hello everyone. Our family dog was just diagnosed with prostate cancer and we are devastated. He's had many tick bites with bulls-eye rashes over the course of his 8 years, and as a family that suffers with Lyme (we all have it) we can't help but wonder if there is a connection between his past infections and the cancer in his prostate. He's a neutered male and has exhibited symptoms of Lyme for years. I don't know that there's anything that can be done for him now, but I was wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar with their pet(s). Thank you so much for responding, any information is welcomed.
Posted by Melanie Reber (Member # 3707) on :
I am so very sorry to read about your poor pup.
Yes...there have been many links between cancer and Lyme. In fact, I believe it was Doc. B. who also recently had prostate cancer.
If I were you...I would get that guy on Doxy, and keep him on it. Many good things have been written about Lyme, cancer and Doxy.
I'll try to do a search for more info...
Posted by hcrawfmtl (Member # 9252) on :
Thank you so much, anything you find would be much appreciated ( I haven't been able to find much) Posted by Melanie Reber (Member # 3707) on :
my schnauzer is 10 and has been tx for lyme at least once every year of his life.
last year he got "wobbly"-something wrong in lower back or hips (i am too after 25 yrs of fighting lyme+)
i can't afford the mri to tell me exactly what is wrong with him (i have severe osteo arthritis i believe is from lyme-in my lower back and figure he might too)
but when this wobbliness started he could no longer jump on the couch and sometimes had trouble getting up and his eyes told me he had pain.
i give him cosequin-doggy glucosamine and sometimes previcox - doggy nsaid i think when he needs it
this fall i decided to start pulsing his doxy because i am very clear my last yr of tx the pulsing really helped.
now he only gets cosequin-no previcox and outside he plays like a puppy...and is not sore after.
he's off doxy now cuz occasionally he has gastritis and he needs to fast then go to rice than normal food.
i don't go back to the meds til i see pain or a tick.
there's some new studies showing abx help with cancer-but i don't know how to find them.
good luck. don't let him be in too much pain.
Posted by Tincup (Member # 5829) on :
Sorry about your dog.
Thanks Melanie for posting those articles.
I was care-taking a young lab who had bad bone cancer and was only given days to live.. not even a week. Xrays confirmed the cancer.
I put the dog on doxy... against the advise of the vet... who I had to fight over it.
The dog totally recovered and was as good as new.
Until the owners returned. They thought it was all over with (the cancer) in spite of my warning to keep up the doxy.. and once taken off the doxy the dog got sick, suffered and died.
I didn't know they had stopped the doxy. Broke my heart.
Hope this helps in some way.
Oh.. and it turns out the other dogs there had Lyme and Bartonella and Ehrlichiosis.. so we know it was tick borne disease related.
Posted by hcrawfmtl (Member # 9252) on :
Thanks for all the info: those abstracts are fascinating! We've long suspected there's more to Lyme then just the symptoms we experience (as I'm sure everyone on this board has!) but it's been a long time coming from the medical community. Our pup was only doxy for a while when we thought it might be a UTI, but it seemed to speed the onset of the illness. We're not sure where to go from here, but it's encouraging to hear other people's stories. Good luck to you both Posted by hshbmom (Member # 9478) on :
Prostate cancer is commonly associated with vasectomy in men.
After a vasectomy sperm and seminal fluid are still produced by the intact testicle and additional associated glands, but the sperm is trapped in the body. Eventually the body may recognize sperm (a protein) as an antigen.
Vasectomized men still have their testicles, but the tube that delivers sperm to the seminal fluid is blocked.
When a male pet is neutered, the testicles are completely removed, removing the source of potentially antigenic material. I don't think neutering a male pet would lead to prostate cancer.
...this is merely my musing. I haven't done any research on this subject.
Posted by hshbmom (Member # 9478) on :
Tinny, why did you suspect lyme in this dog? Is that why you put the dog on doxy?
It looks like you discovered the TBDs after the fact.
Posted by map1131 (Member # 2022) on :
Yes, I've have experience with a dog that belonged to my sister (who owned a home on the same lake I did), in the summer '99, same summer I became ill with flu-like illness from hell.
This golden retreiver had a bulls-eye on it's belly, clear as day. Of course at that time my family really didn't know about bulls-eyes, nine years later and there's still some of that family that doesn't understand lyme & company.
This beautiful pet that everyone called Rusty was dx with cancer by the vet that summer. My sister was told after so many tests were ran that it was cancer and more treatment for cancer would be expensive and maybe of no use. The vet told my sister 3 mths to live.
The vet during all this testing shaved the dogs belly? Had one perfect bulls-eye on his stomach that everyone looked at May-July and asked each other, what is that?
The vet had decided to put the dog on abx and steriods. I don't remember for sure the excuse. I remember the dog was having trouble walking, so I guess the steroids were for inflammation. I think the abx were for some urinary infection?
Just so you know now, the golden retreiver lived three years!!!!!! The abx and steroids improved the dogs sx so much that my sister left the dog on all of these meds for longer than the vet stated originally.
She tried to help the poor dog, because she was told it was dying????? Soon???? The dog would make a recovery finally late that summer and then he was able to sit on the dock and fish again, sometimes? Sometimes Rusty couldn't walk down and up the path to the water.
This huge orange/re/brown dog would lay on the dock, head down and watch for fish swimming near the surface of the lake. This dog would jump in and try to catch the fish, time after time again.
Rusty had successfully caught one fish that way, so it knew it was possible to do. Very smart dog. I'm not a true dog lover, but this dog I loved.
My husband and myself even dog sat for Rusty while my sister and husband and children went on Disney Cruise for a week. The dog had been so sick and we offered to watch him while they were gone. I know that bulls-eye because I noticed it over and over again as the dog layed around on our deck at our home on the lake. We were on vacation at the lake where this dog loved to be.
We were afraid the dog would die in our care, so we made plans with them to bury him at their lake home if this happened. After all the "vet" had said Rusty was dying from cancer and soon.
That summer July 19th. '99 is when illness from hell started with me. I was in my primary docs office 10 days later. Due to my long list of sx, he called it possible Lyme Disease dx.
So began my education on lyme & company and opening of my eyes and the real truth on this so called simple illness. After all I thought all I had to do was take some abx, maybe some heavy doses and everything will be fine.
Rusty waxed and waned for three years after the bulls-eye. Finally one more bad period did this beautiful dog and family pet in. It brings tears to my eyes just telling the story here.
Now that I know more of the truth about lyme & company, I'm still angry that someone didn't know the truth about Rusty and his illness. Namely the VET?
This is the same sister that I've posted about on this board that has a daughter who was tick bitten in summer of '04 at the same lake home. My niece has had some very strange things happen in her health since that summer?????? That was the fall she took off and went away to college, so much of her treatment for "unknown illness and her abx treatments" are explained in this case.
A gastro doctor, when things got really bad for my niece told my sister it's colitis. Colitis is the dx and my suspicious of lyme & company has nothing to do with my niece, so my sister has told me just last summer when I brought up the subject again.
So what can I do? I just drop little statements everytime the subject comes up about my niece & this illness. I guess I could shake my sister to get her attention. My sister even admits today, that she knows that Rusty really died from lyme.
After all she knows enough to know that a bulls-eye is no doubt about it lyme. But the rest of the story.......
Pam
Posted by Tincup (Member # 5829) on :
hsh said..
"Tinny, why did you suspect lyme in this dog? Is that why you put the dog on doxy?"
The entire area is infested with ticks. The dogs, their owners and the neighbors for miles around all had Lyme... including me.
The dog actually did have a positive Lyme test a while back... was treated once with the standard doses.. and was bitten again and again... even with lots of tick protection.
I also knew the dog had been seen by at least two specialists dealing with cancer in dogs.
I saw the actual x-rays.. and also saw the results of 2 bone biopsies, which for some reason couldn't detect the "cancer". They just blew that fact off and called it "atypical".
BUT the vets all agreed it was cancer... no doubt they said.. 100 percent sure.
I also knew bartonella was in the area. Bartonella can get into the bone also.
I figured the vets, who were not at all anxious to hear my theories after the dog was diagnosed with cancer and refused to even try to help the dog... didn't know what they were doing.
Since the dog was left to die.. and I had to watch the process... I couldn't do it. I tried the doxy because I was too heart broken not to.
Turned out that was the right thing to do.
Cancer/Lyme/Bart... why not try?
MY opinion.
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hsh said... "It looks like you discovered the TBDs after the fact.."
Sort of? Made more conclusions when the other 2 dogs were tested later and found to have Lyme, Ehrich and Bart.. and after years of pushing to get them tested... so did the dogs owners.
Important to remember..
The dog recovered totally on the doxy.. as did the mice in the experiment.
When the doxy was stopped the cancer returned in the mice and in this dog.
The mice were re-treated and the cancer went away again... and the mice were healthy.
The dog was NOT re-treated (I didn't know they stopped treatment)... and the dog got sick again within weeks and died shortly there after.
I hope that helps someone.
SIDE NOTE- I was scared to try the doxy and thought if it was Lyme would the dog herx? The disease was so advanced I wondered if I would kill the dog by giving it the doxy.
I decided the dog would die if I didn't try... and I gave her one doxy that day. The next day the dog was worse, never moved, didn't eat, etc... and I figured I had been to blame.
But the next day she wasn't quite so bad.
The following day she actually got up and walked!
Soooooo.. if ever I were to have to do this again... heaven forbid... I'd start out slowly... and work up the dose.
I think the dogs can herx and that needs to be taken into account.
Hope that helps.
PS.. I had the dog on Excedrin or some OTC like that for pain and inflammation.. and also gave her acidophlus.
Posted by hcrawfmtl (Member # 9252) on :
Both of our dogs have been treated for Lyme, and I can say without a doubt that they DO herx.
Just like us, after the initial dosage they seem to hit rock bottom and all of their symptoms become worse.
then, day by day, they begin to climb out of the muck and mire that is Lyme.
No doubt in my mind that dogs have herxes. Important to remember when treating. Pulse the antibx so they don't crash so badly.
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