Treating Cancer in Pets
No pet owner ever wants to hear that their pet has cancer. As scary as it can be, there are now many options available to pet owners looking to give their pets the best care. Despite increasing cases of cancer in pets, advances in veterinary medicine mean that pets can live longer, healthier lives.
Treating Cancer in Aging Dogs
It may come as no surprise that your pet’s age, breed, and species will influence their risk of developing cancer.
Cancer accounts for almost half of the deaths of pets over 10 years of age according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. It is more common in dogs than cats, but occurs in both species. After looking into our claims data, we found dogs become significantly more prone to cancer starting at age 5. We’ve paid over $1 million in cancer-related claims, with the majority of the funds going toward dogs over 5 years old.
Though age plays a larger role, both environmental and genetic factors can also determine the risk of cancer in pets. For example, a dog’s breed can influence their risk of developing cancer. Among Trupanion-insured pets, the top dog breeds most prone to cancer include the Rottweiler, Boxer, and Golden Retriever.
Top 10 breeds most prone to cancer:
- Rottweiler
- Doberman Pinscher
- Boxer
- German Shepherd
- Great Dane
- Golden Retriever
- American Pit bull Terrier
- Labrador Retriever
- Beagle
- Jack Russell Terrier
Treatments Available for Pets with Cancer
Pets diagnosed with cancer now have a variety of options available to them. Many treatments available for humans are also being used to treat pets.
Pets diagnosed with cancer have the option to be treated by veterinary oncologists, who have specialized in the field. They can receive immunotherapy, surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and herbal therapies. Some types of cancer are even curable with bone marrow transplants. These treatment options can be combined to extend the duration and quality of life for pets.
And all of these treatments are becoming more accessible to pet owners with medical insurance for cats and dogs. Coverage can help mitigate the high cost of many of these treatments, allowing pet owners to care for their pet and not worry about the finances along the way.
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About The Author
Kathryn M.
Kathryn works at Trupanion alongside her little sidekick, a rescued Papillion mix named Modie. She loves all animals big and small but is a dog enthusiast at heart. By the third grade, she had memorized every dog breed and their characteristics and dreamed of being an agility dog trainer or the next Steve Irwin. When not at Trupanion, Kathryn spends her time playing soccer, baking cookies, and exploring the Pacific Northwest with her little sidekick.
My Boxer is about 10-11 years old now. What an old guy!! He started developing little cysts several years ago and now he is covered with them and his tail is completely swollen. It is very sad to see this has taken over his body,however he is still active – and has lived a long life- though I know he is near the end 🙁
-Orry (dogtrainingnerd)
Yes our 7 year old Rottie was diagnosed with cancer and the oncologist quoted some $10,900 for chemotherapy. Fortunately we are critical thinkers and we researched TheTruthAboutCancer.com and CancerTutor.com and MercolaPets.com aEarthClinic.com http://www.hoxseybiomedical.com/ etc.
We healed him using the real cancer cures at costs of less than $2,000 in natural holistic cancer cures that have healed pets and people for decades.
The medical industry does not want Americans to know about real cancer cures at cheap chemo pesticide has the highest for profit markup. After researching about so many pets and people dying agonizing painful deaths due to chemo. We care about our dog and wanted our dog to survive cancer the healthy way with no pain.
Now our dog is cancer free, at no thanks to the many veterinarians that lied to us and told us we must spend $10900 for chemo or kill our dog.
Our dog is alive, well and cancer free.
We hope trupanion gets on board to care for pets and real cancer cures that work.
Oncologists and their familes never get chemo, they choose real holistic cancer cures that cure, but sell the masses chemo for profit.
My friend is married to an oncologist, who told me to avoid chemo as her husband tells all their family friends and pets to avoid chemo and choose the holistic real cancer cures that heal.
Good caring people need to share this info to save lives as the medical industry wants to profit off of cancer and the cancer nonprofits know there are cures but want them kept hidden so they can continue to rake in millions in profits trying to find a cure that already exists for both pets and people.
Be a guardian to your pets, do your research to save your pet with real holistic cures that work and improve health.
Chemo weakens the immune system to make you weak so cancer can grow faster with a vengeance in less than 6 months. Chemo temporarily kills the child cancer cells to fool people to think it works, but does not kill the adult cancer cells as I learned from my friend’s husband, an oncologist. They are very successful and live in a 19,000 sf home on the beach in California, but they themselves never use chemo for cancer. Their family goes to the real cancer center at Hoxsey BioMedical Clinic. Read the true history of Hoxsey who cured so many of cancer back in the 50’s then the medical industry said he was curing too many people and pets of cancer, costing the medicial industry lots of lost profits, so they told the gov to make him leave the USA to cure people in other countries, but to not cure Americans, as cancer is so profitable in America.
Ira
My dog Argento has been diagnosed with osteosarcoma ( although biopsy results are pending)
however is bone was held together just by the implant from acl surgery of course first step was to amputate which we did a week ago today
I am now looking into alternatives to chemo , I do not like that and he is not a very good patient when it comes to getting poke by needles
I looked into the mercola web site already and I see others in your message .. Did you have an holistic vet helping you figure out doses since everything is based on human?