If its not one thing its another......

    • Gold Top Dog

    If its not one thing its another......

    Rory is 3.5, she will be 4 in January.

    She has never had any reason to go to the vet besides vaccines and the coyote attack.

    Approximately 3 months ago I found a lump on the fron of her neck, it was soft and went away after a week.

    3 days ago I felt a hard lump on the back of her neck right along her collar line. It is hard but movable, it is under the skin and does not seem to bother her. So without sounding too much like a hypocondriac I swear it feels a tad bit smaller today.

    I do know that a male relative of hers from two litters before her was diagnosed with cancer at teh age of 5 and died a year after.

    She has amazing bloodlines but wasnt from the best breeder I must add.

    I do know her breed is very susceptible to fatty tumoes and such but she's just so young.

    Any ideas? I'm going to give it until monday to make a vet appointment. If it is cancer I would never put her through chemo. I watched her uncle (or whatever you want to call him) go through it and he was miserable. I would let her live out her days and put her down when she could no longer be herself.

    • Gold Top Dog

    First -- BEFORE you worry, please go have your vet aspirate it -- it's pretty easy to tell when it's a fatty tumor.  It shows up easily when they simply take an aspirate, stain the slide and look at it under a microscope.  My vet will do this for me while I wait.

    The reason for urgency -- there is SOOOOOOO much you can do if you do it quick.  A)  a cancer diet -- simply a diet without grain carbs and one that is high in anti-oxidants;  B) often they can remove something that is malignant without need for chemo -- the big deciding factor is whether or not you can get 'clear margins'.

    HOWEVER ... the other thing to do a.s.a.p. if it is malignant, is to begin to treat with TCVM.  Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine can have an awesome success rate -- first, even without chemo it can help keep mast cell cancer, in particular, from metastacizing.  I was absolutely astounded at how incredibly successful it was when we treated Muffin.  Acupuncture helps in many ways as well, but it's the herbals that are astounding.

    The Chinese word for cancer is "stagnant blood".  And they are convinced that if you keep the blood moving thru the body as it *should be* you can keep the cancer from spreading.

    Additionally -- because we couldn't get "clear margins" on Muffin's cancer (there just wasn't any more tissue to take) we elected to have chemo done -- BUT, I hasten to add, we did it **with** the Chinese herbals and acupuncture.  It was awesome -- the other herbals literally prevented him from having ANY problems with the chemo drug.  No nausea, no diarreha, no feeling horrible -- you wouldn't even have known he was taking chemo!!

    But all that jumps WAY ahead ... go have the vet aspirate it.  Jumping on a cancer diet is absolutely awesome.  It's easiest to home cook (I've got 3 dogs, I'm a legal secretary and work 10 hours a day and all 3 of mine get home cooked and I don't even own a food processor!!), but a cancer diet alone will keep cancer from spreading in a remarkable way.  If you want to email me, I'll send you the first cancer diet I used -- it's not the only by any means, but it's got some great extra information (it was sent to me by Dr. Clemmons up at the University of Florida). 

    The aspirate likely will simply tell you if it's a lipoma (fatty tumor).  Cancer cells tend to be pretty obvious -- and it may buy you a lot of peace of mind. 

    • Gold Top Dog

    Ooh I had never heard of a cancer diet but it something I would love to have access to and in my arsenal even if she dosnt have cancer.

    We have a amazing holsitic vet here in town and one of my good friends has studied eastern medicine for the past ten years. Even though she practices with humans I think I'll contact her is need be. My mother pushed me to call the vet and I just got my tax rebate back so I am going to try and get her in on monday if they have a cancelation otherwise the soonest is wednsday.

    Part of me dosnt want to over reacct and I thought I was ok with this but I just started crying out of nowhere this morning as I was watching her run around Primo barking at him to play with her. I appreciate your reply so much and would love for you to PM the diet you were talking about so I can be equipped if need be. Thanks again, it really means a whole lot.

    • Gold Top Dog

    Hi – you gotta *e-mail* me because it’s an attachment and I can’t attach to a PM. Dr. Clemmons has a TON of good stuff in there. He’s the head neuro surgeon at UF, but he’s also one of the faculty on the Chi Institute.

    Truly – you might want to look into finding a TCVM vet near you – **please** contact your friend and get their input. TCVM is truly well established and on the Chi Institute website http://www.tcvm.com there is a locator on the left hand side that will tell you who is near you. Your friend may know them.

    The cancer diet always gives ME peace of mind. Even if I **THINK** I might be scared, even before they walk in the vet’s I slap them on the cancer diet. There is absolutely no risk at all and it calms ME down because it *feels* to me like I’ve put on my sword, shield and am already doing ‘battle’ in a sense.

    It’s actually a well established medical fact that carbohydrates feed cancer – regular doctors have *known* this for about 30 years. But it tends to be one of those things they don’t mention – usually because people are feeling yucky from chemo, etc. – but boy, it would make a difference to ME!!!

    So e-mail me and I’ll send it to you gladly.

    • Gold Top Dog

    When your dog was batteling cancer did he get shaky episodes? Like fits of shaking?

    Is that a symtpom?

    • Gold Top Dog

    You mean when he was taking chemo?  No.  That could mean pain -- it could mean a lot of things.