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Keep reading for the inspiring stories of animals with cancer as told by their human guardians.

Piper the Cat & Deborah - VAS/fibrosarcoma caused by a rabies vaccine

We had just moved across the country to Chicago when I found a small hard lump on Piper's side. I thought maybe it was an injury from the move and foolishly ignored it for several weeks. By the time we got to the vet, I had a very bad feeling about what was growing on his side. The vet thought it was cancer. We went for a second opinion. That vet thought he could remove it easily. By this time, I had done enough research to know that these things were rarely easy to simply remove and cure. We finally drove to the University of Illinois and saw an oncologist. The news was bad. Although the tumor seemed small, it had tentacles going deep into Piper's body. Theyb advised radical surgery with removal of ribs, body cavity wall, grafts of muscle from his other side, and 4 weeks of radiation followed by 4 weeks of chemotherapy. The cost: $12,000 and that did not include the diagnostic MRI and testing we had just done. Worst of all, Piper would have to live there in a cage for over 2 months and be anesthetized every day for radiation treatments. We decided we could not do this to such a lively and happy cat. We went home and I cried all night. I did not know where to turn or what to do.

We found a vet to help us do "alternative" treatments but we waited far too long to get started and then we stuck with the wrong treatment for too long. Once we figured out what to do, Piper lived a long and happy 2 years with his cancer -- much more than most other cats I knew with the same cancer. I wish we had started sooner on treatment but there was just too much to know and learn.  I think we might have beaten it if I only knew then what I know now. I can say that we preserved his quality of life and I do not regret our path, I only wish I had found it quicker and had not been so alone trying to figure out what to do. Piper was a strong and wonderful cat. I miss him so much but know I did my best and gave him a happy couple of years with cancer. I consider this a success! Piper inspired me to help others, learn all I can, and live life fully every day!

Amy & Pocono the dog, osteosarcoma

My story is that Pocono, who was diagnosed 22 weeks ago today was predicted to have three weeks to live, due to the amount of lung mets she already had from her osteosarcoma spreading. Here were 5 months later and she celebrated her 13th birthday on Sunday -- something everyone told me I would never see. :) I took pictures of her at her party with her party hat on.  Life is good!

Joey & Michelle-Prostatic Cancer

We had just moved from Arizona to the Northeast when Joey started having some trouble defecating and just looked “off”.  I took him into our new holistic vet and we had done all the lab work to see what was going on.  First it was thought he had picked up a parasite during the travel across the country. Meds didn’t help, then the first round of blood work showed renal failure.  Many hundreds of dollars later the lab had gotten new machines and the blood work showing renal failure was incorrect and he wasn’t in renal failure.  Then upon expressing his anal glands one of the vets we were working with discovered a rather enlarged prostate for a neutered male.  We went in for an ultrasound and there was calcification on his prostate and per the pathology report from a needle biopsy it was determined Joey had transitional cell carcinoma of the prostate.  No options were given by the traditional vets, just “take him home and spoil him and do some palliative care if you choose”.  

With the help of 4 different vets working as a team, we managed to shrink the prostate and increase the quality of his life.  Joey was ultra sensitive and couldn’t handle much in the way of supplements and herbs so we were limited in our options.  With the “team” of vets and long hours of research we found treatments Joey could handle.  Unfortunately some treatments that we feel could have helped tremendously earlier on we didn’t find until things had progressed.  Prostate cancer research in animals doesn’t have much information out there and I feel we could’ve really done so much more earlier on had we known about some amazing options out there that we learned about much to late for our Angel Joey.  We did our best with the time and resources we had available to us and we continued to learn so much along the way and found out new ways to fight all kinds of dis-eases and illness.  Joey was a dog that was full of happiness and enjoyed life to the fullest extent.  He was an amazing dog and taught us more than I can express in words. Not a day goes by we don’t think of him and the joy he filled our house with.  We miss dearly. His spirit lives on and all the research we did took us down a path to share what we learned with others in hopes to help others learn and use those treatment options that may make all the difference in the world early on in treatments.

Allison & Beatrice the cat - lymphoma

My cat, Beatrice is being treated with a new herbal perparation at our vet for lymphoma.  She is on prednisone, reglan and a multi-vitamin and I feed her other foods high in argenine, like beef and cottage cheese plus salmon oil.  She has only been on it for about 3 1/2 weeks and has had very few problems.  Aside from some stomach upset there are really no other issues with treatment and she is eating well and runs and plays and jumps and doesn't seem to have any idea that there is anything wrong.  Her mass is in her bowel area and according to the doc was the size of about a quarter and a half and now is the size of a nickel.  We are feeling very hopeful. 

Michelle & Zeus the dog - Osteosarcoma

My dog Zeus did very well on the herbal treatment for Ostersarcoma in the right shoulder.  He was on this vet-prescribed medicine for 1 year and 11 days.  It seemed to completely dissolve the ostersarcoma in the shoulder.  We feed him raw diet with some Innova Evo and veggies.  We also did have him on the K-9 Iummunity and transfer factor along with the omegas and I think it helped him quite a bit.  Our Vet had Zeus start on a low dose but worked up to 1.5 – 2 cc twice a day.  I think you want a pretty high dose for OS.  We did pulse dose after about 8 months.  He did very well with the herbal medicine and I think it saved his life from OS. 

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