Help Your Dog Fight Cancer

Help Your Dog Fight Cancer
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My Dog Has Cancer

Now What?

Your heart is breaking, your mind is racing.
You don’t know where to begin or what to do.
Take a deep breath! You are not alone.

Support, Guidance and Hope

You don’t have to face this alone!

Start with our Free Dog Cancer Care Guide — a simple, supportive guide to help you take the first steps. You can start learning right away how to help your dog fight cancer.

Do you need financial assistance?

Laurie Kaplan founded Magic Bullet Fund. It is now closed, after helping 918 pets through treatment.
But there are some other great organizations you can apply to.

See list of organizations

Do you need a crash course on canine cancer?

Help Your Dog Fight Cancer is an extraordinary book! Readers often call the book their lifeline or their bible while helping their dogs fight cancer.

Inside the book

  • Choose a treatment plan
  • Choose diagnostic tests
  • Check your emotions
  • Provide an anti-cancer diet
  • Provide anti-cancer supplements
  • How to cut treatment costs
  • Side effects and what to do
  • Join a support group
  • When treatment isn't working
  • and much more
Read the Preface
See Table of Contents
A must read for anyone who has a dog with cancer!
My Dog Has Cancer

Readers Say...

“It’s a bible of information that I relied upon time and time again. I have put tabs and highlights throughout the book.” — Linda for Mango

“My dog has cancer and until I read this book, I felt so alone.” — Jen for Manta

“This book helped me immensely. No one at any clinic answered all of my questions the way this book did.” — Kathy for Molly

“Gentle, accessible and full of hope, this book offers an understandable overview of canine cancer. You will benefit greatly from Kaplan’s reporter’s skill at research, her editor’s gift for making tough material readable, and her personal experience.” — Dog Fancy Magazine

Laurie says, “When Bullet was diagnosed, I searched for a book to help us, but there were none. Bullet proved that dogs can survive cancer! I wrote this book to help you give your dog the best chance to beat cancer. ” Read More

A Bonding Experience

While giving you guidance and support, Help Your Dog Fight Cancer will empower you to play an important role in your dog’s battle against cancer. Your dog is at the center of the fight and you will be the Captain of the team.

The journey you and your dog are facing together will be a momentous and unforgettable bonding experience. It may be difficult. It will probably make you happy at times and sad other times. But it will most certainly be a bonding experience. It will magnify your bond and bring you and your dog closer. I’m sure right now you don’t believe you could possibly be closer. You will!

The History of Help Your Dog Fight Cancer

Laurie’s mission is to help people who have a dog with cancer. Through this book she has helped many thousands of people like you. Through Magic Bullet Fund she helped almost a thousand more. In private consults she has helped hundreds more.

This book is a must read for anyone who has a dog with cancer. It is easy to read, beautifully written and full of information you won’t find anyplace else. Many veterinary oncologists contributed and the renowned oncologist Dr. Villalobos is the book’s medical consultant.

Laurie and Dr. Alice went on to co-author the book Canine and Feline Geriatric Oncology, Honoring the Human-Animal Bond. It is a text book for veterinary school students and an important reference for vets providing cancer treatment.

Help Your Dog Fight Cancer has been in such demand that Laurie expanded and updated it twice since its original release. The current (third) edition provides dog owners with a comprehensive crash course in canine cancer. To this day, there are no other books available that compare to this book.

Now, when a dog owner tells a friend or a vet, “My dog has cancer,” often the response is:

“You must read the book Help Your Dog Fight Cancer by Laurie Kaplan!”

Help Your Dog Fight Cancer

Preface

About half of our dogs will have cancer in their lifetimes, yet most dog owners know little or nothing about caring for a dog with cancer. Not long ago, admittedly, there wasn’t much to know. Today, however, treatment for canine cancer is nearly on par with treatment for human cancer, and there is a great deal to know.

If your dog has cancer, you’re undoubtedly asking, “What can I do?” First, you will decide on a medical plan and put it into action. There are many considerations to take into account when choosing a plan, such as which diagnostic tests to allow, which veterinarian(s) to enlist, and which treatment you want your dog to have. There are almost always several treatments available, even when a veterinarian presents only one. This book will help you obtain information you were not given, and help you make the important decisions.

After you decide on a medical plan, you’ll ask, “What else can I do?” The answer is, Lots! Regardless of what type of medical treatment you decide your dog should have (chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, an alternative therapy, or no treatment at all), there is a great deal more that you can do. You’ll manage symptoms and side effects, and revise the treatment plan if necessary. You’ll strengthen your dog’s organs, and bolster his immune system. You’ll help your dog better fight the disease and better tolerate the treatment, to improve his odds for survival.

When Bullet was diagnosed with lymphoma, I wanted to know what typically happens before, during, and after canine cancer treatment, and what else might happen that is not typical. I wanted to know what I should, shouldn’t, could, and might do to help my dog survive. I wanted to know all of this right away, in plain English. I wanted what you are reading right now, I wanted this book!

My experience as an animal writer and medical editor enabled me to delve into volumes of medical literature undaunted by medical lingo. My mission was to become the best advocate I could for Bullet. I also consulted with general practice veterinarians, veterinary oncologists, holistic vets, oncologists in human medicine, and other owners of dogs with cancer. I researched treatment options, pharmaceuticals, supplements, nutraceuticals, diets, alternative treatments, and clinical trials. To find Bullet’s home care regimen, I experimented extensively to find out what worked best.

What I discovered was that the more information I gathered and the more I understood about Bullet’s condition, the more capable I felt of caring for him properly, and the more my anxiety diminished. This was my path to becoming the best advocate for my best friend. Now, I will help you become the best advocate for your dog. As you read, and your knowledge about canine cancer grows, your anxiety will wane. You will become a confident and competent advocate for your dog.

Paolo Porzio, DVM, who administered Bullet’s chemotherapy, urged me repeatedly to write a book that would help other owners of dogs with cancer become knowledgeable and confident advocates. After a year, I resigned my position as editor of Catnip, a publication of Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, and set about writing the first edition of this book.

The information in this book was culled from reliable sources, including peer-reviewed veterinary publications and journals, veterinary oncologists, and veterinary school web sites, or is based on my own experiences helping Bullet, and helping 918 [updated] Magic Bullet Fund dogs fight cancer. Through the Fund and in private consultations, I have helped hundreds of owners begin the bittersweet journey of living with and caring for a dog with cancer.

I launched the Magic Bullet Fund in conjunction with the publication of the first edition of this book, in 2004. I founded the Fund to offer financial assistance to people who have a dog with cancer but cannot afford treatment fees. For many families, treatment is available but the costs are prohibitive. How terrible it must be to know that your dog would have a chance to survive if only you could afford treatment. The Fund helped 918 [updated] families provide cancer treatment for their dogs and cats. 

Cancer survival may be a miracle, but for the families in the Magic Bullet Fund, just being able to see their dogs receive treatment is the real miracle. You can see the dogs and their families at themagicbulletfund.org.

All owners are initially overwhelmed, as was I, by the shocking news that their dog has cancer and by the prospect of losing their best friend. There are numerous ways to care for a dog with cancer. Each owner must choose the options that work best for the dog and the family.

This book will provide you with a solid foundation for your battle against canine cancer. You will come away from Help Your Dog Fight Cancer with confidence, prepared to begin the journey and to make informed decisions as your best friend’s best advocate. 

Cancer is a fierce enemy. To fight the good fight, we need all the ammunition we can get. Armed with information and love, you will discover the best possible way to care for your dog through the battle against cancer.

Table of Contents
Help Your Dog Fight Cancer

About Canine Cancer
Causes and Prevention
Early Detection
Lymph Node Locations

Most Common Types
Tumors
Bone Cancers
Cancers of the Blood
Multiple Cancers

First Decisions
What Tests are Needed?
Your Dog’s Cancer Team
Find a Treatment Plan
When Should Treatment Begin?
Could it be a Misdiagnosis?

Your Dog Has Cancer…Now What?
Should Your Dog Have Treatment?
Don’t Believe Everything You Read
Don’t Believe Everything You Hear
Don’t Believe “It’s Just a Dog”
Keep a Journal

Surgery
Curative vs. Palliative
Amputation
Surgery
Pain Control

Radiation Therapy
Lacy’s story
Curative vs. Palliative
Types of Radiation Therapy

Chemotherapy
Traditional Chemotherapy
How Much is Enough?
Intralesional Chemotherapy
Electrochemotherapy
Medical Cautions
Treatment Failure
Chemo Costs

Side Effects
Paraneoplastic Syndromes
Surgery Side Effects
Radiation Side Effects
Chemo (drug-specific)
Chemo (other)
Don’t Panic!

New & Alternative Treatments
Comparative Oncology
Immunotherapy
Vaccine Therapies
BMT for Lymphoma
Other Treatments & Therapies
Alternative Therapies
Clinical Trials

What’s Your Dog Eating? 
About Diet and Cancer
Bullet’s Cancer Diet
Water
Don’t Forget the Treats
Frozen Fishies!

What Else Can You Do?
Don’t Blow a Fuse!
Vitamins and Minerals
Supplements
Organ Support
Bullet’s Supplements

Whole Health Issues
First-Aid Kit

From Warrior to Angel
When Pawspice Begins
When Pawspice Ends
After the Loss

Bullet’s Story 

Appendices
Search the Internet
Join a Support Group!
Vaccination Waiver
Early Warning Signs
Chemotherapy Protocols
Chemotherapy Drugs
Schools of Vet Medicine
Quality of Life Scale
Reading List

Index

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