I took my pet Candi, a 10 1/2 year old German Shepherd, to the vet. She has a tumor in her right shoulder that shattered her shoulder bone and now she can't walk. The vet wants to "make her comfortable" because she has hip displasia and they say she will never walk on 3 legs if they amputate. I was just wondering, what your thoughts were on any possible hope for a longer quality life? Or is it beyond treatment now that the leg is shattered? They have her on steroids now for swelling and pain.

Jan replies...

Oh Melissa, that sounds so very hard. Do you know what kind of cancer the tumor is? What does the vet mean by "making her comfortable", and is there an expectation that the shattered leg will heal? Will she be able to walk?

You have a very hard decision to make but if you decide to keep her with you, I would certainly try to give her essiac to see if it will help her be more comfortable and ease some the problems she will have. My Sven had a good appetite until the end because of the essiac, I know he lived longer and felt better than expected.

Dogs tend to hide their pain because if they show it in a real pack environment they will be killed or abandoned by the pack. You need to take that into account, she may be in terrible pain. I would go along with anything the vet wants to do to relieve that pain.

I am so sorry about your Candi.

From Melissa on July 7, 2000:

I'm contacting the vet again this morning because they never said it was a malignant tumor, just a tumor in the shoulder bone. Candi tries so hard to get up. They gave her prednisone and I was afraid essiac would speed up the tumor growth since it peps up the immune system and prednisone slows everything down.

She is eating fine and very alert and wants to be outside, I think she is bored sitting around the house. The vet didn't want to amputate because of the hip dysplasia, but if I thought there was an herb to cure the hip dysplasia I would jump at the chance to amputate. They said the tumor will likely spread to the lung but if the essiac stops the spread I thought maybe there was hope.

It is a tough decision. It just pains me to see her want to get up and play. Her mind and will are so young! The vet was concerned if she stopped getting up, she would get pneumonia etc., she lays around most of the day but will get up to go outside or eat. I'm just lost at the best avenue to take. I want her to have the amputation to keep her alive, but I don't want her to suffer the surgery and recovery if she will be no better off.

Thanks for listening,
Melissa

Jan replies...

Okay, some of what you want to know I did not understand. There is nothing I know of that will cure hip displasia but there are a lot of things that will alleviate the symptoms and pain and make it much better.

First of all, Glucosamine Chondroitin -- I get Spring Valley brand from Wal Mart. Then Devil's claw and Yucca powder. Yucca powder can be sprinkled on food, Devil's claw has to be in capsules, it is incredibly bitter. Maybe MSM. Also see Jessika's letter.

According to the anecdotal record, essiac seems to alleviates the side effects of chemo and does not interfere with it. I think chemo destroys the immune system, so maybe this is not really an issue. Prednisone is used as chemo for some cancers in dogs, it is conventional medicine's answer for mast cell cancers, after surgery. Prednisone has some serious side effects, you are right to ask your vet a lot more questions.

Amputation is a very serious surgery to recover from, and it seems to me likely that it would not remove all the cancer because of the location. So it could put her through hell and not cure her, but only make the rest of her life more difficult. Hard decision, and you need much more info from your vet. But if they think it is not feasible they are probably right. They would make a lot of money from doing the amputation, so it is not in their interest to tell you not to. You may have a very good vet so you need to find out more.

Jan

My cat, Beaver, has insulin dependent diabetes, he is still in the hospital as he was diagnosed a few days ago with a BG of over 500 and he is also FIV+. I want to start him on essiac tea, but don't really know how much to start him off with. We only found out about the FIV less than a month ago, so we really have a challenge on our hands. Please, any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Debbie and Beaver

Jan replies...

Debra,
The essiac dose I have heard for cats is 3/4 Tablespoon, twice a day. I have heard that essiac helps diabetes, but I have no knowledge about FIV, the feline version of HIV. Since essiac seems to help human HIV, maybe it could help FIV too.

I hope you have some success treating your cat. There are some messages from cat people on the page that might have some more info. I always recommend that people try to find a holistic vet near them, that really helps.

I WAS WONDERING WHAT THE DOSAGE SHOULD BE PER LB. OF BODY WEIGHT. I AM GOING TO TRY THE LIQUID WITH MY FERRET. HE HAS A PANCREATIC TUMOR WICH CAUSES A VERY LOW DROP IN BLOOD SUGAR (HYPOGLYCEMIA). HE IS NOW ON PRELONE SYRUP AND IS ON A SPECIAL MIXTURE OF HIGH PROTEIN FOOD (GRUEL).

THANK YOU
DEBB

Jan replies...

Hello Debb,

What does a ferret weigh? A cat weights 6-10 pounds and a cat dose is about 3/4 Tablespoon twice a day, maybe you can make an estimate from that. It would be a pretty small amount, a liquid tablespoon is 3 teaspoons. I don't know an essic dosage for ferrets, I only have big dogs who get human size doses!

Good luck, I would love to hear what happens.

The message from Chris about her dog's liver disease on 6/15/00 did not have her e-mail address. If you could forward my message to her, I would like to correspond with her.

I lost my wonderful friend, Daisy, a golden retriever, in February to liver disease. It, too, seemed to come on quickly. She had blood test in December showing a normal liver panel and 2 months later she was dead.

I can't help but wonder if a product called "Grass Saver" was part of the cause. When I cleaning out her things, I noticed very small print on the side of the Grass Saver bottle that said "Do not use if your pet has pancreatic or liver disease" -- the front label of the bottle in large print said "All Natural Supplement". I wanted to know if Chris had been using this drug on her pet.

Jan replies...

I have forwarded your message to Chris, I hope she will write to you. Thank you for your message, may we post it in the Pet letters?

Barbara wrote back...

Jan, if posting my message could help anyone to not go through what I did, I am happy to let you post it. The bizarre thing about the warning on the bottle is, how would most people know their dog had pancreatic or liver problems?

So Jan said...

My cat Zoo Zoo has FIV and two forms of cancer -- a squamus cell carcinoma on his paw and a big sarcoma on his stomach, under the skin and outside his body. A vet said six months ago it should have been operated on, but I also heard they grow back with a vengeance. So I kept trying holistic stuff. Now it's huge and is attaching to his rib cage.

I found a holistic vet in New York City who recommends a few things like poly mva, immunoregulin, and essiac. I make a mug of essiac tea with a tea ball, keep it in the fridge, and give Zoo Zoo 4-6 ml two times a day on an empty stomach. I wait an hour before feeding. The few weeks I have been giving it, he has perked up though the sarcoma has not shrunk. He's in good spirits, but it's scaring me. He's 16 but he was a robust cat before he crashed from the FIV. Should I give him stronger doses of essiac?

I noticed when I gave it to him at first, the tumor got really hard, then softer, and now it's hard again. Other treatments that I give him are a weekly hydrogen peroxide intravenous that I developed with a vet, and putting pure frankincense on the sarcoma. I also give him sulpherzyme, which is a form of MSM. Can you recommend anything else? I get so tired tending to him but I love him and he's a real soulful cat. I take him to central park with me when I play music for people. He sits on the grass and many people stop. A cat in the suburbs is common, but in central park, he's an attraction!

Paul

Jan replies...

It sounds like you have done a lot to keep your boy going. Making essiac tea in a tea ball won't extract the goodies in the essiac herbs, I recommend you make essiac in the traditionally recommended way. Boil it for 10 minutes, turn off the stove and let it steep for 10-12 hours or overnight with the lid on. Then reheat to a simmer (don't let it boil again) and turn off the stove. After the reheat has cooled below 140º you could put red clover and blue violet (half and half) in the tea ball and let it steep in the essiac tea for 10 minutes or so before you bottle and refrigerate it.

I like small quantities and I think many times essiac tea gets stored too long. I would not keep it more than 3 days and then start over. I would also give him more, gradually increasing it. It is not going to hurt him at the stage you describe.

I think you are right about the surgery. I know someone who had two Danes with soft tissue sarcomas and they lived two months after surgical removal, which was not complete. Sven lasted 8, with many herbal things. You have already done a remarkable job. Every cell has to be removed, there can be no contamination, it is very hard to do.

Jan replies to more questions from Paul...

I am going to go down those questions one at a time.

But there is one thing first, I think you could give him more essiac tea than you are. There are letters from cat people on the page that used doses ranging from a teaspoon three times a day to a 1/2 ounce twice a day. The most successful ones have been the bigger doses. I would gradually increase his dose until he is taking as much as he can tolerate, up to an ounce or so a day. An ounce is around 32 ml. There are 8 teaspoons in an ounce. This is a liquid volume ounce, not a weight.

> should I follow the directions in my "Flor-Essence" package?
> It says to measure five 8 oz cups of water in a pot and put
> in one packet of Flor-Essence. Is that too much for three days?

That is too much for three days. Judy Gaines of Gaines Nutrition said she used to mix up essiac for someone's medical practice who never kept it for more than two days. Rene Caisse seems to have always used it up the day it was finished. Herbs that are in water do not keep that well, even if refrigerated. I compare it to cooked vegetables, how long would you keep leftover broccoli juice?

I would make a cup at a time as you have been doing. Simmer it very gently for the 10 minutes so all the water doesn't boil off. If you need to add a little more water that is ok.

> Should I half the dose or something? What are the
> exact measurements I should use with my Flor Essence packs?

Each Flor-Essence pack yields 1 quart (32 oz) tea, there are 4 cups to a quart, so use 1/4 of a dry herb pack to brew a cup of tea. Anne Harris and I found that volumes differ greatly depending on the herbs, it can get very confusing. So you have to measure what you have and reduce the quantities based on their directions.

Jan

Paul wrote again on September 27, 2000...

I found another vet in upstate New York, she has someone who brews the essiac for her full strength. She said the whole bottle will keep if I refrigerate it. I give him half a teaspoon a day like she said. It hass given me a break from brewing it myself but it doesn't sound like enough. I'll go back to the other way if you recommend it. This vet said that it's more potent than the other way because it's brewed for four hours.

I'm also injecting him under the skin near the tumor with something called "Carnivora" derived from a flower dionaea muscipula. It seems to be changing the texture of the tumor a little. The tumor is so big now, Zoo Zoo is making grunting noises like he's in real discomfort now. I'm thinking maybe he should have an operation to de-bulk it. Other than that, he's eating like a horse. He doesn't want to die so I keep helping him.

Can you recommend anything else? Should I go back to brewing the Flor-Essence like you said? Sorry for all the questions, we really appreciate your help.

Paul

Jan replies...

Hi Paul,

When decocted herbs are "spent", cooking them longer will not do anything other than concentrate the tea because of water evaporation. Brewing them for four hours is such a drastic departure from Rene Caisse's 10 minute boil that I can't and don't recommend it.

I would give Zoo zoo as much essiac as he can tolerate. I wouldn't worry about tannins, the essiac herbs don't have them in significant quantities. Your vet may have meant the oxalates that are present in the sheep sorrel and the rhubarb, I wouldn't worry about those either. Personally I would go back to making it if only for the freshness factor. You could add red clover after the last reheat and letting it steep for 10 minutes, boiling ruins red clover. I have not heard of Carnivora, I will look into it.

You might try Flaxseed oil and cottage cheese. According to Mary and Greg Tilford, most pets and cats in particular do not get enough Omega 3 fats and flax seed is the best source for them. You can get the best flax seed oil at www.barleans.com. It is the easiest and most available way to get the goodies into the body. I just bought some from them for the first time, it arrived on the 26th, it was made on the 20th. You need to keep it refrigerated as it spoils easily, so I would buy it in fairly small amounts.

A recent issue (August or September) of Whole Dog Journal has an article about flaxseed oil and cottage cheese. It was written by a person whose dog had a cancer that seems to have disappeared, at least for now, using this combination. The dose is a Tablespoon of Flaxseed oil in 1/4 cup of cottage cheese, mixed in a blender twice a day for a large dog (100 pounds). You would need to reduce it by weight. So, again, you would want to make tiny quantities fresh each day. Perhaps you could eat the excess yourself, it is guaranteed good for you. If Zoozoo won't eat it I am certain is would be better to put it in the food than not use it at all. The Whole Dog Journal does not generally publish utter nonsense, so it is worth a try. If it does not affect the cancer it will still be good for him for other reasons. Flaxseed oil must not be heated.

I don't know what else to recommend. There is pycnogenol, and grape seed extract, and a host of herbs, but I do not know how cats react to them. Cats are so much different than dogs. They seem often to respond to essiac better than dogs do, based on the letters I have received (I have no cat, all of you cat lovers are making me start to want one). Another thing you might look into is IP6 and Inositol. If you want to try those, a very good place to get them is at http://www.iherb.com.

I don't know what to say about surgery, that is a hard call that you have to make. Sometimes it really does a lot of good, sometimes it makes the cancer progress faster. You need to decide if he is strong enough to survive surgery as well.

I think it is remarkable that Zoozoo is alive and fighting, every day he wants to live and fight is a victory. Treasure him every day and give him a kiss for me,

My Scooter, an 8 yr old 60 lb golden retriever/ brittany mix, has high grade malignant lymphoma. We found the first lump on 6/20/2000. Vet and I agree that conventional treatment is not the best choice for Scooter. I told my vet about a holistic treatment described in Dr. Pitcairne's Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats. She thought the odds he gave for quality of life and possible recovery were much better than she could give Scooter and she thought it was a good idea to try it.

I started giving her Flor-Essence on 6/27 after recieving the biopsy report. I also started her on a natural diet, cooking her food daily. I am switching between raw ground venison and turkey, along with eggs, grains and raw shredded carrots or cooked beans. She liked garlic for a while and then began refusing food that contained it. I also give her goldenseal, oat tincture, vitamins and some homeopathic remedies, Thuja and silicea.

Scooter also has had arthritis for a couple of years. Always have been able to manage it with aspirin. On 6/30 she was in very bad shape. She could hardly walk, so the vet gave her Rimadyl. It helped immediately. I asked the vet if I should worry about problems from the Rimadyl, she didn't think so. Feeling that it might not fit in with natural treatment, I have only been using half doses when Scooter is in pain, every 2-3 days.

I tried to reach Dr. Pitcairn who wrote the goldenseal treatment, 2 capsules 3 times daily worried me. He cannot be reached, I got a recording saying his practice is full.

After finding your site I got some milk thistle and added this to what I have been giving my poor friend. She was doing fairly well until 8/24-27 when she was pretty miserable. I stopped giving her anything except the silicea and started her on fresh echinacea tea.

On 6/28 she began to turn around. Her energy is back, she is running and playing. The many lumps are getting a little smaller each day. As of today she is better than she has been for over a month. I plan on giving her the echinacea 7 more days and then switch back to essiac indefinately. I will also keep her on the silicea because I had only started it a few days before she got better.

The problem is that I haven't a clue as to what is making her better. It could be a lot of things, including stopping most of the stuff I was giving her. I am very suspicious of the goldenseal, which is the mainstay of Dr. Pitcairne's treatment. I would love to hear from you or anyone who has any ideas for me. It feels like Scooter and I are on a really bad rollercoaster ride. Thanks for your site, you are helping more people than you know!

Jackie

Jan replies...

Hi Jackie,

It sounds like you have come a long way. I agree about stopping the goldenseal, advice for its human use is only one week at a time. The same for echinacea. I would also stop the Rimadyl if you can -- I gave Sven Rimadyl for pain at the end when it didn't matter. That might be what made her take a dive. If a dog stops eating while on Rimadyl, giving it should be stopped and blood work should be done to check for liver/kidney failure.

Other things that help arthritis pain are devil's claw, yucca powder, burdock root, maybe white willow bark. I have seen a dog with hip displasia and another with degenerated disks in her spine be pain free with yucca powder alone. These things are much less likely to cause side effects. Also, I gave my Greta glucosamine Hcl and Chondroitin sulfate for arthritis pain. MSM might help, which you can get by the pound in a powder form at http://www.iherb.com. This is the cheapest way to get it I have seen.

A good place to get those herbs would be www.gaines.com or www.blessedherbs.com. You can get the essiac herbs from Blessed Herbs or Gaines. Flor Essence has other herbs added, including red clover which is destoyed by boiling. If you were making your own essiac tea, you could add red clover by adding it after the last reheat and letting it steep 10 minutes. I would add blue violet also, 50/50 with the red clover. Those two herbs are activators for each other, they do more together than separately. Both have to be steeped, though, not boiled.

You might call the Smith Ridge Veterinary Center at (914) 533-6066 in Salem NY, it is Dr. Martin Goldstein's clinic. He wrote a book called "The Nature of Animal Healing", it is a wonderful book but it does not give specific recipes or dosages for healing.

Your diet sounds great. I would consider raw beef, it is a good booster for the immune system. Greta, my Dane, was allergic to so many things, she ate mostly beef, rice and oatmeal. She did improve dramatically after I took her off chicken and switched to beef, but she still couldn't eat any dog food.

I started giving my Danes a product called Moducare, it is vegetable sterols and sterolins. I saw dramatic improvement in Greta's activity level after a week on this. I am taking it too, there is nothing wrong with me as far as I know, but it seems to me I am not as tired. I also give it to Duke, who I rescued in December (he nearly died of neglect and his immune system is not up to snuff). If you want to look into this, the company is at http://www.moducare.com -- but if you want to try Moducare, buy it from iherb.com for about half the price. It is supposed to moderate the immune system.

A couple other things that might help are antioxidants like pycnogenol or grape seed extract, and Coenzyme Q-10, which should to be in powdered form (bright yellow) in a capsule and it needs to be opened up and given mixed into a fat, preferably flax seed oil. The dose is very high, 600mg a day in 6 doses for a human, so 200-300mg for your dog, it is quite expensive -- iherb.com has the higher CoQ-10 mg levels and the best price.

Some people swear by flax seed oil alone for cancer, but I have no personal experience to attest to that. A good flax seed oil can be had at http://www.barleans.com.

I know what you mean about the roller coaster ride. The shotgun approach does have the advantage that something might work, and the disadvantage that you don't know what does work. That is one of the reasons the conventional medical community has so much trouble validating results with alternative remedies. But we want them to live as long as they can and not suffer, I guess you can't have it both ways. The alternative people want to heal and the conventional people want to know why.

I would not stop the essiac, although you might want to try a less expensive product. Having heard people talk about large doses for dogs with no ill effect, they kept Sven going until the very end -- he ate his whole breakfast on his last day. I have no opinion about the homeopathic things you mentioned, but I am pretty sure they will do no harm.