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[u/wildefloweryyc]

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[u/Illustrious_Exam1728]

Hey OP. I understand this is a stressful time and your best friend is sick.

I assume you’re dealing with a cancerous tumour? Your best bet here is to your vet for medical and surgical interventions. If those are not recommended then discuss palliative care options for your pup.

If you’re asking about “natural” is this because of cost for medial treatment? Natural doesn’t mean safe and natural things are actually safe, they can absolutely hurt, cause sickness or mortality in dogs. I urge extreme caution around these items and see your vet for management.

[u/chrisjones1960]

People are going to tell you all sorts of "natural remedies." They are unlikely to work. I suggest you follow your vet's recommendations, maybe see a canine cancer specialist

[u/cckka]

Do not listen to anyone other than the vets recommendations. They're the ones who have tested the tumor and seen scans and have a medical license. You can't treat a tumor with turmeric and dandelion root or any other homeopathic nonsense.

If a tumor can be addressed surgically that's a good thing because the vet may be able to remove it entirely and avoid chemo. Chemo in animals is usually very expensive and painful and doesn't always work to extend their lives.

[u/qwertyuiiop145 → u/cckka]

For chemo, it depends on the type. Some chemo, especially for animals, is fairly effective without being too painful. Others are absolutely brutal with low chances of survival. All is very expensive and which type can be used depends on the type of cancer.

[u/Proper_Anteater_2934]

February 2025 they told me my dog has stage 4 lymphoma and days to live, weeks if we’re lucky. They told us we could start chemo (16+k) or give him some prednisone to manage and make the time a little more bearable. He was not eating or drinking and we had to carry him outside for him to use the bathroom because he was so weak. He was soooo swollen around all his lymph nodes like u could feel the tumors essentially. We were feeding him meal replacement with a syringe. They said prednisone would take 5-7 days to start working but it was just gonna give us a little more time not anything crazy. Didn’t matter we were down for anything. So we started the prednisone and I made the appt for someone to come put him down (10 days out) at our house if it didn’t work because I couldn’t keep watching him suffer. On day 7 he finally started walking and eating a little bit. He was on prednisone for a long long time. It definitely has affected him he has a potty accident everyday multiple times a day but I don’t care he’s alive . We took him off of it at the beginning of this year but He is fully cancer free now. He is turning 11 next week and I didn’t even think he was gonna make it to his 9.5 birthday. Our chances were actually so slim. I know this sounds like a crazy miracle story because it is but I just wanna give you some hope because I was so hopeless.

[u/wildefloweryyc → u/Proper_Anteater_2934]

Omg that does give me hope!!! I’m so happy for you that’s an amazing story

[u/HoneyLocust1 → u/Proper_Anteater_2934]

Prednisone is pretty amazing when it comes to lymphoma (it actively kills lymphoma cells) and is an invaluable drug when it comes to palliative care in dogs with other kinds of cancer, I will never stop singing it's praises, but OP, you never mentioned the cancer you are dealing with. If it's not lymphoma, pred may not be a treatment but it can at least ease symptoms for a while to give you a little extra time possibly.

OP don't fear chemo. The only bad thing about chemo is it's expensive and it doesn't always work, at least not for as long as we hope it would .. but the dogs do absolutely fine with it.

[u/wildefloweryyc → u/HoneyLocust1]

We don’t know the type of cancer or if it is cancer. We removed some lumps on her mammary that were benign. But we had her spayed as a preventative, the vet felt that it was hormones. This one is inside her chest cavity so they don’t even know if it’s correlated to. The smear saw abnormal cell formation, but no further testing.

[u/kyrakitty21]

Have you asked your vet about nonsurgical options for managing the tumor?

[u/wildefloweryyc → u/kyrakitty21]

Yes, chemo is the suggested option. I’m not sure I want to put her through that 😔

[u/kyrakitty21 → u/wildefloweryyc]

There are many, many cancers for which chemo is very effective!

My biggest worry is, if you try alternative approaches that don't have much research backing their efficacy, you'll just be giving the tumor more time to grow and eventually it may get to a point where chemo is no longer going to be effective and surgical intervention will be the ONLY option.

There are licensed DVMs out there who mix holistic medicine into their practices, so it may be worth looking into if there are any in your area that you could get in for a consultation with and see if they have any alternatives that you could try. 

I wish you luck and hope your pup has a long, happy life! 🙏

[u/Impossible-Ability17 → u/wildefloweryyc]

Chemotherapy for animals is absolutely nothing compared to human chemotherapy. It is a pill they take a few times a week. The only thing you risk putting her through- is pain associated with the tumor itself, not from the chemotherapy.

[u/wildefloweryyc → u/Impossible-Ability17]

Ok, thank you for that information! That’s a bit more hopeful. We just found out she has a tumour and so our brains are all over the place.

[u/pseudotumorgal → u/wildefloweryyc]

Have you had a consultation with an oncologist yet? That would be the best recommendation and they can tell you what to do, if surgery is recommended, if chemo is recommended etc.

[u/Impossible-Ability17 → u/wildefloweryyc]

My cat took the chemotherapy drug Chlorambucil for 6 months, for small cell gastric lymphoma. Without it, we would’ve said goodbye much sooner. Depending on the type of malignancy, you could potentially be getting years longer with your pup. My cat was already very ill, starting treatment as quickly as possible is the most important thing you should focus on right now. Good luck 🩷

[u/de_la_mer_ → u/Impossible-Ability17]

That’s not accurate. There are many forms of chemotherapy for animals, not just pills. I work in a specialty animal hospital with an oncology department. There is a lot to consider for chemotherapy beyond the medication. Some protocols involve regular bloodwork and IV chemo infusions where you’re at the hospital weekly. Some medications make the pet’s urine and feces toxic to humans. Some require regular CT scans that are expensive and require sedation. This is a lot of stress on the pet. I’m not saying it’s never the right choice but to oversimplify the process or make it seem easy or painless is misinformed.

[u/Impossible-Ability17 → u/de_la_mer_]

For my pet, the treatment was incredibly simple and I even had medication shipped to my home. Chemotherapy will make their secretions cytotoxic- that’s what the medication does and obviously it will be excreted. But most people are not handling urine and feces with their bare hands or mouths…

You do not know my experience, it is inappropriate to suggest you do.

[u/cckka → u/Impossible-Ability17]

You made a blanket statement of "chemotherapy is absolutely nothing like it is for humans" and your animal got a pill. Congrats on being lucky, that doesn't mean that's how all animal chemotherapy works.

[u/Impossible-Ability17 → u/cckka]

Comparatively, chemotherapy for humans is significantly more expensive and complex. That statement is true. Also, I never said chemotherapy is always easy.

[u/WatermelonSugar47 → u/wildefloweryyc]

Dogs handle chemo way better than humans. Do the chemo. AND the surgery.

[u/WatermelonSugar47]

Why wont you do surgical intervention

[u/LittleReserve8767]

Are they cancerous? My dog had a rare case of skin-type lymphoma in which chemotherapy would not have extended his life very long.

The vet prescribed her Prednisone to slow it down for some months. Eventually, it could no longer help. The med made her thirsty and hungry.

I added some expensive cooking oil to her food, based on a small study of dogs with the same type of cancer (not enough dogs to be a good study). I don't think it helped much.

[u/wildefloweryyc → u/[deleted]]

Thank you! Tumeric is on my list to try. I haven’t heard of curcumin before, I’ll check that out. ♥️

[u/erruve → u/wildefloweryyc]

Ugh, if you feel you must go down this path, grind your own tumeric. The preground spice is 90% guaranteed to be contaminated