Treating weight loss in dogs and cats with cancer
It is very common for cats and dogs who have cancer to loss weight even when they are eating well. This is because the cancer is stealing their nutrients and not allowing the body to have what it needs. Weight loss in the face of a healthy appetite and proper nutrition is called cachexia.
There is a simple protocol I use to address this issue if it isn’t just an issue of appetite.
- Add in Fish Oil at 2-3X recommended dosage. Cancer can not use fat and Omega 3 oils help to reverse cachexia.
- Feed 1-2 tablespoons of canned sweet potato or pumpkin at every meal for the average sized dog. Use a teaspoon for cats. This helps with digestion and helps them use the nutrients in their food better.
- Add in 1-2 eggs a day for the average sized dog or part of an egg for cats. Eggs are a very good source of 100% digestible protein. Cooked is best. You can hard boil a dozen at a time and keep them in the refrigerator to make it easier.
- Consider feeding multiple meals a day or increase the amount of food. Feed grain free food to your carnivore. This can really help and probably seems obvious.
- There are some other herbal formulas that can help but they differ from animal to animal, so consider seeing a veterinary herbalist if the above doesn’t work.
Eating is very important. The Chinese say that eating and sleeping are the two most important things to getting better.
Animals on 20 different supplements occasionally get poor appetites. Wouldn't you? The first thing I would do is take away most, if not all of the supplements and get them eating for a few days and then slowly add stuff back in.Be careful to not over do it with western medications as well and remember that if your animal is on certain herbals or getting acupuncture you can sometimes get by with a smaller dose of drugs like prednisone.Get help from your holistic or western vet if your animal is not eating. There are many ways to stimulate appetite in both modalities.
If appetite is an issue then I recommend working with a holistic vet with acupuncture and herbs or consulting with your animal’s regular veterinarian about appetite stimulants and anti-nausea medications.
From The April 1998 issue of Nutrition Science News
Fish Oil Slows Cancer Cachexia By Richard N. Podell, M.D.
For cancer patients with a poor prognosis, good news, no matter how slim, is still good news. The American Cancer Society (ACS), nationally headquartered in Atlanta, estimates that 29,000 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 1998. Of those patients, the ACS predicts 18 percent will survive at least one year after the diagnosis and only 4 percent will survive more than five years. The slim bit of good news comes from research that shows fish oil helps slow or reverse cachexia, a condition of physical wasting and malnutrition often developed by cancer patients.1 Cachexia is especially common to pancreatic cancer, where rapid weight loss is often the dominant symptom. Weight and muscle mass drop off rapidly and out of proportion to the accompanying loss of appetite. Neither more food nor intravenous nutrition reverses the problem. Cachexia directly accounts for an estimated 10 to 22 percent of all cancer deaths. Many experts believe cachexia reflects an increased metabolic rate caused by inflammatory biochemicals that cancer triggers. The best way to reverse cachexia is to treat the cancer.
However, pancreatic cancer does not have a safe, effective treatment. In test-tube experiments, fish oils and their omega-3 fatty acids inhibit the growth of several types of human cancer, including pancreatic. Fish oil also inhibits certain cancers in mice and, through a separate effect, can reverse their cachexia. This month's featured study is from the University of Edinburgh, Department of Surgery, Royal Infirmary in Scotland.4 Eighteen patients with inoperable pancreatic cancer received a daily dose of 12 1 g capsules of a fish-oil dietary supplement that contained 18 percent eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and 12 percent docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). All of the patients had been losing 3 pounds per month on average before taking fish oil. In the first three months of supplementation their average weight increased by about two-thirds of a pound per month. Eleven of the 18 patients gained weight, three remained stable and four continued to lose weight, but more slowly. Tests showed that the weight gain was not caused by fluid retention. Both patients and doctors in the study were aware of the treatment. However, there are several reasons to believe the weight gain was not a placebo effect. First, the weight loss in previous months had been large and progressive with no reversal. Second, the fish-oil patients did much better than another group who were treated with intravenous gamma linolenic acid (GLA), a different type of oil. The intravenous treatments with GLA, given by the same doctors, were ineffective in reversing weight loss. Therefore, there was no significant placebo effect.
The authors concluded: "Oral fish-oil supplementation significantly altered the progression of cachexia in a group of pancreatic cancer patients. Before supplementation, all of the study group experienced progressive weight loss; however, following administration of fish oil, three-quarters of the group were either weight-stable or actually gained a small amount of weight. It is unlikely that the observed changes in weight were caused by a placebo effect since administration of GLA to a matched group of weight-losing pancreatic cancer patients had no significant influence on the overall pattern of weight loss."
Animal studies using fish oil are encouraging. One study showed reduced cachexia in mice with cancer.5 Other studies showed fish oil decreased the subject's tendency to break down fat6 and increased the ability to preserve muscle mass.7
"Fish oil supplements help thwart the loss of muscle mass in dogs suffering from heart disease, according to a study at Tufts Univ. School of Veterinary Medicine. "We are very excited about these results," said Dr. Lisa M. Freeman, a veterinary nutritionist at Tufts. "My hunch is that a higher dose of fish oil might have even more of an effect, but we need to do more studies in this area."Dogs with heart disease, like people, experience a phenomenon called cachexia, or loss of muscle mass, that decreases strength and immune function. When ill, the body produces elevated levels of hormone-like substances called cytokines, the major one being tumor necrosis factor, tohelp fight the offending pathoge. But at high levels and for prolonged periods, cytokines can suppress appetite and cause a loss of muscle mass. "People with heart disease have increased levels of cytokines, probably as a compensatory response to the disease, but this eventually can have detrimental effects for the patient," Freeman said. "We wanted to study this mechanism to determine if it could be managed nutritionally, and it turns out that fish oil does indeed reduce cytokine levels." Although veterinarians have observed cachexia clinically in their patients for years, the precise mechanism of the condition had not been studied in dogs before. Freeman, who also is a researcher at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts, conducted the fish oil study in collaboation with colleagues from the veterinary school and the HNRCA. In the eight-week study, 28 dogs with congestive heart failure caused by dilated cardiomyopathy, a naturally occurring disease that weakens the heart muscle in some middle-age dogs and is generally fatal within four to six months, were divided into two groups. One group was given fish oil, and the other received a placebo. Both groups were also given appropriate medical treatments for their condition. Fish oil is not a magic bullet for treating canine heart disease, Freeman cautions, but the Tufts researchers found a reduction in cytokine levels and an improvement in muscle mass in these animals. "But even more exciting was the finding that reductions in cytokine levels were associated with a longer survival time," Freeman said. "We'll need to study this further, certainly, but it looks promising." The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, Hills Pet Products, the Mark Morris Institute and the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition.
I give Lucy Fish Oil, Pepcid sometimes and a break from all her pills about once a week at random days. Glutamine may help http://dognasalcancertreatmentforlucy.blogspot.com/2012/06/glutamine-and-cancer.html
