The Dog Cancer Survival Guide is a good read folks

It has been three months since Cody's surgery. You would think that in three months I would have my act together and have Cody on an established anti-cancer regimen, but no....I'm still working the kinks out. And I don't even have all that personal family stuff like kids and a husband to deal with!! Personal life aside, it is hard to find enough time in the day to accomplish everything on one's to-do list.

I did have a phone consultation with Dr. Demian Dressler, the author of the Dog Cancer Survival Guide. I will share my notes with you from our conversation. First I would like to mention that one of the first comments Dr. Dressler made to me after he asked me if I had his book was "you've probably skimmed through some of it, but haven't actually read it yet, right?" Bingo! How does he know me so well? Then over the next hour and a half he basically proceded to give me the abridged version of the book. Well geesh, I could have just saved myself $300 bucks by reading the book! Not really. It was very worthwhile being able to speak directly with Dr. Dressler and ask him questions that related specifically to Cody. I would still recommend reading the book before setting up a consultation!

The gist of the conversation:
Get Cody on a home-made cooked cancer diet.
Minimize the amount of anti-oxidant supplements.
Supplement with omega 3 fatty acids only, do not add omega 6 fatty acids (they already get enough in the food).
Give Apocaps.
Give K-9 Immunity.
Give transfer factors.
Give probiotics and digestive enzymes.
Optional: give a trace mineral supplement (he recommended Beres Drops) and give modified citrus pectin.

The nitty-gritty: Diet
The Dog Cancer Survival Guide provides guide lines and a recipe for a home-cooked diet. There is a link to the diet on Dr. Dressler's blog: http://www.dogcancerblog.com/

The nitty-gritty: Anti-oxidants
You may have heard that taking antioxidants is good for you and your dog, right? Why? Well the theory is that antioxidants bind with free radicals preventing them from doing damage to cells in your body, thus causing cancer, heart disease, and general overall deterioration of the tissues of the body. All healthy people and pets should be taking antioxidants and enjoying the protective effects. People and dogs who are getting chemotherapy should not, in theory, take antioxidants. This is because when we give chemotherapeutic drugs we are creating free radicals in an effort to attack the cancer cells and kill them. Antioxidants theoretically block the action of the chemotherapy. Dr. Dressler has a good discussion on his blog (http://www.dogcancerblog.com/anti-oxidants-versus-pro-oxidants/) about antioxidants and pro-oxidants.  In summary he says: " Thus, before true clinical cancer actually develops, you want antioxidant effects, not pro-oxidant ones, in general. In contrast, after cancer clinically develops, one could choose pro-oxidants as the anti-cancer weapon. " There is a lot of debate over this subject so Dr. Dressler's approach is to at least try to separate supplements that are pro-oxidant, such as Apocaps, from supplements that have an antioxidant effect (K-9 Immunity). Hopefully we can get the best of both worlds with this approach? I don't think we really know yet.

I had Cody on a very good quality supplement called Veterinary Immune Tabs by Ramaekers Nutrition (http://ramaekersnutrition.com/vitpro.html). Dr. Dressler was concerned about the oxidant, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and recommended I discontinue the supplement.  For now I've stopped giving it, but I'm thinking the amount of SOD in this supplement is not very much and I may consider giving to Cody again. Especially if it works out economically.

To be continued with the nitty-gritty on Apocaps, K-9 Immunity, transfer factors, and omega 3s.