected because of the treatment described on this page. Most of that time he felt good. Great Danes live short lives and the extra 7 months I had with him were significant to me. I have read newsgroup messages about essiac being given to dogs and cats which sometimes resulting in a cure. While that was not the case with my Great Dane Sven, I believe he lived longer and more comfortably than he would have without essiac tea and other remedies. I will relate my efforts to save Sven.

The vet removed a soft tissue spindle cell sarcoma from Sven in early May 1998 and couldn't get it all. All the searching I did to find out about it indicated that if it was not all removed the prognosis was very bad, I expected the lump back in a month. Death is normally certain and fast if it is not totally removed. I have an acquaintance who has lost two Danes to this cancer, in both cases they lived two months after the initial lump was removed.

Sven felt much better within a week or so of taking essiac. His appetite and digestion improved dramatically, his coat improved, and he was much livelier. When essiac doesn't cure a pet's cancer, it may improve the quality of their remaining life, and give them more time with you.

If you decide to try other things too, I would start with the essiac and introduce the other things one at a time, once every two weeks or so, so that if she has a reaction to something you will know which thing it is. Except for antioxidants, I would next start grape seed extract or fresh raw carrot juice or both as soon as possible.

I could not get Sven to take essiac by itself, I put it in his food. I also never made more than a quart of tea at a time. To do that, I use 2 tablespoons (1/8 cup) of the dry mix per quart of water. I personally do not think the tea keeps well enough to make in larger quantities.

I gave Sven two ounces of essiac tea twice a day. He weighed 135 pounds, you might want to make the dose smaller, or start small and work up if your dog tolerates it well. However, I have read about people giving very large doses of essiac to dogs (as well as to humans), so it wouldn't hurt probably to give it three times a day. I couldn't do that since my job was too far away to come back home mid-day.

I would give milk thistle with the essiac right away, as it buffers liver function (good for an older dog) and is very benign (no known side effects or contraindications even in large doses). The other thing I learned from my other Dane Greta is that it is critical that they drink enough water. Some dogs don’t, although Sven did. We got Greta to drink water by putting chicken broth in it and giving it to her every few hours. I make the chicken broth, so it isn't loaded with salt.

After the May 8, 1998 surgery and biopsy which revealed Sven had a spindle cell sarcoma, I did nothing for about a week, except research. Then I started giving him:

Capsules of Red Clover/Blue Violet Leaf:  I made these as they were not available already made without a lot of other stuff in them.

Essiac:  I learned to make my own essiac tea using "Frontier Herbs" essiac herbs from Gaines Nutrition. "Blessed Herbs" essiac herbs by the pound are also available from Gaines Nutrition, and Gaines may have an essiac blend of their own by now.

Beta Carotene  - antioxidant. Later I gave him juiced carrots, which is better - but you have to use carrot juice immediately because it does not keep.

Vitamin E  - antioxidant

Ester C  - antioxidant

Pycnogenol  - antioxidant

Lympho-Clear  - this is an herbal formulation from Enzymatic Systems. I only gave him one bottle of it and quit, because it contains golden seal, which is a miraculous herb, but can hurt you if you take it too long (liver damage).

Pau d'Arco  - for cancer

Milk Thistle  - to aid the liver

Omega-3 capsules

I also improved the food I gave my dogs. Sven got about ½ cup raw beef in each meal: chuck roast, or roundsteak (NOT hamburger), whatever I could get cheapest that looked good. But my other Dane Greta couldn't tolerate raw beef. I gave them the best food I can get locally, which is "Wysong Senior". For a while I cooked their food but I really didn't have time to do that, Wysong is made from reasonable ingredients so I quit worrying about it so much. And I didn't want food that had to be shipped in from afar for fear of running out but wanted to buy locally.

I gave both dogs Turmeric, which in large enough doses is supposed to prevent benign fatty tumors or even get rid of them. They liked Tumeric, it is the principal ingredient in curry powder. The vets who discussed this on an internet group said to give it to them until they refused to eat the food and then back off. However, I gave them only a ½ teaspoon each twice a day.

I eased up on the regimen in Sept/Oct 1998. Sven still got two doses of essiac and Red clover/blue violet a day, and at least once a day he got Omega-3, Milk Thistle, Grape seed extract (instead of Pycnogenol), Ester C, and a supplement called Biotic made by Wysong.

I believe that essiac, Pau d'arco and the Red clover/blue violet are the main tumor-killers, and CoQ-10 would be good if given in a large enough dose. But CoQ-10 is very expensive and I did not use it. In fact, I switched from Pycnogenol to Grape seed extract because of price.

Side effects:  All of these things are used to treat cancer in humans and Sven had no negative side effects but many positive ones. He had a bare spot on his tail that nearly disappeared. Calluses on his elbows became much softer and thinner and one of them began growing hair. He had more energy. His appetite was outstanding and his digestion better than it had ever been. I did not have him vaccinated except for rabies.

I don't think Greta could have taken all this stuff. She was much more sensitive and prone to allergies. It would probably be best to introduce things gradually so you could watch for allergic reactions. I was lucky with Sven, he wasn't allergic to anything that I knew of.

It is very time consuming and expensive. I spent a lot of time on the web looking for information and found some very good sources. And I have gotten very involved with herbal medicine, finding there are a lot of herbs that are claimed to affect cancer. I did not use all of them.

By November 1998, Sven had been on essiac and the other things for six months and he gained 10 pounds. In December we found cancer in the bone. After that it progressed rapidly and in February 1999 I had to let him go. He was nine years old. I know of someone's Dane with a soft tissue sarcoma that could not be fully removed, she died two months after surgery.
I am certain Sven would have been gone much sooner if I had not done the treatments.

I have since learned a little more about Mast cell cancer and it might not be something that should be treated with essiac. Mast cell cancer is related to allergies, the tumors are somehow like lumps of histamine material. In the case of Mast cell it may not make sense to strengthen the immune system. I have the impression that the immune system triggers the production of histamines, which perhaps you want to slow down in this type of cancer.

Greta appeared to be very allergic to essiac, and I think most of the time anyone with Mast cell cancer probably has a lot of allergies. I would assume this might be relevant to people as well. Right now I would choose prednisone to treat Mast Cell. Difference between this and sarcomas is that there is actually something you can do (that is not unreasonable to do to a dog) and potential for extending the lifespan is much greater. But I am not a medical person and this is only my impression based on what my vet told me and an article I found about it.

We lost Greta on August 9, 2001. She had mast cell and was very frail, but her passing was allergy-related and not caused by the cancer. In spite of the terrible medical problems, she was elegant in her old age and I was closer to her than I probably have been to any other dog. A few weeks later I got Bell, another female Dane, I think the Rescue Shelter was saving her for me.

Bell when I first got her

Bell and Duke, and one of Duke

"Where to Bury A Dog"  By Ben Hur Lampman A subscriber of the Ontario Argus has written to the editor of that fine weekly, propounding a certain question, which, so far as we know, yet remains unanswered. The question is this, "Where shall I bury my dog?"  It is asked in advance of death. The Oregonian trusts the Argus will not be offended if this newspaper undertakes an answer, for surely such a question merits a reply, since the man who asked it, on the evidence of his letter, loves the dog. It distresses him to think of his favorite as dishonored in death, mere carrion in the winter rains. Within that sloping, canine skull, he must reflect when the dog is dead, were thoughts that dignified the dog and honored the master. The hand of the master and of the friend stroked often in affection this rough, pathetic husk that was a dog. We would say to the Ontario man that there are various places in which a dog may be buried. We are thinking now of a setter whose coat was flame in the sunshine, and who, so far as we are aware, never entertained a mean or an unworthy thought. This setter is buried beneath a cherry tree, under four feet of garden loam, and at its proper season the cherry strews petals on the green lawn of his grave. Beneath a favorite tree or any flowering shrub of the garden is an excellent place to bury a good dog. Beneath such trees, such shrubs, he slept in the drowsy summer, or gnawed at a flavorous bone, or lifted head to challenge some strange intruder. These are good places, in life or in death. Yet it is a small matter, and it touches sentiment more than anything else. For if the dog be well remembered, if sometimes he leaps through your dreams actual as in life, eyes kindling, questing, asking, laughing, begging, it matters not at all where that dog sleeps at long and at last. On a hill where the wind is unrebuked, and the trees are roaring, or beside a stream he knew in puppyhood, or somewhere in the flatness of a pasture land, where most exhilarating cattle graze. It is all one to the dog, and all one to you, and nothing is gained, and nothing lost -- if memory lives. But there is one best place to bury a dog. One place that is best of all. If you bury him in this spot, the secret of which you must already have, he will come to you when you call -- come to you over the grim, dim frontiers of death, and down the well-remembered path, and to your side again. And though you call a dozen living dogs to heel they shall not growl at him, nor resent his coming, for he is yours and he belongs there. People may scoff at you, who see no lightest blade of grass bent by his footfall, who hear no whimper pitched too fine for mere audition, people who may never really have had a dog. Smile at them then, for you shall know something that is hidden from them, and which is well worth knowing. The one best place to bury a good dog is in the heart of its master.

Jan Hodges
Bell, Hans and Duke
New Mexico, USA