Champ has Mast Cell Cancer

I really don't enjoy being a Debbie Downer, so would someone pass that memo along??

Well, I thought what was going on with Champ must be autoimmune, and he still has arthritis issues and I'm convinced the immune system is very much involved. Shortly after his eye surgery I noticed a good sized lump behind his right eye. It appeared out of the blue. I decided to take him in to get a biopsy. The vet was sure it was a cyst until the needle went in and the lump didn't ooze. There was a little blood, but none of the normal nastiness you expect to see when a cyst is poked with a needle. That wasn't a good sign. Sure enough, a few days later I hear it's mast cell cancer.

Mast cell cancer is one of the more common cancers in dogs and it afflicts some breeds more than others (most commonly Boxers). There seems to be a link with golden/red colored dogs. Champ is definitely not purebred, but he has a ginger coat. I'm not sure why cancer happens. There are a lot of theories. Our environment has been polluted. Our high tech society exposes us to a lot of hazardous chemicals. Vaccinations, food contamination, [insert your theory here] could be part of the picture. The simple fact is it happens.

Champ was on a raw food diet prior to the lump appearing and he's not consuming simple carbohydrates and is already on a low glycemic diet. He's not eating any of the foods doctors now recommend are discontinued after a cancer diagnosis (refined flours, sugar, potatoes, simple starches). His vet was very open to prescribing him low dose naltrexone. I decided that since the biopsy put him at a small risk for cancer cell exposure, we might as well take a crack at having it removed. I'm not overly optimistic about total removal because it didn't move freely and was not just attached to the skin, and it grew very quickly. The vet has sent the sample off to determine the stage. The vet was great and did the procedure without opiates and he was on rimadyl as a pain reliever (NSAID). He seems very comfortable and is feeling better than before the surgery - I'm convinced he was having arthritis issues. We started him on LDN last night and all seemed well.

Hopefully the LDN will help and we won't see a deterioration in quality of life. I don't believe in pursuing chemo or radiation. He seems pain free and pretty happy. The raw food had perked him up prior to us noticing the lump, so I'm sure we're on the right path there. Now it's just a waiting game.

I have a theory that my family lives on some kind of nuclear waste site. This is further bolstering that theory....