Hi All! New member here looking for advise!

isaserna · Dec 10, 2018

Hi All,

I'm a new member and I'm looking for advise!

My frenchie Charlie, almost 5 years old was diagnosed with a mast cell tumor which he had removed 2 months ago (October). Fast forward 2 months and this week we found another small tumor which he is having surgically removed today.

Does anybody have any experience with mast cell tumors? The oncologist recommended chemo to reduce the chance of tumors reoccurring, but I've heard A LOT of mixed feelings about this from other dog owners in my life.

I'm also looking into possibly changing his diet. Do you have any recommendations? Any supplements I should be looking into? I feel like vets are either very passive (let's wait and see what happens) or very aggressive (let's do chemo and surgery now) but I also want to be somewhere in the middle doing everything I can to make sure his body is functioning as it should.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!! THANK YOU!

Cbrugs · Dec 10, 2018

Welcome to you and Charlie! I do not have any experience with this but just wanted to say I hope you get it figured it out. I am sure some other members will chime in shortly.

And we like to see pictures!!

Mechadogzilla · Dec 10, 2018

Hello, I am sorry to hear about Charlie’s condition. I have had experience with mast cell tumors in Frenchies. One of my dogs had a large mast cell tumor internally in his liver. It was too large to extract, so we relied exclusively on Chemo for treatment.

He responded very well to Chemo and did not seem to be in pain while undergoing treatment. The prednisone that was on at the same time did seem to make him uneasy. I felt that the chemo was working well for him; however, he also, at the same time, was suffering from a collapsed esophagus which he did not recover from.

At the time he was dealing with all of this, I did quite a bit of research regarding mast cell tumors. It seems as if early detection and treatment is key. My advice would be to stay on top of the issue and don’t be afraid to ask as many questions as you need to of the vet(s)and seek a second or even third opinion if you feel the need to so that you can make best decisions for Charlie - he is part of your family in the end and not part of the vet’s family. Personally, I feel that since mast cell tumors have already been discovered, nutritional changes alone are not going to enough. Whether surgery and/or Chemo is needed now or just monitoring - those are things you need to really question vet on.

Best of luck to you and Charlie. From what I have read, early detection and treatment can have good prognosis. Even in Ivan’s (my dog) advanced case, the mast cell was shrinking significantly; unfortunately, other issues came in to play.

Please keep us updated, and do post pictures of Charlie.

Honeys Owners · Dec 10, 2018

Sorry to hear about your dog- I don't know much about it, but would recommend adding some herbals to your dog's food, eg. turmeric and hemp seed oil, and possibly CBD oil (eg.Cannapet) . I give my dog turmeric every day even though she doesn't have cancer. https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/cancer-in-dogs-3-herbs-to-fight-back/ https://thetruthaboutcancer.com/cancer-in-dogs-and-cats/

I would also recommend switching to the raw BARF diet for your dog,( 70% muscle meat, 10% bone, 5% liver, 5% other organs and 10% vegetables ) since a low carb diet tends to be better for dogs with cancer.

Alice Kable · Dec 10, 2018

Welcome to FBN. I am so sorry your Charlie is going through this. I have no experience with chemo treatments for my own dogs, but have seen dogs who were getting treatments and they appeared to be doing well.