Mast Cell Tumors

Hi, this is Rita Hogan and welcome to the Dogs are Individuals podcast. I'm a clinical canine herbalist and I've been practicing for over 20 years. This podcast is all about your dog through an herbal lens. So let's get to it and dive right in. How are you guys this week? I am a bit tired. Just reached another phase of my book publishing with my publisher and that was a grueling, I don't even know how many hours. Probably like another 40 hours, 50, 60 hours, I don't count. But it is, it is pretty grueling but well worth it. And self induced. I self induced this project and I'm so excited about my book coming out on February 4th. If you have not ordered it, pre order it anywhere, you get books. So another thing I did this week was I got a new cell phone. I have been the butt of so many jokes about my little iPhone Se, I guess I'm 10 iPhones behind. And I will tell you, if my phone would update, I would still have it. But it doesn't update. And I recently I got a new banking app for business and it wouldn't update that, it wouldn't update my wifi service to my house, it wouldn't run that app. And I recently just today got a continuous glucose monitor. I'm gonna do that for like three to four months to see what kind of foods spike my glucose. Because I am doing what I currently call read a renewal. That is when you spend six months just working hardcore on yourself radical self care and just you know, giving myself an overhaul kind of like again, radical self care, you know, figuring out my glucose cokes levels, checking my microbiome, I'm checking my metals in my hair. Oh, there was one other thing. Oh, I am next Monday I'm getting my blood taken for the all cat test, which is like a food sensitivity test, but it tests the leukocytes in your blood as a reaction to your the food that you're eating. And so it tests about 250 foods. That's the one I ordered. It's a little pricey, but I did it about 10 years ago and it really changed my life. So I'm doing it again just to get a baseline. Just turn 53. You know, my whole goal this year is to have as much fun as possible. And having as much fun as possible also includes radical self care and Joy. My friend Adrian and Jay call me a little joy monster and I want this little joy monster to be around for a long time. We're coming up on our hundredth Episode. We're closing in. We are closing in and I can't believe I've done almost 100 episodes. Oh my God. One of the things I have not talked about before is mast cell tumor. I do not think so. And we're gonna talk about that today. I do wanna thank my sponsor, Goodness Gracious Pet food human grade for pets. It's goodnessgracioustreats.com they sell a lot more than treats. They sell gently cooked food. I currently am giving my cats some goodness gracious rabbit and they're loving it. It's a rotation and I love rotating different types of foods in and out of my dog's diet. They have gently cooked food for dogs and cats. They have restorative diets that I helped. That I helped. What do you call it, formulate for them. They have rejuve, jive and jing and I'm not sure if they. Oh and reveal. I don't know if they are completely available yet. I think that might be in August, which is a couple days from now. I'm not positive they're complete availability but they have rejuve which is a gut and total body health. I think I've talked about that one. The jing which is low phosphorus kidney recipe. The jive which is for brain health recipe for dogs and the Reveal which is a metabolic health recipe for dogs. And you know I can get behind that metabolic one because that's exactly what I'm dealing with right now is making sure my body metabolically functions at its highest level that it can for my deliciousness on this planet. So I definitely love this new sponsor. Amy Renz is her name who owns this company and she has hula Lula jerky, gluten free cookies, chewy and hearty treats, training treats, food toppers, bulk orders. You can do bulk and they have a great coupon there. They have something called bikini treats. Those are these little meat strips that are gluten free and grain free. A lot of them are grain free and they use sweet potato and chicken and lamb and it says a touch of honey to make a kind of treat the pets love and parents love to give. So those are fun as a rotational treat. So check them out. Goodness gracious treats dot com. Okay, so we are going to talk about mast cell tumor today and I was talking to one of my clients today this morning and turns out her, her dog Luke has a mast cell tumor and it is on his foot and she's just like I don't even know where this came from. And, and one of the Things that it does come from is mast cells. And then I have Sarah, I won't even begin to. Oh, she has phonetically spelled it for me. Rungitis. So, Sarah Rungitis, she says. Hi there. I hope this email finds you well. I am very well. Sarah, I was wondering if you could talk about mast cell tumor in dogs. My pup was diagnosed with five more MAST cell tumors along with one she had removed in 2021. Most of them are not surgically removable as they can get. Can't get good margins, so I'm trying to treat holistically. I did read your protocol on Dogs Naturally magazine, but would love to hear you explain everything. As I both am a visual and audio learner. I would greatly appreciate it. Well, Sarah, let's talk about mast cells, shall we? Well, since you read that article in Dogs Naturally magazine, I don't know if anyone else has, so I'm just going to go over a few things about mast cells. So mast cells are a part, like they're a normal part of your dog's functioning immune system. Okay. They're a normal part of the inflammation response and they. They get together and form tumors. And they're mostly on the skin, but they sometimes can be internal and spread. But not all mass tumors are malignant, but most are, and they can appear in tons of places without it being a systemic disease. Now, from a holistic perspective, for me, it is a systemic disease. Why is your dog producing mast cell tumors? We wanna, for me, that is systemic. The ecosystem is out of whack. We need to get it back in balance. Mast cell tumors again involve that inflammation response, involve the immune system, involve histamine. In my upcoming book, I talk about histamine intolerance. I don't talk about mast cell tumor because it's too complicated for an introductory book. But I will be doing a healing course for mast cell tumors in the future. The immune system and the histamine response is the definitely, I would say the push behind mast cell tumors and also food sensitivities, low stomach acid, leaky gut allergies, chronic inflammation, all of that stuff. So most of the mast cell tumors are more on the pinkish side, but then they can start to ooze and bleed, and we don't want that. They can expand and contract. Yes, they can. They can expand and contract. They get small and then they can get big again. And then they can get small and then they can get big again and they release histamine. And histamine can make them grow larger. So a lot of dogs that have allergies deal with histamine in general. And histamine, like mast cell tumors, is a normal part of your dog's body function. So it's not the bad guy. It's just when things get out of whack and when things get too much, everything is balance. Everything is balanced. I hate to sound cliche, but it's true. So most allergens are governed by mast cells. And again, mast cells release histamine, and mast cells can cause allergies. Couple examples. Itching, scratching, sneezing, hives. Most dogs can deal with the occasional release of excess histamine, but some dogs cannot. And when it gets to the point where nothing is changing, you can get mast cell tumors. Dogs that are more prone to mast cell tumors. One of my favorite breeds, beagles, boxers, Boston terriers, schnauzers, which I've had. Bull mastiffs. I have never had a dog that has had a mast cell tumor of my. Like my own. I've worked with a lot of people that their dogs have mast cell tumors, but those breeds are more prone to lumps and bumps in general. But I can say that all dogs can get mast cell tumors. So how do you know your dog has a mast cell tumor? I would think that the most common type, or I think that the most common type of mast cell tumor is a skin lesion. You can't tell if they're on the inside, But a lot of dogs that I've worked with have had single cell mast cells, and then I've worked with some dogs that had terrible mast cell. And we don't want to get to that point because dogs can really suffer with them. Again, mast cell tumors released a lot of histamine, and they also contains a substance called heparin. Heparin, H E P A R I N. Which can be an issue with dogs that have mast cell when they're vomiting or itching or have inflammation in their gastrointestinal tract. So some symptoms of mast cell, tum acid, indigestion, fatigue, swelling, blood pressure changes, weird ones in your dog, weird appetite, low appetite, high appetite. It can fluctuate. Another symptom is dry skin. So most of the time you're going to see the tumors and the tumors will get graded. And for me, I don't like to aspirate anything, any type of tumor, it just opens up a can of worms. In my opinion, it puts a hole, a very large hole compared to the size of a cell in something that's protecting itself. And so I just like to. If you think it's a mast cell tumor and it has good margins, you can get it taken off and then biopsy it so you know what you're dealing with. I just am not a huge fan of poking the bear. So the prognosis for most mast cell tumors is really good. And sometimes you get a mast cell tumor removed and another one doesn't come back at all because you take action on balancing the ecosystem and recovering from that removal. So it depends on what approach you have, and there's many paths to treatment. And as I said before, you just have to choose what's good for you and your dog. And they have definitely made advancements in diagnostics, and it is not a death sentence to have a mast cell tumor. They are definitely staged. When they do remove them or biopsy them, and you can tell if it's like a grade one, a grade two, a grade three, and a grade four. Now, grade four tumors involve metasis. It's spreading. It might be in the organs, and you can do some blood work there to see where you're at with that. Grade 3 tumors are definitely not what you want, but I've seen them turn around and balance themselves out. And I seen them, you know, dogs fully recover from grade three tumors. I've seen a couple dogs recover from grade four tumors. It's not normally the norm, but don't count yourself out or count your dog out. The two of you are a team for sure. So grade two and one grade one tumors are pretty easy to remove. They have good margins, they don't have a lot of growth. They're very slow growing, and they're confined to the area in which they appear. Now, grade two tumors are in the skin, but they're a little deeper, and they can involve lymph nodes. Okay. So that makes them stage two. And the cells are. Well, they're weird looking, basically. Okay. They're not healthy. And grade two are. You know, they can spill out over their margins. Sometimes you're not gonna get good margins. But I have seen grade two tumors turn around, and some turn around very quickly. Okay, so what you really want is you want that grade one and grade two. But again, don't count anything out with grade three or four. It depends on your dog and what kind of window they have in having the mast cell tumors. Now, how do you treat mast cell tumors? Okay, we're going to get into the herbal nitty gritty for sure. But how do you treat them? As far as conventional care, there is definitely the surgical removal that's a big goal for mast cell tumor treatment to definitely get clear margins. Okay. And then a lot of doctors will prescribe. It's an over a counter drug, but they'll prescribe Benadryl. So Benadryl can help stop mast cell tumor progression and it can help with the release of histamine. Now, I am not a huge fan of Benadryl, but. But I have used it as a bridge to get to the other side where we're able to get enough natural herbs in a dog to help bring down the mast cell activation and the excessive histamine response. So you can definitely use it as a bridge. You want to calm that inflammation response. That is the goal. And you want to support the immune system. And there's going to be. In all mast cell tumor dogs, there's going to be stagnation, there's going to. You need to support circulation in the nervous system. So basically the dosage for Benadryl is 1 milligram per pound given twice daily. Okay, 1 milligram per pound given TWICE daily. And now I always give this. Along with milk thistle, I like to use a tincture of milk thistle. You get one drop for extra small dogs, two drops for small dogs, three drops for medium dogs. It's like a corgi. Four drops for large dogs, golden retriever. And five drops for giant dogs two times daily. And you want to support the immune system. I like to use chaga mushroom for mast cell tumor. It's an excellent antihistamine. You could also use reishi mushroom for dogs that are cool. I might use reishi and warm dogs, chaga. But chaga is pretty neutral and you can use it for a lot of dogs. Reishi is a little more warming, but, you know, you could see how your dog does with it. So you want to bring down stress with mast cell tumors. You want to focus, supporting the nervous system. Okay. And you can even keep a journal, which I highly recommend doing. When your dog's mast cell tumor starts to puff up and notice what type of stress is going on in the household or what you've fed them or what kind of supplements, maybe you introduce something new. So you want to keep an eye on those mast cell tumors and see it when they get bigger and what is causing that. Try to figure that out. Okay, So a couple of herbs for mast cell tumor. So one is ashwagandha. And ashwagandha is a bit warming. It strengthens the body, the immune system, the adrenals. It helps with stress and the stress response. It helps dogs Recover from chronic disease. And it's a good remedy for dogs that are a bit older that have mast cell tumor. It's also a good indicator when dogs that are more on the little cool on the cool side with hypothyroid, very good for that. You can use the dried herb, 100 milligrams per every like for every 10 pounds given twice daily with food tincture dosage is about a half a mil for every 15 pounds. And you can use a glycerin for that twice daily before food. But if you can't do it, you can put it in the food. If your dog just won't do it, then we have astralagus. Astragus is warming. It also helps with stress. It can help prevent metasis, so the spreading of the cancer and the tumors. And it helps support the immune system. It's very compatible with a lot of mushrooms. And it helps flush metabolic debris through the kidney. And mast cell tumors create a lot of metabolic debris. So we want to be able to flush those and detoxify in a nice gentle manner. For those of you that are opting to do chemo, astrologous is excellent for helping the body recover from chemo and helping the body not feel the ill effects of chemo or radiation. So the dried herb dosage for astrologous is 50mg for every 10lbs twice daily. With food tincture, I like to use an alcoholic tincture. It's about a half mil. That's about 15 drops for every 20 pounds given two times daily before food. And I'd give it for about, I would say three to six weeks. If you're gonna continue that, then I probably would make it a like 1/2 glycerin, 1/2 alcohol tincture. So. So it would be a quarter of a mil and a quarter of a mil. But you can also use the dried herb. Burdock root is nice and neutral. It is a cooling herb. It's very bitter, and it helps digest fats and oils. And it also helps eliminate metabolic waste through the liver and through the gastrointestinal tract. And I love burdock root for its assistance in elimination through the kidneys and again the gastrointestinal tract. The dried herb dosage for Burdock root is 50mg for every 10lbs given twice daily with food. These are the mast cell tumor dosages. So I love calendula and cleavers for moving the lymphatics. And you need to keep the lymphatics moving. So calendula Is warming cleavers, is cooling the tincture dosage. I like to use a tincture for both of them. And the dosage is one to two drops for extra small dogs. That's like a chihuahua. Two to three drops for small dogs, medium dogs, three to four drops, large dogs, five to six extra large dog, seven to eight drops. You can give that before food but if your dog won't let you, then put it in the food. Maritime pine bark is an excellent antihistamine. That's pinus pinaster or pinus maritima. So it's more of a neutral bark. Neutral and energetics. It's super high in antioxidants, it helps with the immune system and it's very good for mast cell tumor treatment when you are trying to help your dog at home. It's also a very powerful natural antihistamine. You can mix it with nettles. I think I already said that it was antihistamine but you know, you can mix it with nettles and qucertin. That makes a really good kind of like trifecta there. Don't use it with any chemotherapy or radiation treatments. And the dry dosage is 40 milligrams for every 25 pounds given twice daily with food. You can double that if you want. So if you're trying to figure out the math for how many per, like if you had a four pound dog, you're going to divide 25 by 40 and you'll get the per pound dosage. Okay. Tincture dosage, it's again, it's a higher dosage, a half mil per every 20, 20 pounds. Another great herb is nettles. And with mast cell tumor you just, you can barely go wrong with nettles. It helps bring down histamine, it helps decrease basic systemic histamine levels. It works with your dog's digestive system, your immune system, the liver and it is full of quesartin. You can blend it with quesartin, you can give it with bromelain. If your dog is more on the cool side and you can watch it work its magic. The dried herb, I would say 100 to 200 milligrams per every 20 pounds. So I would say 200 milligrams per every 10 pounds with mast cell two times daily. With food you could do three times daily if you wanted to with a really small amount of food. Half mil of tincture for every 15 pounds, twice daily before food. Now remember, this is the mast cell tumor, active mast cell tumor dosages and then quesirtin is 100mg for every 30lbs with food twice daily. Let me see, what else do I want to tell you about? There are a few things that work for mast cell tumor that. Well, one of them is called sunling and it's burweed and it is a traditional Chinese medicine remedy. It is, well, I think it's one of the most powerful mast cell herbs out there. It helps remove stagnation, it helps bring down histamine, especially for dogs that can't use turmeric. Turmeric's another really good mast cell tumor remedy both inside and outside. I'll talk about that in a little bit. But. But Sanling is wonderful and you can get it on the Internet. Just make sure that it's from a reputable place. It works for blood stasis and basic again, stagnation and it's an anti cancer remedy. I always recommend Sanling for any dog that can tolerate it. And you'll know if your dog can't tolerate it, they'll get, you know, gas, they'll get burping, they might do a little yellow vomiting and then you're going to bring down the dosage. But sometimes dogs can't handle it because dogs are individuals. Right. Another formula for dogs with mast cells is Max's formula and stasis breaker. So you can find some stasis breaker without the help of an acupuncturist or traditional Chinese medicine practicing vet. But Max's formula you need to see the vet for. But I've seen Max's formula really, really help, especially with stage three and four mast cell tumors. So Max's formula and stasis breaker and you can take those in combination. And then we have mushrooms I talked about chaga mushroom. Mushrooms in general are excellent for mast cell tumors. Turkey tail, maitake, shiitake, reishi, chaga. These are all mushrooms that are readily available in commerce right now. There are definitely some other mushrooms out there, but these mushrooms are readily available. You can get them in combination. You can get them at Myco Dog, you can get them at real mushrooms. You can get them at Feral Fungi. I have a bunch of mushrooms on my website@canineherbalist. If you have any questions about mushrooms, just. Just go to my website and click the podcast contact and ask and I will answer on the podcast. So one of my favorite mushrooms is chaga for mast cell tumor. It really has a good ability to stabilize systemic histamine. I like to mix it with reishi for dogs that are cool and I like to mix chaga with turkey tail or maitake with dogs that are warm now those cool dogs or for a couple of weeks or as a food and a well cooked mushroom. Shiitake might be good too. So what else can be done? There is so much in the realm of herbs. You just have to figure out what is good for your dog and within two to three weeks you should see some type of moving in the right direction. Whether it's using something external or internal. You can use chaga powder as a mix. I like to use this for dogs that are more warm with mast cell. I like to like make a paste with castor oil and you can do neem oil too. But castor oil and chaga and put it on the mast cell tumor and then just put some some light gauze around that and hang out with my dog for about 30 to 40 minutes so they that I'm with them. Maybe watch a little telly. Then you can use turmeric paste with fat. Castor oil is another good one. MCT oil also neem, you could do that too. Mix turmeric into a paste and put turmeric paste on your dog's mast cell tumor and again put some. Get a towel because turmeric stains and put some gauze around that and hang out with your dog and then when it's done just gently pat it off and clean it. But turmeric salve and chaga, I mean turmeric paste and chaga paste really do well for lots of things. You can also do like a CBD salve on the mast cells before they go to you go to bed. You can put that in before you and doggy go to bed. There are a lot of options here. And let's see, there are homeopathic ways that you can deal with mast cells. So there's a couple. There's carbo veg that is for definitely for skin based mast cell tumors. And these are the ones that look nasty, they smell, they are giving off fluid. Carbo veg is a good for that. And then there's lachesis which made from snake venom. And no, you cannot detect the snake Venom in a 30C but they're really great for mast cell tumors that have more of a purplish tint to them. Homeopathy is all about weird symptoms and it's all about symptoms that depict what remedy you should use. But lachesis is more on the purple tissue and if you suspect like it might be internal, you can try lachesis. Or if the mast cell tumor is flattening out or hardening or getting dark. You can use lachesis and you would use that daily. And then there's carbonium salt, 30C. And it's recommended to give this dosage two doses, two hours apart. And that can help with the mast cell tumors that seem to be growing. You could try that one and then pulsatilla. Pulsatilla is good once daily. And this is dogs that have a more needy nature that have mast cell tumor that may, you may think that it is a stress induced mast cell tumor. And then there's histaminium 30C or 1212C. You can give that on a daily basis and a couple times a day to help control the histamine in your dog. Okay. Help control the histamine in your dog. So what other things are good for mast cell tumor? I like greens, spirulina, chlorella, phytoplankton. I like those for gentle detoxification. Binding of toxins like these tumors give off a lot of metabolic waste. And those can be good. You can do clay water. I mentioned cbd. Make sure you're giving a good diet. And I like to use a minimal diet for mast cells. I don't like to give a lot of cooked food at all. You can do like slightly, slightly cooked food. And then you want to feed it right as it cools down. And then if you're going to save it, you need to freeze it because leftovers build histamine like crazy and can be a horrible recommendation for mast cell dogs. So you want to watch the leftovers. You want to make sure that you're feeding your dog filtered water with zero chlorine in it. Because chlorine can compound histamine levels by 80%, it can really spike histamine levels and you don't want to do that. So make sure that you're not coming in contact with any type of chlorine bromide. If your dog swims, don't let him swim in chlorine at this time. Okay. Make sure you are filtering your dog's water. Another remedy that you can use internally and externally for dogs that are cool is angelica. And angelica is a lovely herb. Sometimes they mix it with turmeric as a paste. Ground angelica, ground turmeric as a paste. You can mix it with castor oil and apply it to your dog's mast cell tumors. Or you can also feed it internally. I like to use a tincture of angelica. Again, one drop for extra small dogs, two drops for small, three medium, four large, five extra large. That's a good place to start. Twice daily. And then there is. I mentioned stasis breaker and Max's formula. Stasis breaker has one of another. One of my favorite remedies for mast cell tumor is Chinese skullcap. So Scolateria baclodensis. Chinese skullcap. It really helps clear heat. It helps with the mutation within the cell and it brings down the growth of tumors. Okay. The growth of tumors. So you can use Chinese skullcap on its own. Same like 2 drops for extra small dogs, 3 drops for small, 4 drops for medium, 5 drops for large, 6 drops for extra large. And you can double those for active mast cells for a few weeks for sure. So you want to make sure that you're looking at the microbiome. You're giving good pre and probiotics. You can. You want to minimize your histamine. So there's a few things that are high in histamine as far as upkeep is concerned and diet. You want to minimize your use of bone broth. Okay, Bone broth is high in histamine. You also wanna minimize your. You don't want to give any type of processed dairy, so any type of homogenized or pasteurized dairy, which can increase histamine. And the funny thing is, is that raw goat milk and raw cow's milk, not fermented, but raw, just plain raw goat and raw cow's milk is good for histamine, but you just don't want to ferment it in this case. Okay. Ferments can cause a lot of problems with histamine with dogs with mast cell tumor. Ordinarily they're great for your dog, but if they're dealing with active mast cell tumor, you want to be careful using any type of ferment because it is higher in histamine. I'm just thinking if there's anything that I have. For gray. Forgot. Anything that I have forgot, forgot to tell you. There's just so much. But again, dogs are individuals. You know, dogs are individuals and we want to treat them as such. So I highly recommend giving them a. Well, giving yourself a journal and keeping track of the things that help with the mast cell tumors. And remember, histamine and mast cell activation is at the core of this type of condition. Imbalance, or some people refer to it as a disease. I could refer to it as an imbalance. And remember to check yourself, check your stress, breathe. You can only do what you can do. And your dog is there looking to you to be confident and to be. To be, you know, not to smell like acetylcholine and not to smell like a lot of adrenaline. You want to have your breath smell like you are there and you're confident and you're taking care of them. So and you need to take care of yourself too in this process. Remember you don't have all the answers so try things on. Try to see what herbs can help and if you have any questions right here on the podcast and I'll answer them live on the pod. I do want to thank my sponsor real mushrooms real mushrooms.com you guys are awesome. Real Mushrooms have been very kind to me sponsoring my podcast from day one. So they have sponsored my podcast almost to the hundredth episode. So thank you. Real Mushrooms. They have a very high quality product. I use them in a lot of my mast cell protocols. I also like tinctures. The main thing I use for tinctures is Myco Dog. They make a great glycerin based tincture. Also feral fungi and I can't think of anybody else right now but those are the tubes that I use. And then Adored Beast has some liquid turkey tail. They also have a liquid chaga. I carry that in my store. And then Four Leaf Rover carries the turkey tail and lion's mane. I carry those in my store too. So thank you, thank you, thank you. Check them out realmushrooms.com and here's some news you can use thanks for listening to this episode of Dogs Are Individuals. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in your podcast app. And don't forget sharing is caring. So if you love Dogs Are Individuals podcast, share it with your friends and family who love dogs. This will help me so much. And remember, as a listener I I appreciate you much. Thanks to Resonant Media, my podcast production team. This podcast is produced by Drake Peterson and edited by Mike Fry. Any questions, email the show, go to k9herbalist.com Click podcast contact in the menu and then fill out that form and I'll answer any questions here online. Okay, so thank you so much for listening to this episode of Dogs Are Individuals Podcast Podcast and I'm going to talk to you in our next episode. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for veterinary care. This podcast doesn't constitute a provider patient relationship. As always, talk to your doctor, veterinarian or healthcare provider first before starting anything new. And that includes herbs. I'm not a doctor and I don't treat disease or prescribe anything. I'm a traditional herbal providing herbal support, education only regarding any products. I may suggest the statements made regarding these products have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The efficacy of these products has not been confirmed by FDA approved research. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. All information presented here on the podcast is not meant as a substitute or alternative to information from your vet. Please consult your veterinary professional about potential interactions or other possible complications before using any product.