One of our worst fears in life is cancer — for us, our loved ones, or even our pets. It is an insidious enemy that steals lives away.
Modern society has always looked to the pharmaceutical industry for answers, and it has made huge strides forward, extending lives with new treatments and therapies.
Many people are now looking for natural alternatives, either to replace or complement the current therapies. Many ancient herbal preparations are being looked at again, as well as many ‘wholistic’ concepts.
Wholistic means taking in the whole of the and looking beyond just the problem and treatment. Support for the whole system can make support for the affected part easier and more effective.
To that end, many are choosing to supplement drug-based treatments with supportive therapies — starting with cleaner, fresher foods. I know I seem to always come back to the topic of raw foods, but it is remarkable just how effective they may be prevention and treatment of conditions we find in ourselves and our pets.
Raw food can be a concern for pets on immunosuppressant therapies, as bacteria might be a concern for a compromised animal. So, while they are on immune suppressing treatments, using a lightly cooked food can be almost as beneficial as a raw diet
We have to be careful of what raw diets we cook. Generally, anything with ground bone/carcass should not be cooked. There are bone-free raw diets, or recipes you can make at home that can be cooked. You might also have to supplement, as cooking may affect some nutrients. These will all be much preferrable to most commercial cooked diets, dry kibbles, or cans, as they involve less processing, and no synthetic or chemical ingredients.
Adding in a good probiotic (especially one like Fido’s Flora, which contains bacteria cultured from healthy dog feces, which have been shown to be effective in neutralizing salmonella, E. coli, etc.) can also help the immune system cope with the bacteria load in foods.
Other things that will help include phytoplankton, a very powerful nutrition booster that is easily absorbed before it hits the digestive tract, and turkey tail, a type of mushroom which helps boost the immune system and assist it in doing its job. According to research done by two faculty members at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, it can offer a viable alternative or complementary treatment to traditional chemotherapies. https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/compound-derived-mushroom-lengthens-survival-time-dogs-cancer-penn-vet-study-finds
As you wean a pet off immune suppressors such as chemotherapy or prednisolone, you can reduce how much you cook the food, eventually returning to 100 per cent raw.
I’m not suggesting abandoning conventional treatments, rather working with them to help them have their best effect.
