Mast Cell Tumors Pt. 2

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. Hello. Hello. Hi. Welcome back to the pod. How are you guys doing? I'm doing great today. I'm heading out to the Feed Reel summit in sunny San Diego and going to hear some of my favorite peeps speak and do some little mingling. I'm excited to hang out with the boys from Raw Pet Medics. I love Connor and Brendan and I haven't met Nick yet, so I'm hoping to meet him and, you know, do a little conversation. I'll post some pictures on my Facebook page, my business Facebook page. You know, I have to tell you, I am terrible at. I take pictures and then I don't post them. But I'm getting better. We all have some, you know, things we need to strive for, right? We need to strive for them. I definitely need to get better at that. So I think I mentioned in my last podcast that I went to the havma and I hung out with Kelly and Billy from Green Juju. So yesterday I had a client and we were talking about increasing nutrition in her homemade dog food. And one of the things I told her that, I mean, that she could do is add a little bit of green juju food, like six pieces to their small pieces to her dog's food each day or twice a day to up the nutrition in her cooked food and that she could just soak it or even cook it in her food and in our homemade food and add, you know, bump that nutrition up. So, you know, sometimes people say, well, you know, I can't afford the freeze dried for my dog. Well, that's okay. But did you know they have raw. And their raw food boxes, their bulk boxes, are actually quite affordable. So check those out too. Okay. They're raw food boxes. That is green juju. Okay. Green juju.com. oh, oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. They have a website now where you can order off their website. And what I love about it is you can order their frozen mushroom probiotic, which I'm in love with. So you can go to green juju.com and order from them if you can't get it locally. Awesomeness. Okay, so what are we talking about today? Wouldn't you like to know? Well, I'm about to tell you. So I got a little message on the podcast about mast cell tumors and I did a mast cell tumor episode back in. I think it was. It's. It was in August, so I think it's like the beginning of August. I did a regular episode. I think it was, I don't know, maybe 30, some 40 some minutes long about mast cell tumors. But I went over, like, a lot of the natural things you can do. Well, Amy. Amy from Rhode Island. Amy from Rhode island wants to know, you know, the more specifics about mast cell tumor. You know, kind of the, I would say, western overview of mast cell tumor. And she found that kind of was lacking in my podcast. So I'm happy to go over it so that you can understand mast cell tumors better. And so let's hit it and let's. Let's explain this in a little more depth. I work with a lot of dogs with mast cell tumors and helping balancing their body out. So mast cell tumors are very common. They're common in dogs. They're skin tumors. And for the most part, they can be internal as well. But of course, they come from your dog's mast cells. And mast cells are like a type of white blood cell, and they are involved in allergic reactions, responses, inflammation. They're very important. They're not bad. You know, everything that might cause an issue is not bad. It's just run amok, basically. So mast cell tumors have, like, different types of behavior. They are like regular cancers. Sometimes they're benign, but a lot of times they're cancerous. And they. They are, you know, benign to very aggressive tumors. So just like most cancers. And Amy definitely wants to understand, like, maybe you do, if you're on this podcast, you know what they are, you know, how you get them diagnosed, what are your regular treatment options? And then you could go over to the August mast cell episode and learn more there. So, like I said, mast cells aren't bad. They're part of your dog's immune system, and they are super important for their role in allergic reactions and like, the defense, your dog's defense against pathogens. And they contain these little granules that are full of histamine. They're full of a chemical called heparin, and quite a few other things that are a lot of medical gobbledygoop. But histamine and heparin are like your biggest things that they're filled with. And understanding histamine is very important. I go over that in my upcoming book, comes out on February 4th. If you haven't ordered yours, order wherever you find books. Heparin is. I go over histamine. I'LL go over that in a minute. But heparin is this, it's naturally occurring, obviously in the blood. It's a blood thinner. Okay. And if you've ever been in the hospital, they'll come in and give you a heparin shot. H E P A R I N in the belly to help keep you from getting blood clots while you're sitting in a hospital bed. Okay. And heparin is definitely a mechanism that is, let's see, how should I say that it enhances like protein in the blood and that inhibits coagulation. Okay. So the clotting of blood and that's important to know. So mast cells help keep our blood thinner. We don't want thick blood. Thick blood can cause blood clots and also cancer loves thick blood. So we don't want that. So heparin is important to your dog's body. Okay, Very important to your dog's body. So what is histamine? Okay, so histamine is a compound in your dog's body that is vital. And there's different types of histamine and different responses that it provides for your dog's body. Okay. The immune response is one of them. And then it also regulates like physiological functions in the stomach. It helps. Well, you couldn't have neurotransmission to the brain without histamine. There's a few types of histamine. There's histamine 1, histamine 2, histamine 3, histamine 4 and histamine 1 is associated with like allergic reactions and inflammatory responses in your dog. Histamine 2 is involved with gastric acid, basically the gastric acid secretion in your stomach, which is super importante to avoiding like food sensitivities in your dog. You need to have good strong gastric acid secretion for good healthy digestion. Histamine 3, H3 is a neurotransmitter in the central nervous system, very important for brain function. And then H4 is involved in your, like how your immune system, like how it communicates throughout your dog's body. So histamine is responsible for immune responses, gastric acid secretion and neurotransmission. That is very, very important. Okay, so now we go back over to mast cell activation. Okay, so we went over histamine and heparin and looked at that. And then now we're going to look at what kind of types of mast cell tumors are there. There's low grade mast cell tumors. Okay. They have a very good prognosis. And then there's high grade mast cell tumors. And then there's immediate grade that's kind of in between mast cell tumors. All right, the high grade mast cell tumors definitely are more aggressive. They're what's called. Most of them are infiltrating. Okay. They go into the tissue and they tend to metastasize, which means spread. And they have different signs, they tend to bleed. And they're more, you know, they're more definitely difficult to treat. So what causes mast cell tumor? Okay, there's a few things that can cause mast cell tumor. One, your dog can be prone to mast cell tumors. Now, there are certain breeds that are prone to mast cell tumors. Pugs, boxers, bulldogs, Boston terriers, Labrador retrievers, golden retrievers. You know, they're much more prone to mast cell tumors. So there might be a genetic factor there. Age, which I think is dwindling right now, because I'm seeing mast cell tumors in dogs that are 2, 3 years old. But it used to be somewhere between 8 and 15 years of age and overstimulation of the immune system. And sometimes that can be caused by ingesting, like, chlorine and bromide, which are called halogens, and they increase histamine. Chlorine increases histamine by over 80%. And so that can really put a burden on your dog's body. Their stomach, where this little chemical called dao is that helps break down histamine before mast cell tumors, you might be noticing your dog having some quote, unquote, allergies. You want to get those taken care of. You don't want to ignore them and start working with your dog to get rid of the allergies. And if your dog is on antihistamines, that's going to be a big issue. It causes low stomach acid and makes everything worse. So how do you figure out if your dog has a mast cell tumor? Right. How does one do that? Well, there's different types of lumps, and there are, you know, masses on the skin. They can be raised, they can be flat, and sometimes they're ulcerated, which is nasty. And they're. I think the ulcerated ones are kind of scary. I don't like them. They vary in size. Okay. So they. There's no, like, rhyme or reason on what they can look like. Now, mast cell tumors tend to fluctuate in size. They tend to change. They swell, they shrink, they swell, they shrink. And that's a, you know, if you have a bump on your dog that swells and shrinks, definitely, definitely, definitely have it looked at. Because most likely it's a mast cell tumor. Not always, but a lot of the time. And that it move, you know, it changes shape and size because it releases histamine and it gets irritated and then things calm down. And then mast cell tumors itch. Okay. Your dogs might scratch or bite or chew at it. Okay. And it can cause discomfort and it releases histamine when it's being itched. So depending on the grade of the tumor, you might have to keep your dog from itching it and just put something on it that helps with the itch. And then there are some other symptoms that can come along with mast cell tumor, and I would definitely say more advanced mast cell tumor. And that's like things like lethargy, loss of appetite, vomiting, diarrhea, and this can be from systemic histamine release. And there also can be anxiety, restlessness, fright. Some severe cases of mast cell tumor can involve anaphylaxis. But usually you're going to be knee deep in trying to help your dog with your vet at that time. So you don't really see that at home too much at all. When you bring your dog to the vet and you're, you know, suspecting possible mast cell tumor, your vet is going to do things like a physical examination. They're going to look at it, they're going to try to identify it. They see these things all the time. They know what they look like. They're going to do some cytology. Now, I'm not a big fan of fine needle aspiration. That's definitely what they're going to want to do to extract some cells. Now, if it's on the outside of your dog's body and you're sticking a needle in the outside of the tumor, great, okay, that's fine. But on the inside, I'm not a huge fan of fine needle aspiration because it lets cells out of its protective sac. We don't want to do that. I would just get that removed, then do cytology on it to see what it is. Okay. Get the bump removed. Don't stick a needle in it. If it's inside the body, that's just my opinion. That's called a biopsy. Okay. And you need a definitive diagnosis. But again, I would remove a small tumor and then get the cytology afterwards. If they need to do a biopsy, it can also do imaging to see if the tumor has metastasized. If the tumor looks aggressive. A lot of times dogs will have a mast cell tumor. They'll get one removed and they won't have one again forever or for a very, very long time. And if your dog does have a mast cell tumor, then you can go over to my other episode and learn what you can do for it. And I might have another, another episode of more remedies that you can use for mast cell tumor. Just have to go over the other one to see what I covered. What are some traditional veterinary medicine treatment options? So they're not pretty, but one is surgical removal and that, I mean, it's basically the primary treatment for any type of mast cell tumor. Okay. Especially, remember we talked about low grade, intermediate grade, high grade, especially for that low grade tumor. Okay. Can have it just taken off and see what it is. And then you could put your dog on a mast cell protocol for a good six months to a year and see how it goes and learn all the stuff that you can do to keep down histamine naturally in your dog. Then there's chemotherapy. Those are for high grade tumors. Have I seen that work? Yes, I have. I have seen it work. I'm not a big fan of chemotherapy for dogs, so I don't really, I really can't speak to that. But I have had some clients with young dogs that have done the chemotherapy and it, it has helped a lot. Depends on what type of chemotherapy and if you're going to go that route, make sure that you're working with a very knowledgeable person. Then there's radiation, radiation therapy and there's other, like, immunotherapies that you can do for mast cell tumors. And again, these are the aggressive tumors and possibly the ones that have spread. I'm more into palliative care and using natural remedies to help prolong your dog's life in these situations. I'm not big on watching dogs suffer, just not me. But we all have, you know, we all have what we view as suffering, right? And I know that every single one of you is going to do what you feel is best for your dog. And the intentions are always there. Okay? So I support you, I support you in what you're doing. But just make a informed decision and try not to come from fear, okay? That is really important. Try not to come from fear. Now, one thing that veterinarians often prescribe are antihistamines for mast cell tumor. And antihistamines can be fine when you're working to figure out, get your game plan, get your ducks in a row, get your protocol, all of those good things. You can do some antihistamines, but antihistamines will work against you in the long run, what they do is they prescribe Benadryl or a prescription antihistamine to keep basically the mast cells down and to control histamine release. But the issue is that histamine release is so important for so many things, and it. So, you know, it's kind of like whack a mole. You're gonna treat the histamine, but you're also gonna have a slew of other problems, which we'll talk about in a minute. So it's a hard decision, but you can do it temporarily and then replace prescription antihistamines with natural antihistamines that work differently in the body. They're more intelligent antihistamines like nettles, quesartin. And I think that you don't want your dog to be itching and scratching and for the tumors to be swelling and red and nasty. Totally get that. But knowledge is power, so just know what's going on. And antihistamines definitely help with itching and allergic reactions. You know, there's a lot of discomfort with mast cell tumor. It's also gonna help. You know, antihistamines are gonna help mast cell tumors not grow. And that's what we wanna do too. Okay? They're reducing the overall histamine in the body and that, you know, the theory there is it's gonna limit the growth and spread of the tumors. Right. Sometimes your dog, your dog, your vet may prescribe steroids as well to reduce the inflammation, especially in the really nasty ones. Now, if they're super nasty and they're bleeding, I would definitely do the steroids for a short period of time to get those to calm down and to allow you some time to get a protocol on board. All right? But antimohistamines have side effects. They create, you know, drowsiness, they make your dog lethargic. They cause dry mouth and decay of teeth because of the lack of saliva. They cause dogs to get urinary tract infections. They cause dogs to retain urine. And sometimes dogs have a problem urinating on antihistamines. They definitely cause major amounts of gastrointestinal upset, vomiting, diarrhea, food sensitivities, leaky gut. These are all things that can happen with chronic antihistamines. They interact with other medications, so there's that. But your vet can tell you how to do that. And, you know, sometimes they don't work, which is unfortunate if you need them to be on board, you know, temporarily, and sometimes they cause other types of allergic reactions. So they can have your dog, can be allergic to antihistamines in general. And those things are usually like, hives, difficulty breathing, swelling, things like that. And then dogs with like pre existing conditions, especially like intact males that have prostate issues or older dogs that have like cataracts or glaucoma, antihistamines, really, sometimes they really don't work out for those dogs. So. But you can talk to your veterinarian about that. And also liver, liver disease, kidney disease, antihistamines don't really work out with that either. Okay? So the biggest thing is they. They had. They bring down acid in the gastrointestinal system, okay? They block what is called an H2 receptor, histamine 2 receptor, and they reduce stomach acid. And when you reduce stomach acid, food can get into the small intestine, is not broken down into the little amino acids that it should be. And then it excites the immune system. And then you have food sensitivities, okay. Or gastric ulcers or acid reflux, okay? And nutrient absorption, you can have low assimilation from low gastric acid. So antihistamines definitely alter digestion. And for those dogs that are low in B12 or calcium or iron definitely can be related to antihistamines because antihistamines reduce stomach acid and again, they impair the breakdown of proteins and they bring down a simulation of vitamins and minerals and calcium, iron and B12 are in there. All right? They also open your dog up to other pathogens because the stomach acid is your first responder to pathogens in the gastrointestinal tract. Okay. Stomach acid kills harmful bacteria. And if your dog is on antihistamines, I definitely would recommend lightly cooking their food. Okay. Lightly cooking their food. And if you listen to the early August mast cell episode, you'll know that you don't want to give your dogs any leftovers because it builds histamine as soon as food starts breaking down. So if you feed a cooked diet, a lightly cooked diet, you don't want to cook it like crazy. But lightly cooked diet, you want to feed cooked and then feed it. And if you're going to keep it, put it right in the freezer, okay? Put it right in the free for freezer, okay? Antihistamines can cause nausea and vomiting. We talked about that. So can mast cell tumor. It also can cause, like, bloating and discomfort and acid reflux. Lots of problems with motility, which how fast your dog's food goes through their gut when they are using antihistamines. And then of course, we have regurgitation can happen. And excessive stomach acid, acid that's being upset and thrown into the esophageal canal. So it's not that you have too much stomach acid. It gets in the wrong spot. So sometimes dogs can end up on anti acids and antihistamines, but you don't want to do that. Okay? You don't want to do that. And then if your dog is on antihistamines, like I said before, check their mouth saliva because it can get really dry. And that is going to really exacerbate your dog's gastrointestinal issues and bring on a load of plaque in your dog's mouth. All right, so let's just talk just a little bit about what histamine does in the body. I know earlier we talked about allergic responses. Okay. It helps with that. It helps with healing wounds. It plays a huge role in the inflammation response. Okay. It calls out to the immune cells to bring healing to certain sites of injury or infection. It. We just talked about gastric acid secretion. We talked about neurotransmitters. Okay. Histamine acts as a neurotransmitter, and that affects your dog's, like, attention level. It affects how your dog learns. It affects arousal, like, if they're even paying attention to you and your dog being, you know, alert. And then it can affect appetite. Okay, it controls appetite. It definitely is involved in that signal of I'm hungry and I'm full. And then it dilates blood vessels. We talked about that a little bit. It helps with regulating blood pressure, increasing blood flow, and it is responsible for helping bring nutrients to the cells. It also helps with smooth muscle contraction. Okay. And that has a. That's like a big deal in your dog's lungs because histamine can cause the smooth muscles to contract. And we want them relaxed so that they move back and forth freely. We don't want them contracting because that can lead to the narrowing of your dog's airways, which leads to things like allergic responses and asthma. We don't want that either. And histamine plays a huge role in your dog's sleeping cycle, their circadian rhythms, and how well they sleep, which is very important when they are ill. It also plays a big role in mucus secretion, again in the lungs. And that mucus in the lungs is not the enemy either. People are always like, oh, we got to get the mucus out of the lungs. No, you don't. Only when the mucus is run amok. Mucus actually helps trap allergens and pathogens in the lungs. So your whole, like your body and your dog's body is covered in mucus. So we don't want things that harm mucus unless we have a huge problem with mucus. Okay, so that is about it on the traditional mast cell tumor front. Again, histamine is not the enemy. And there's lots of natural histamines out there like maritime pine bark, San lang chaga mushroom, quesartin, nettle, nettle leaf. Actually, nettle, chaga and maritime pine mixed together is a wonderful antihistamine. Okay, so if you want to learn more about what to do on the natural front for mast cell tumor, go over to my other podcast that is in the beginning of August, where I talk about that. And if you need more, write into the podcast. Let me know what you want. Let me know. You know, Rita, yeah, You talked about this, this and this. But are there any more? Because I'll put together another little section or segment for mast cell tumor healing. Maybe we'll cover homeopathy and some other basic herbs for mast cell tumors because there's so many of them, because there's so many different kinds of mast cell tumor that there's a lot to go around. Now, on a brighter note, my book's coming out on February 4th. I know. I can hear you cheering. I can hear you cheering. I'm really excited about it. And if you haven't purchased my book, please go to anywhere you purchase books online or offline and pre order the Herbal Dog. If you have a local bookstore, ask them to carry the Herbal Dog. Tell them about it. If you want to be included in my book tour next year. If you live by a major city and want to put something together. If your local holistic dog store might want to host me, let me know. If you want to sponsor the tour, let me know. I'm open. I'm open. I'm planning it right now. Pretty excited. Going to start on the west coast in February, work my way down. Or actually, I think I'm gonna start in San Diego and work my way back up to my hometown of Olympia, Washington, in Seattle. And then I am going, I believe, over to the middle of the states and ending up on the east coast. I've got a little back and forth, but that's what's happening. And another exciting thing that I am sharing about yours truly is I have been featured in a phytoembryonic stem cell plant stem cell therapy doc. I am jazzed about that. And some of my work is coming out in a new book by Jennifer Payer about Stem Cell Therapy Plant Stem Cell therapy and I haven't seen the book yet, but I'm going to. So I'll share with you all those things, those delightful bits. I'm just excited that a lot of people are spreading the word about sustainable herbal medicine and these powerful stem cell remedies that I love so much. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out my podcast on stem cell therapy, Plant Stem cell therapy and you'll find it fascinating. 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 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 middle 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 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, 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 herbalist 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 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.