Dog Community

Allergies/Mast Cell Cancer/Diarrhea

Posted : 11/30/2010 11:24:58 PM

I was talking with my regular vet recently and she's found a definite correlation between Mast Cell Cancers and diarrhea. She's not holistic at all so I was telling her about Floyd's surrogate allergy testing, where he strongly tested allergic to shellfish. A. The dog is allergic and B., may or may not develop MCT, and/or gastric problems.

At the time of the testing, I'm thinking, "Wait, I don't give him shellfish", but of course I did. Glucosamine. Even most supplements for digestion contain shellfish. By the time I did true elimination diets, his system was so upset that he didn't respond. It took months of medication (Tylan) before it finally got better and even then, diet was somewhat limited. Natural Balance with a cooked topper worked best.

My SIL recently lost a six year old Boxer, who was well bred, to MCT

calliecritturs

Posted : 11/30/2010 11:45:28 PM

There is a ginormous correllation between mast cell and ALLERGIES. Mast cell are, by definition, "histamine" cells. and they typically give Benedryl when doing any surgery they think *might* be mast cell related just so a mast cell doesn't 'explode' and scatter the mast cell in the system unchecked.

Remember ALL of us (dogs and humans) have mast cell inside of us NOW. It is ***NORMAL***. But it's all "grade 1" mast cell is which is NOT malignant.

It's only when it turns malignant that it becomes "Grade 2" (grade 4 being the 'worst' and most advanced).

I'm not sure where she's getting the tie with diarrehea -- there are so many different types of it (small intestine caused, large intestine caused, etc.) that I'd have to know more to see where she's coming from with this.

sandra_slayton

Posted : 12/1/2010 1:55:04 PM

My golden retriever mix, Honey, had a grade 2 MCT removed from leg 1 1/2 years ago and she has gotten benadryle every day since to prevent the spread of the histamines-----just in case. My vet said to give them to her the rest of her life,.

jessies_mom

Posted : 12/1/2010 2:01:12 PM

Stacita
At the time of the testing, I'm thinking, "Wait, I don't give him shellfish", but of course I did. Glucosamine. Even most supplements for digestion contain shellfish.

Jessie's very allergic to fish, proven through an elimination diet. I use a joint supplement from Monica Segal for her;

Joint Complex · 1000 mg ;

Hope this helps.

Stacita

Posted : 12/13/2010 6:54:04 PM

I think what's she's saying is that "most" of the dogs she's dealt with MCT's on have also had problems with diarrhea. Those of course could be non-food related, such as grasses or pollens. With Floyd's first series of MCT's, I'd noticed he didn't tolerate eggs well and and cut them from his diet. With the second which was four tumors, it couldn't stop the gastric problems.

Eliminnation diets just weren't giving him enough relief to to determine anything. He ended up on Tylan for several months. I did do the surrogate allergy testing and he was hightly allergic to shellfish, but that wasn't until several other things had been tried. He went down to 63 lbs, and I'm no longer so sure about keeping senior dogs lean. Tasha weighed 59.2 until she was five and wants to weight 62 now, and Wolfgang was 79, and wanted to weight 82 after the age of five. I've become inclined to let them. In neither case is it overweight, it's more like a 60 year old woman going from 118 to 125.