This article is from the K9 Magazine archives, subscribe to our newsletter & get our best dog news, tips and articles ---->Cancer in pets is more common than you think. It is the number one natural cause of death in geriatric cats and dogs and accounts for nearly 50 percent of pet deaths each year. Some breeds are especially susceptible to cancer.
Although the leading cause of death in older cats and dogs, cancer also is the most treatable disease when compared to life-limiting diseases such as congestive heart failure, renal failure and diabetes. An educated and dedicated veterinary health care team is essential to caring for cancer-stricken pets.
“It is crucial for pet owners to take their pets to the veterinarian twice a year to monitor them for early signs of the disease,” says Dr. Gregory Ogilvie, a California Veterinary Medical Association member, world-renowned oncologist and director of the California Veterinary Specialists (CVS) Angel Care Cancer Center in Carlsbad, California. “Routine blood tests also can help identify problems early.”
Commons signs of cancer for pet owners to watch for include:
– Unexplained bleeding or discharge
– Loss of appetite
– Oral odor
– Abnormal swellings or swollen lymph nodes
– Drooling or difficulty eating or swallowing
– Changes in exercise or stamina level
– Lameness
– A sore that does not heal
– Chronic weight loss
– Change in bowel or bladder habits
The best treatment for cancer is prevention. Dr. Ogilvie recommends feeding cats and dogs a high-quality, balanced diet with low amounts of simple carbohydrates and high amounts of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. He also advises pet owners to ensure their pets exercise regularly and eliminate pets’ exposure to industrial chemicals and tobacco smoke. Talk to your veterinarian to determine what’s best for your pet.
If your pet is diagnosed with cancer, there is hope. Advances in veterinary medicine and technology offer multiple treatment options, including chemotherapy, radiation and surgical procedures. Above all, enhancing your pet’s health, well-being and quality of life is the ultimate goal.
K9 Magazine Cancer Care Guide
in association with our friends at Pet Screen
What’s good for us is good for our pets!
It is a sad fact that cancer amongst dogs is growing at an alarming rate. One of the big difficulties with animal cancer is that your pet cannot tell you when a cancer is developing, but if cancers can be detected early enough they respond well to treatment. With the introduction of new treatments, many cancers new respond better than ever.
Over recent years we have all become aware of the risk factors for human cancer. Responding to these by changing our habits is having a significant impact on our health. For example, stopping smoking, protection from excessive exposure to bright sunlight and eating a healthy diet high in fruit and vegetables all help to reduce cancer rates. Another very important area is to keep a close eye on ourselves, going for regular health checks and reporting any lumps and bumps to our doctors as soon as they appear. Increased cancer awareness is without doubt improving human health.
Responding to risk factors will help reduce incidence. Being vigilant about any changes to our bodies will ensure that cancer is detected early. This will improve the chances of successful treatment. If we can do this for ourselves, we owe it to our pets to show similar care and attention.
Know your dog, keep an eye on the signs.
Approximately 25% of dogs will now die of cancer. Although this is a very alarming statistic, a positive diagnosis of cancer should not be seen as a death sentence. Cancer can be treated, and in many cases it can be cured. The success of treatment will depend on the type of cancer, the treatment used and on how early the tumour is found. The sooner treatment begins, the greater the chances of success. Therefore, one of the best things you can do for your dog is to keep a close eye on them for signs of the disease. This shouldn’t be an onerous task, it can be done as a part of everyday play and pampering.
There are 10 classic signs to look out for:
1. Abnormal swellings or lumps that persist or continue to grow
2. Sores that do not heal
3. Loss of appetite
4. Weight loss
5. Bleeding or discharge from any body opening
6. Difficulty eating or swallowing
7. Offensive odour
8. Hesitation to exercise or loss of stamina
9. Persistent lameness or stiffness
10. Difficulty breathing, urinating, or defecating
If you spot any of these signs in your dog, you should report them to your vet as soon as possible. These symptoms often develop slowly, so it is best to get to know your dog’s habits well. It is also important to bear in mind that these symptoms can also be bought on by other diseases, so don’t immediately expect the worst.
What to expect.
Your vet will perform all the necessary diagnostic tests to discover the real cause of the problem. They may want to take an X ray, a blood test or a small sample of any growth (called a biopsy) for laboratory analysis. This information will be used to find out if the tumour is “benign” (which is a growth that can relatively easily be removed without any further complications) or “malignant” (which is a more aggressive tumour that invades tissues and can produce “secondary” growths known as metastasises).
Once your vet has made the diagnosis, they will discuss the various treatment options with you. As with human cancer treatment, these will be either surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy. Surgery is still the most widely used treatment for most dog cancers. In some cases a combination of treatments may be used. A combination of surgery followed by chemotherapy is used for some aggressive tumours. There are certain tumours, such as lymphoma (one of the most common malignancies in dogs), which are treated primarily by chemotherapy with very good results. Chemotherapy in dogs is not as unpleasant as it can be for humans.
Many owners worry that chemotherapy will cause their dog’s fur to fall out, this very rarely happens because the drugs attack the fast growing hairs on our heads but do not attack the slow growing coat on dogs. Whiskers, on the other hand, do grow fast, so don’t be alarmed if you dog looses few whiskers.
As cancer therapy becomes more sophisticated, there is increasing use of specialist referral centres where cancer specialists are able to provide the most advanced treatments available. Your vet will know the all the cancer referral centres and will advise you if they think one of these centres can offer better treatment for your dog.
Cancer treatment can be expensive, particularly for some of the more advanced treatments. However, the costs can be covered by pet insurance policies. If your dog is a high risk breed, taking out insurance will give you piece of mind to ensure that you give them the best treatment available, should the worst happen.
Some breeds are more prone than others.
It is unfortunate that some breeds have a higher incidence of cancer than others. It is difficult to provide a comprehensive list here, but the following is a brief guide:
Highest incidence breeds which also develop cancer at an earlier age than other dogs.
• Boxer.
• Golden Retriever
• Rottweiller
• Bernese Mountain Dog
High incidence breeds
• Boston Terrier
• English Bulldog
• Scottish Terrier
• Cocker Spaniel
Average incidence breeds:
• Irish Setter
• Schnauzer
• Labrador
• Mongrels
Relatively low incidence breeds:
• Beagle
• Poodle
• Collie
• Dachshund
The (near) future.
Research into better treatments for dog cancer is being conducted by the veterinary schools around the UK, specialist centres such as the Animal Health Trust and by pet health companies. The advances in biology are producing a steady flow of new treatments and tests which are now becoming available to improve cancer care.
At PetScreen we are developing new techniques to help spot cancer early and also to assist your vet in selecting the best possible treatment for your pet. To help us in this effort, we need small samples of tumour tissue and blood which are left over from your vet’s routine diagnostic tests. If you would like to help in this research effort by agreeing to donate samples which will be used to improve cancer care in the near future, please talk to your vet. If they could contact us on study@pet-screen.com, then we will contact them to discuss the details of sending the samples to our laboratory.
By working together we can help fight this disease.
[You are free to print this article and take it with you to your vet to discuss cancer screening for your pet]
USEFUL LINKS:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWq7v4fjmvw
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEkDRv7Jzpo
Dogs Leading The Fight to Combat Canine & Human Cancer
One of the major issues associated with longer life expectancy in man and his best friend is an increase in the incidence of cancer. Even though they cannot talk it seems dogs might be able to tell us why and how certain cancers develop. In turn that could lead to better treatments for both canine and human cancer patients.
An expert from the country’s newest Vet School will tell a symposium in London that studying tumours in dogs and humans could give us a better understanding of their shared pathogenesis.
Dr Ali Mobasheri, an Associate Professor from the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science at The University of Nottingham, is attending the one day symposium on 12th July, 2007 entitled ‘Curing Canine Cancer – Human Cancer Benefit’. The symposium has been organised by the Colorado based Morris Animal Foundation and is the first event of its kind to be held in this country. As well as addressing the cause of canine cancer, it will explore areas of translational cancer treatment research as cancer cures for dogs are now being successfully applied to humans, in particular children.
Cancer is the single biggest cause of death in dogs over the age of 2. The incidence of bone cancers, skin cancers, and lymphomas is increasing in humans and dogs and there are significant similarities between certain types of human and canine cancer – such as breast and prostate cancer. Dr Mobasheri says we are all mammals with similar genes and studying the bioenergetics of canine tumours will allow us to gain a comparative understanding of human tumour metabolism. He said: “We are using high throughput screening techniques to identify new biomarkers of prognostic significance in cancer. The approach involves using clinical samples from a tissue bank to carry out hypothesis driven immunohistochemical studies to look at tumour metabolism”.
Certain breeds of dog are known to develop certain types of cancer. For instance Osteosarcoma (bone cancer) is common in the Greyhound and the Rottweiler. It is also the sixth most common cancer seen in children. Research into canine cancer is easier because of the dog’s extensive pedigree information. Experts say this could be crucial in identifying the underlying genetic causes of cancer in dogs and humans and finding treatments that could be to the benefit of both.
Dr Mobasheri said: “The benefits of taking a comparative approach to cancer research will be of mutual benefit to humans and companion animals. That is because cancer is cancer. It is a similar disease in animals and humans”.
FURTHER READING:
Highly Recommended: As summer approaches, your dog will thank you for – clicking this link…!
Related posts:
- Canine Cancer Breakthrough: Could This Be First Effective Cancer Vaccination?
- Major Canine Cancer Breakthrough
- Children Give Up Birthday Gifts in Battle Against Canine Cancer
- Get Your Paws on Some Cool Prizes and Assist in the Battle Against Canine Cancer
- Gibson, The World’s Tallest Dog Dies From Cancer
June 7, 2009 at 1:46 am
Cancer in wild animals is almost unknown. Cancer in domestic animals is now a major cause of death. In humans vitamin D deficiency has been shown to be a major predisposing factor in cancer development. Now that animals are indoors most of the time could the same be possibly the cause of cancer in animals. Found a web site for a dog breeder the other day who talked about how her dogs became more fertile when she put them under UV lamps. Could this be the answer. All you can find on vitamin D in animals is that their food is supplemented to avoid deficiency. Thats what we used to say about humans but now know differently
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June 7, 2009 at 11:22 am
Very interesting hypothesis Mike.
Would be interesting to get the views of some of the cancer experts on this theory. I will attempt to do that and see if we can’t update this post with their views.
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June 7, 2009 at 12:48 pm
I wonder if the current practice of over-vaccinating pets could be having long-term health consequences for pets, including cancer?
The veterinary literature refers to vaccination and fibrosarcomas in cats… Could vaccination also be responsible for other cancers in pets?
I am not anti-vaccination, but I am concerned about unnecessary over-vaccination of pets, which puts them at needless risk of adverse reaction.
It is well-known in the international veterinary community that vaccine product label revaccination recommendations have no scientific basis. (Refer for example to Smith, C.A. 1995. Are we vaccinating too much? JAVMA, Vol 207, No. 4 August 15, 421-425).
The latest scientific advice is that there is long duration of immunity with vaccines for canine parvovirus, canine adenovirus and canine distemper virus. (Refer for example to the fact sheets of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association Dog and Cat Vaccination Guidelines, which indicate that DOI after vaccination with MLV vaccines is 7 years or longer, based on challenge and serological studies: http://www.wsava.org/PDF/Misc/VGG_09_2007.pdf )
The 2003 AAHA Canine Vaccine Guidelines noted that MLV vaccines for parvovirus, adenovirus and distemper virus were likely to provide lifelong immunity, stating: “When MLV vaccines are used to immunize a dog, memory cells develop and likely persist for the life of the animal.”
So why do so many vets still urge their clients to have their dogs revaccinated annually, or triennially, with CPV, CAV and CDV vaccines? These are unnecessary interventions that provide no benefit, and put the animal at needless risk of adverse reaction, and possible long-term health consequences?
I recently came across the following BBC article from 2001: Immune system blamed for cancer: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1496398.stm which made the comment: “Long-term over-activation of the immune system may be the single most important cause of cancer, say experts.”
I have sourced the paper referred to in this article. The paper is titled: Chronic immune activation and inflammation as the cause of malignancy. Here’s a link to the abstract:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11506482?ordinalpos=&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.SmartSearch&log$=citationsensor
This paper is about cancer in humans, but I assume it is also relevant to animals. So I wonder if constantly revaccinating pets, and regularly challenging their immune system might have long-term consequences for animals?
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June 7, 2009 at 2:56 pm
The reason that cancer is almost unknown in wild animals is that none of them live long enough to develope cancer. Animals in the wild do not die of old age or cancer or heart disease, they are eaten or succumb to food deprivation or various parasites or pathogens. The pets we have are kept safe and free from wolves, ticks, mites, mange, virus, heartworms, fleas, plague, nutritional imbalance, bacterial infection by modern preventive treatments as well as hygeine thus these animals live long enough to develope cancer. I do wonder if over-vacccinating them might not be a contributing factor to earlier than usual cancer incidence. But remember dogs in the wild very rarely live more then 2 or 3 years and they are pathetic.
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June 8, 2009 at 3:54 am
Clinton, can you cite any statistics on causes of death in wild animals?
Clinton you say: “The pets we have are kept safe and free from wolves, ticks, mites, mange, virus, heartworms, fleas, plague, nutritional imbalance, bacterial infection by modern preventive treatments as well as hygeine thus these animals live long enough to develope cancer.” [sic]
Since undertaking research into the problem of over-vaccination of pets, I am beginning to question the multitude of products that vets push their clients to buy for their pets. Are all these interventions really necessary? Are clients given the opportunity to properly weigh up the risks and benefits of these products?
For example, are heartworm treatments necessary for all dogs? In his book “An Introduction to Veterinary Medical Ethics”, Bernard Rollin queries whether it is ethical for vets to urge their clients to have heartworm treatments for their dogs in regions where the risk of heartworm is negligible. What do you think Clinton?
Rollin also discusses the topic of vaccination, noting that there is “increasing evidence that over-vaccination can actually be conducive to disease development, not only as a consequence of immunological stress, but also more directly. Early evidence implicated frequent vaccination in the development of injection-site sarcomas in cats, and autoimmune hemolytic anemia in dogs, both of which can be fatal. It has thus become a science-based consensus that, for most companion animal diseases, annual boosting is not necessary.”
I would argue that triennial boosting with CPV, CAV and CDV MLV vaccines is also unnecessary. As noted in my previous comment, it is well-known in the veterinary community that product label revaccination recommendations for these vaccines are not grounded in science. Immunological memory doesn’t automatically “switch off” after one year or three years. Immunology experts advise us there is long duration of immunity with these vaccines, probably lifelong. Are veterinarians passing this latest scientific information on DOI to their clients for consideration before revaccinating their pets?
I am concerned that some members of the veterinary profession are “over-servicing” their patients, and pushing clients to have unnecessary interventions for their pets. I am concerned that some veterinarians may not be obtaining “informed consent” from their clients before administering interventions to their pets, interventions which may be unnecessary and possibly harmful. Have longitudinal trials been conducted to ascertain if there might be long-term deleterious consequences from regular use of these products over the lifetime of an animal?
The veterinary profession must consider very carefully its duty to serve its clients and patients. Professional status is a privilege. Professions are allowed to “self-regulate”, but the system fails when some members of the profession abuse their position of authority, and exploit their clients’ trust.
Reference:
Rollin, Bernard E. An Introduction to Veterinary Medical Ethics. Iowa State University Press, 2006
Case 19: Marketing Heartworm Regimen, p. 143
Case 82: Can Annual Vaccinations Be Justified? p. 271
Bernard Rollin is University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Animal Sciences, Biomedical Sciences and University Bioethicist at Colorado State University
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