Eight Months Strong Since the Cancer Returned

Little Schnitzel knows when Buford is having a bad day. They often snuggle close on those days.

Eight Months!

It’s been eight months since my old vet told me Buford has cancer in his lymph nodes. It’s probably been ten months since the actual cancer returned.  At this rate with cancer in his nodes the size of coconuts, I am quite pleased with his HEALTHY survival rate and quality of life. Had I done chemo, he would have been gone months back.

I look at my faithful companion Buford every day and smile. Although his body does show less fat than he used to have (switching to an organic diet with chicken and kale) he still has the pep in his step and is healthy (well, except for the coconut sized cancer in his nodes). He runs and plays and at 13 that’s amazing in itself.

The Dog Is Fighting.

Buford certainly has a will to live and I think for him, that’s keeping him going. Having an owner he loves is the sole reason for survival, as is his little partner Schnitzel, a 6 year old mini doxie who is the love of his life. I guess that makes him gay, but whatever works to keep him alive.

When I say he has a will to live, I’ll give you an example. I first try to feed him the meds when he is hungry wrapped in chicken skin or a cube of steak.  He will often spit them out and make a small pile of them. If I yell and get upset about this, he will gobble up the capsules just to make me happy. It’s a strange communication we have. He knows without the meds he will have a worse night than with the meds.

Bad Days Turn To Needy-Ness.

I’ve had to tailor his dinners. For months he lived on Chicken and Kale but now he associates the chicken with his recent bout of the stress-infection. I’ve had to switch him to steak and steak cubes and slowly re-introduce the chicken in with it.  This of course has cost me a fortune finding grass fed steaks and good cuts (fatty the better), but hey, whatever works. He’s gained back 3 of the 7 lbs he lost during his infection.

Buford overall is way more needy than usual.  When he has bad days (and you can tell, because he’ll eat more grass or be up in the middle of the night with hot sweats having to pee more than usual) he follows me everywhere. If I so much as run to the store and back he’s howling like he lost his best friend.  The neighbors asked what I’m doing to the dog, because they hear him screech and moan when I’m gone on the back porch as if it’s the end of the world.  The bottom line is when he’s not feeling good, he wants to at least know I’m there.

Granted, I am not used to this additionally neediness and have had to rearrange my work schedule. This is my busy project time, and I’m often out of town for a few days at a time and I can leave him with the pet sitter, but anymore this is not working out.   Just leaving him for 8 to 10 hours a day put him into sickness (stress sickness read here.)  When I’m gone, he has a large doggie door where he comes and goes and plays in the back yard with two other dogs in our home and one cat he’s quite fond of, but none of this seems to matter.

These little clues tell me that quite possibly the end is sooner rather than later.  So I have rearranged the best I can and try to leave him minimally and accommodate the dog.

Dogs Know Dogs.

 

I am really worried about his little play mate Schnitzel, a mini doxie who is six years old and thinks of Buford as his best friend in life (and lover because of the way he constantly dry humps his rear while he’s sleeping even after getting the little bugger fixed…).  Although we have a lovely girl doxie in the house Schnitzel could care less.  He will be truly heartbroken when Buford finally goes.

Schnitzel’s actions tell me of Buford’s bad days. On bad days Schnitzel tries to cheer up Buford by licking his teeth, pulling on his ears and licking his face. Often times Buford will just lay there with one eye open as if to say, “Really????”

On good days however Schnitzel is the reason. He is soltely what is keeping Buford oxygenated, by running around the yard with him and they play and chase each other until Buford is so tired he sleeps right through the night. I love those nights.

My Happy Days are Full of Poop.

Reality for me is knowing that each day with Buford could be his last. He will go two days with runny feces and I get ready to take him in for a scan to see if the tumors have grown into partial or total blockage, then on day three he will surprise me and crap a good sized sausage out and that tells me he can still defaecate as normal and that the blockage has not interfered.  So on those big piles of poop days, I’m happiest.

Record Breaking.

If Buford is an example of how long your dog can live without chemo, he’s it.  If you figure he initially had cancer over two and a half years ago, had it removed and it grew back causing CANCER IN THE LYMPH NODES last Sept or Oct, not detected until December….he’s still alive eight months later after re-diagnoses.   That’s most likely ten months since the cancer was active.

Most dogs who go thru chemo or tumor removal or lymph surgery either have the cancer spread to the next healthy node or quite honestly the cancer attacks even harder. Some dogs simply pass from the chemo ruining their immune system within four to six months.

In my opinion, he’s kicking cancer’s ass and cancer is not kicking his. At 13 he’s already over his life span and when the dog eats filets and steak every few nights and I eat McDonald’s because I’m spending all my grocery money on his dinners, I would think he’s in heaven on Earth in dog terms and for that I’m happy.

 

 

 

 

Chicken Diet for Cancer Dogs

Maybe it’s me but this food looks darn good.

I have to say I’ve got Buford’s chicken diet down pat.  He’s 61 lbs and spending  $20-$25  a week and my dog eats darn good.  I wait until I find the .99 thighs or legs. These tend to have more fat which is good since I’ve cut out the grain.  Four family packs will last him 7 days.  If you buy them on Monday, make a batch on Monday and freeze the other pack. Remove the frozen pack on Thursday and boil it up for the weekend.  For my 60 lb boy, $18.72 in chicken and $4 in Kale gets him through a week.

Now I want to say as far as stretching it goes,  I feed him a giant portion at night. whatever he can’t eat gets refrigerated and that’s his breakfast. A small portion for breakfast helps keep his immune system going. Times will vary due to my hectic work schedule.

Since my dog’s immune system has been compromised by the cancer, so I don’t do rare or raw, so he gets well done, and I go the extra step to make the “jelly” from the fat and marrow.  I’ve gotten good at stretching the life out of the chicken and pulling all the good stuff from it.

The below steps take me about an hour to two hours to prepare each Monday and Thursday.  I premake enough cooked picked chicken with jellified fat and portion container it in the fridge so that he has enough to eat for a few days easy. All I have to do when I get home is puree fresh kale and add to the refrigerated portion and serve.  Prep time is 10 minutes per night. Keep in mind the pills are thrown in there and I have to make sure he’s eaten them all before I refrigerate the rest for morning breakkie!  (Alternate is to pre make some beef cubes from steak and portion them into saran wrap. Freeze and thaw as needed, serve cold)

Step One:

Boil Your Chicken in a Stock Pot (Not Aluminum)

Step Two:

Remove the chicken and continue to boil down the liquid.

Step Three:

Pick  your chicken.

Step Four:

Boil down the bones in the liquid.

Step Five: 

Remove the bones and add this liquid to the picked chicken.

Step Six:

Container in single serve containers, and refrigerate.

After I’ve picked the chicken clean I will dump the liquid in. In this is a large jar I scoop out a portion each night although it’s easier to do single serve packs when you are time constained.

Once the liquid has been added to the chicken and cools, you will notice most of the fat floats to the top

Natural Fats in the Chicken help keep him at his target weight.

===========Buford’s Health Today:  He’s tired a lot. Still running and playing, but taking more naps. I hope it’s just the fresh air, but realistically I know what to expect. I also got him rescanned. Am waiting for the interpretation.

Diet for Dogs with Cancer Kale Superfood Flavanoids

The Diet for Cancer Dogs

The biggest challenge for me as a pet owner was to fine tune dinners for Buford.  My husband cooks professionally for a living and dinner in our household was always something we shared together. Now we are more worried about cooking for the dog , so I now have it down to a science.  I can make his dinner in about ten minutes if I cook the chicken every few days.

Goodbye Grains and Carbs

I took three cancer diet suggestions and tailored them to Buford’s preferences. All dogs may be different, but the key here is to keep the dog eating and keep him interested in eating.  I cut out all grains, and all unnecessary carbs. He gets no rice and no oatmeal.  He was a dog who was raised on grains so this has been a huge challenge.  He will still attack me wishing for a pizza crust. Sorry pal, not going to happen. I’m not feeding the cancer with grains.

Replace the Carbs with Natural Fats to Fatten Them Back Up

At first I had to cook up some pork back fat and cube it into small cubes.  My dog initially dropped weight and looked like he was wasting away to nothing. Changing to a diet with no grains or carbs is hard on them. So for Buford I could give him a few ounces of pork back fat mixed into his food. Normally this is something that a normal healthy dog may not digest properly, but in Buford’s case his body was waxing and waning for carbs.

Natural carbs were soon to follow in my chicken concoction. I am proud to say I feed him enough chicken natural fats now he isn’t wasting away and is holding weight well.

Move From Once a Day Feeding to Twice a Day or More

Buford used to eat a big meal every night. He was not faring well eating once a day. Dr. Carol advised me to try twice a day. I give him an overwhelming portion at night, sometimes, so much I know he will have some left to refrigerate for morning. I will feed him first thing, sometimes even wake him up to feed him before I go to work.  Twice a day is very important. By the time I get home he is starving.

Chicken Concoction : Jellified is Good Four out of Five Days

Every few days I boil down some chicken. I do about three days at a time. The goal is to have enough chicken, jellified stock, and natural chicken fat to feed your dog dinner for three days. To do this you need a pretty large family pack of thighs, or legs.  I prefer legs and thighs for this mixture. Also the bones are minimal and they are easy to pick.  I literally boil the crap out of it until the chicken is falling off the bone and most of the water in the pot has evaporated. Now I suppose the right way would be to use distilled water but I still use tap water (hey, I’m boiling the crap out of it okay and I can’t be perfect on everything!)  I will sometimes remove the chicken and continue boiling down the stock, picking the chicken them returning the bones to the boiling water. I swear there’s good protein in those bones and I’m like the lady with rock soup, determined to squeeze everything out of those bones for my cancer dog. When I say boil it dwn,  I mean you must boil this stock down to nill. If it was 3/4 full you are shooting for 1/4 full.  Once you have done this remove bones or chicken parts and let it cool in a glass bowl. It will overnight coagulate. It becomes a big jellified mess of chicken stock. If you don’t see it looking like jello, you haven’t boiled it enough.The top will form a nice layer of fat that your dog needs to replace the lack of carbs he gets because he doesn’t eat grains. The jellified concoction is what I puree in with his kale.  Pick your chicken and put that in a bowl, pouring a bit of chicken stock in there to keep it moist. Include cartridge from the tip of the legs and all the skins.  I get a large casserole full of chicken after doing a family pack. Unfortunately, Buford being 60 lbs will only last him three days from a family pack. It does get costly but he’s worth it. I refrigerate it and use this for approximately three days.

If you really want to go the extra mile and save time have a dog cooking dinner night. You can cook several family packs and repeat this process, wrapping portions in saran and bagging them in your freezer. Save the stock in small containers. Therefore, you can cook up a few weeks’ worth. You can pull out a small prepped up pack each day and small container of stock to thaw in a bowl in the fridge for the next night’s dinner. I’m not this far ahead.

My dog prefers chicken over red meats and so he will eat this four out of five days.  I will give him once a week red meat, like a pan grilled steak and cut it up medium with a hint of rare with the fat attached to the steak. I will cube it and add that to the pureed veggies. The fattier the steak the better.   As you aren’t supposed to use ground meats of any kind the other alternatives if liver. I hate making him this because it stinks to high heaven and the whole kitchen reeks afterwards.

I do not give him pork, for one my dog vomits on pork meat and his skin breaks out. He’s technically allergic to pork but what is amazing is he can eat bacon and pork back fat with no issues. So I’m not sure what it is.  No fish for dinner but if he’s dying for a snack I may let him nibble on some of my tuna fish. I always have tuna made up with mayo and dill.  This is probably a big no no with the mercury scare and such, but the way I see it it’s protein and beats giving him a milk bone.  That little bit of mayo is adding fat and well, it sure beats a hot dog.

Overall I’ve tried very hard to adapt his diet and I’m in shock he has had less trouble than me!

Kale : Four Days out of Seven But All Greens Must Be Pureed

Whatever veggies you are using must be processed to break down the cells for easier absorption in your pet.

Now if you ask me Kale is an important superfood. Here is a great article on Kale, and it aids in Cancer because it has a phytochemical called sulforaphane which  helps the body’s detoxification enzymes clear potentially carcinogenic substances out of your system.  It’s said to have 45 different Flavinoids which not only boost the immune system and help in detoxification but it’s simply amazing.  I don’t cook the kale. I pick the leaves off maybe two to three stems (he thinks the stems are bitter and will turn his nose up at this if you include the stems I learned this rather quickly) and after I’ve mixed the leaves with some jellified chicken stock I puree them. I mix them into my chicken concoction.

Buford gets kale at least four days out of seven.

The Rest of the Days: Veggie Mix

Two days I will rinse and do the same with collard greens. I used to boil them first to soften them, he doesn’t mind if they are raw or not, but he doesn’t like the stems.

The last day is broccoli. This is a cousin of kale but Buford is picky about it. It bothers him as it will give him gas. He will not eat it raw.  I have to steam it first, then puree it or he will not eat it. It then is pureed with the jellified chicken.  He really hates it but he will eat it and I do this to change up his dinner. I pay the price later that night when he’s farting.

Sometimes, I sneak in green peppers, but he is not fond of them. Red peppers upset his tummy but I am a huge fan of them.  I try to add in a sliver here and there and purify it to heck. Only once every few weeks will I mix in a carrot and I do this with skins on pureed but I have mixed feelings about this. t. I am a huge fan of raw carrots

Here’s A Sample of Buford’s diet:

Morning: Small bit of leftover from the night before (if any.) If not, small portion of boiled chicken.  Prep Time: Zilch

Night Jellifiedd Stock Pureed in With Kale, and Chicken Skins/Cartlidge/Boiled Chicken mix – large potion with meds dumped on top Prep Time: 10 Min

note: I make sure to check that he’s swallowed all pills. If not I will make a chicken meatball with a medicine stuffed inside til all the meds are gone.

save leftovers for morning…repeat…

Buford’s Health Today: Absolutely Amazing. He’s been running, playing and doing well crapping lately. His quality of life is great, and it makes me very happy . I’ve added Carnivora but I’ll write more on that later.