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Originally Posted by btrtevino  I have an appointment with an oncologist Monday. The wait is killing me but that is the soonest I could get it. Also, Anne, you say you feed an alkaline diet, do you have any specific suggestions. I have to use soft food because kibble irritates the tumor and causes her to bleed. I have heard good things about flaxseed oil so I bought a bottle to try. Does anyone have any suggestions to getting her pills down. I can't just put them down her throat because I think it hurts her mouth. She quickly wised up to putting it in a bite of canned food,crushing it in her food, and coating it with peanut butter on top of that semi-soft food that comes in a package like sausage. Also, today is the first time I tried the oil, and she would barely touch her food when she smelled it. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Also, I wanted to let everyone know how much I truly appreciate your input. |
I have a product called AlkaLife that I add to all liquids that Sophie drinks. It alkanises the liquids. For the alkaline diet I feed cottage cheese for breakfast with Flaxseed oil well mixed in. Mixing it well is important. She has always been on a BARF diet and has always had Flaxseed oil so it's no problem for her. I get the flaxseed from the refrigerated section of the health store. I can't detect any odor at all. Are you using that type of flaxseed oil? I would feed the flaxseed oil in some salmon, she won't notice any smell of the oil because it will be overpowered by the smell of the salmon and she'll become used to the oil in her food.
I don't feed any kibble for the reasons you mentioned, though I she's not often been fed kibble as she's always been fed BARF. She has all human grade foods, salmon, fatty minced meat, cooked chicken mince and eggs...all with the alkaline water added to make it easier for her to eat. Often I have to feed her with a spoon if it's too painful for her to eat on her own. I make all her meals mushy and soft with the alkaline water.
With the meds, Sophie is on a lot of medication on the metronomic therapy. I just roll a small ball of raw minced meat around each pill and she eats it without fuss. It has to be small though or otherwise she might try to chew it and discover the pill. She just swallows it so we have no problems.
I keep the carbs to the bare minimum and the oncologist suggested a fatty diet as cancer cells can't multiply with fat. Carbs feed cancer as does an acid environment in the body.
I did a google search on 'canine cancer diet'. It would be worth you having a look at the diets.
I'm glad you're seeing an oncologist. I don't think Sophie would still be with me if it wasn't for the oncologist. However I did have to resist the strong pressure being being put upon me to do surgery and chemotherapy. Neither work well with osteosarcoma and I won't put my dog through the pain and trauma of surgery or hospitalisation again for the sake of an extra couple of months of life. I want quality time for her over quantity. She has one chemo drug amongst the many other drugs she takes but I administer them all at home.
Once the oncologist finally got the message that I was definitely not going ahead with surgery and in house chemo we agreed on the metronomic protocol and it's working well and her pain is under control. Sophie's tumour did stop growing for 3 weeks but it's now growing again. We see the oncologist again tomorrow so we'll see what the blood tests show and find out if there are to be changes in medication. Also you will get adequate pain meds from the oncologist.
Please excuse this post being all over the place, it's nearly 3am and I'm not thinking clearly.
Please keep us posted on your progress. It would be great if we could email eachother but we can't put email addys on here and we don't have a private message function so I guess we'll just have to keep posting here.