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Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat

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THE BEST DIET CHOICE FOR SHEPHARD WITH CANCER PLEASE!
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Member Since:
14 December 2017
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14 December 2017 - 9:12 am
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HELLO! I'm A TRI PAWD MOMMY. OUR LOVE WAS DIAGNOSED WITH OSTEOSARCOMA ABOUT 2 MONTHS AGO. WE HAVE UNDERWENT EXTENSIVE TREATMENTS BACKED BY A TRIAL THROUHG UC DAVIS AND HE IS DOING FANTASTIC. BUJU IS A SHEPHARD MIX AND I AM STRESSING OVER THE BEST DIET OPTIONS TO HELP HIS BODY FIGHT, STAY VIBRANT, HEALTHY, AND STRONG. OBVIOUSLY FINANCES ARE ALWAYS A HOLD BACK.... IS HIGH PROTEIN AND GRAIN FREE OUR NUMBER ONE BEST OPTION? ANY SUGGESTIONS WOULD BE GREATLY ACCEPTED. THANK YOU SO MUCH AND TRIPAWDS RULE. 

Livermore, CA


Member Since:
18 October 2009
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14 December 2017 - 11:21 am
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Hello and welcome, your future posts will not have to wait for approval.

I'm sorry cancer has brought you here but this is the best place to be when dealing with amputation and cancer.

You are wise to consider Buju's diet (is that his name?) but please don't stress over it!  There are so many options for diets out there, I know it is mind boggling.  And you will find almost as many vets who say diet's don't matter in fighting cancer as those who say it is important.

I believe diet is important- for more than fighting cancer, you want to be sure Buju's joints stay as healthy as possible too.  It's hard to recommend a diet since we don't know anything about Buju, however there are lots of ideas in our Nutrition Blog.  There is info on dog food, diets, recipies and supplements.

When my pugs were fighting cancer (one Tri-pug and one Quad-pug) I went grain free .  I will admit that I started that because my quad-pug Tani had IBD and because of the IBD I was somewhat limited in my choices.  The more research I did the more I realized I wanted to get the pugs off of kibble as their main food and I switched to Honest Kitchen freeze dried food and I add my own protein. I now have 2 dogs who are thankfully not dealing with cancer but I still use HK as the base.  Tani also passed a few years ago (at almost 15 year old!) so I can more of a variety now.  I still use a high quality kibble for treats and for food puzzles, and I do use some canned food at times.  Because the dogs tend to get heavy, a pug and a Tripawd pug-mix, I use lots of green beans also.

I also wanted to mention that we have a fairly active group in Nor Cal, we get together at least twice a year in Mill Valley- so keep an eye on the Tripawd Party forum!

Karen and the Spirit Pug Girls

Tri-pug Maggie survived a 4.5 year mast cell cancer battle only to be lost to oral melanoma.

1999 to 2010

 

              Maggie's Story                  Amputation and Chemo

Member Since:
26 August 2017
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31 December 2017 - 7:21 am
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Well, here is my .02 worth.  Stay away from kibble, grain free I feel is the best option for all dogs.  Also as close to a BARF diet as possible.  There is a website, ketopetsanctuary.com, they advocate a keto diet and will provide you with information although their protocol would be very expensive.

So, here is what I am doing.  My canine friend was diagnosed with osteosarcoma this past memorial weekend and had his right front leg amputated early August.  No chemo.  He is about 90#.  His diet consists of a green food base, Dr. Harveys Paradigm to which I add the protein.  I mostly use the raw pet food mix, ground chicken backs and the pet burger from US Wellness Meats.  I add canned wild salmon or sardines at least once a week.  If I run out I will purchase free range organic locally if I can find it or at a minimum organic.  I have been mixing in fresh broccoli, cauliflower or green beans, lightly steamed.  

For suppliments he gets a good quality fish oil, hoxey w/boneset, cbd oil, vit D, Onco support formula and for good measure I have added organic moringa powder.  

All of that is costing me 400.00/month but he is doing well.   I need to cut that back to about 250./month but the issue is what to cut back on.  Dr. Harveys Paradigm is about 90./month but I am cutting back a little on the serving size and supplementing with fresh veggies so that lasts about 6 weeks.  The meat from US wellness end up just under 6./lb if you can purchase in larger quantities and have the freezer space.  So he needs about 6 to 7 oz of protein 2x/day.  His activity level is about 70% less than when he was well so I'm playing with the amounts so he doesn't gain to much wt.  So the Paradigm and protein end up at about 7./day, not much left for suppliments.  Keep in mind all the meat I use is free range, organic so you have to make the choice. 

Will be having a vet appointment shortly after the New Year for a check up and diet discussion.  I will post again after his appointment.  Good luck!

Virginia



Member Since:
22 February 2013
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31 December 2017 - 4:03 pm
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THANK YOU MUCH FOR TAKING THE TIME TO SHARE Charlie's "menu" with us!  You've done a vast amount of research!  Thank you again for sharing all this insiw and knowledge with us.

Best wishes to Charlie and his hoomans for the upcoming yearS!!!!  

Is your son back from Kuwait yet?

And Karen, as always, THE PUGS are such great teachers for us all on so many levels! 🙂

BUJU, sending best wishes for succesw with your prpgram at UCDavis!  Cheering for you! 🙂

Hugs

Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!

Happy Hannah had a glorious additional bonus time of over one yr & two months after amp for osteo! She made me laugh everyday! Joined April's Angels after send off meal of steak, ice cream, M&Ms & deer poop!

Member Since:
12 May 2018
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28 June 2018 - 11:00 pm
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IN looking at the foods used by charlie1's owner,.. has anyone used paradigm with cooked meat and not raw?  

Latham, NY
Member Since:
1 October 2017
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29 June 2018 - 5:46 am
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Fallon is a greyhound with osteosarcoma.  You can find many approaches to cancer diets online, I doubt any are really wrong, you just have to find what works for you.  Here's where we've landed with diet.  

When our oncologist gave us the OK to change her diet, I first gravitated to a raw diet, but that only lasted a week or two.  I got the recipe off K9 Medicinals website for Raw Meat Patties, and chose it mostly because it was mostly ingredients I was familiar with and could buy at our local supermarket.

I read more, and have been relying the Dog Cancer Survival Guide pretty closely.  You can find a free pdf of this online, but the book fills in some details, and is well worth the cost for many reasons beyond diet.  Dr Dressler recommends against raw feeding due to the compromised immune system of a pet with cancer, and the problem of microbes and germs that can be prevalent in raw meat.  He recommends cooking at low temperatures, 212F (boiling temp) or less.  The higher temperature you cook at, the more carcinogens are formed.  So I switched to a modified version of the Dog Cancer Survival diet, using only the ingredients I knew and could find easily, and simmering everything.  It was pretty labor intensive and messy.  Then someone--Kokomo's mom I think--said she used the slow cooker--life changing!!  I did a little research and found that at the low setting most slow cookers cook at somewhere around 180F.  So now, I cook in stages over the course of a couple of days every 2 weeks.  I have 2 slow cookers.  I cook veggies (I try for broccoli, kale, and yellow and/or red peppers) one day, cooked for a couple of hours in the slow cookers just until they soften.  I cook the meat, usually overnight, 2 crockpots with (usually) chicken and liver (and necks, when I can find them).  When veggies and meat are done, I food process to grind it up and refrigerate.  I save the juices to flavor it also, and refrigerate also so I can skim the fat off the top.  Brown rice I make on the stovetop.  Cottage cheese s also in this recipe, and flavoring--I use salt substitute or Bragg's Liquid Aminos.  I make it in mass quantities so I don't have to do it often.  There is so much, I mix it in a plastic dishpan dedicated to that purpose.  Then I weigh it our onto daily servings for 2 dogs, put it into food saver bags, and freeze.  

The other good thing about this is I can do it pretty cost effectively--I go to a butcher shop and buy about 20 pounds of meat--chicken usually, as cost is a factor.  It's discounted in 10 pound bags, and I find it to be better quality than supermarket chicken--very little junk to trim away.  I use 13-14 pounds of meat for the recipe and make meatball treats for the dogs with the remainder--or Spiedies for the 2 leggers.

I supplement with Taste of the Wild grain free --free feed, because my girls can handle that.

So this is long, and I apologize.  But again, you'll find many approaches, just have to find what works for you--this is just where we're at and how we got there..  

Fallon  8/28/06--9/6/18.  My Heart.

Fallon's left front leg was amputated due to osteosarcoma on 10/11/17.

Nothing But Love in Her Heart - dawn3g.tripawds.com

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