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Overdue update!
I haven’t updated the blog in months. I guess that’s mostly for good reasons – just being busy with life, and not doing MCT-related things. That’s because Mycroft has been doing great so far. No additional lumps or bumps since his last surgery in December (which ended up being non-MCT bumps). He just had a checkup at the vet at the end of August and they said he looked great. We think so too!
Also at the end of August, Mycroft and I started training for the 11th Annual Running for the Bulls 5k. I used to be a very avid runner but backed off a lot in recent years. My diagnosis of thyroid issues and just getting older made it harder for me to keep my body in running shape. However, I enjoy getting outside with the doggos and Mycroft, to an extent, loves running. Right before his MCT diagnosis, we completed the Steps for Vets 5k together. I think he enjoys speeding it up a bit (as long as I still give him his sniff breaks). We’re only up to like 1.5 miles as of the time of this writing, but we’re making progress!
I’m going to try and maintain a list of local dog-friendly races that we can do throughout the year. This is mostly for my benefit, but if you think I missed any good ones I should add to the list, please let me know!
Race Name Date 7th Annual Steps for Vets 5K (past event) 4/29/2023 11th Annual Running for the Bulls 10/1/2023 Families Raising Hope 5K 11/18/2023 The Running Elves 5K/Kids Run 12/16/2023 And here is a picture of us training together.
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Some good news to start 2023
Mycroft went to the vet to have two masses removed on December 29, 2022. Obviously because of his history with the MCT being removed earlier in the year, the probability was high that these growths would be cancerous too.
One tumor was located internally, on his left side abdomen area and close to where the first tumor was located. It could be felt but not seen (whereas the first MCT tumor was on the skin). The other was on his right hind back foot, and was visible but fairly small. I shared a picture of that one in a previous post.
He was all wound up on that Thursday morning when we dropped him off at 7am. I think it was stressing us all out. But we reluctantly turned him over to the staff and went back home for an update.
I think it was around 12:30 or so when the vet called. She let us know everything went well, we could pick him up at 2:45, and that the internal mass was just a fatty lipoma and they would only send the foot growth to the lab for histopathology testing. So already good news on 1 of 2!
He whined a lot that first night after we brought him home, although he snuck his way upstairs at one point, so he must have been feeling well enough to make the climb. After the first surgery in May, he was whiny for days. I guess it can be an effect of the anesthesia? Another reason I don’t like putting him under any more than necessary. But, thankfully his whininess only lasted about 24 hours this time.
Then came New Years Eve, which was rough on the whole household. Mycroft doesn’t like fireworks, and he makes sure everyone in the house knows. He was still on Tramadol at this point, which I had hoped would ease some of the anxiety, but it made no difference. We were all up until midnight and a little bit beyond that, even though Mom & Dad would have been okay going to sleep much earlier.
The vet called again the following Thursday, January 5th, with the results of the foot growth from the lab. She said this was hyperkeratosis – “basically like a collection of blackheads on his foot”. Gross, but it wasn’t cancer either! We’re all still really happy about this news.
So as of today, he still has sutures in his side and on his foot that will be removed next week, but we’ve been told everything is healing nicely. The foot is driving Mycroft crazy, but we think we’re in the home stretch.
I hope that the fact that neither of these growths were cancer this time, means that we’re doing something right. So the diet and the supplements will continue, at worst I don’t think we’re doing any harm. I think it also means (to me) no more surgeries for any random lumps unless there is a clear indication it is impacting his health or mobility. I’m breathing a huge sigh of relief. I’m sure Mycroft is too.
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Going in Blind
A few weeks ago we noticed a bump on Mycroft’s foot. It didn’t seem to be bothering him too much, so we waited to see if it would go away. While it didn’t seem to be getting worse, it didn’t seem to be getting better, so I took him to the vet yesterday to have it looked at.
Our vet said she didn’t know what the thing on his foot was, but she didn’t offer to run any tests either. She also pointed out that she had found another lump in Mycroft’s abdomen area, while she had him in the back office; not in the same exact location as the first mast cell tumor, but near it, on his left side. Then, I felt it too. And my heart sank.
I knew going into this that any lumps or bumps Mycroft would get in the future, had a possibility of being another MCT. But I guess I had also thought it would have the possibility of not being a MCT. And, he had been doing so well up to this point – we’re already at the upper end of his 4-6 month prognosis he was given initially. Are we living on borrowed time? Our vet doesn’t even want to test or biopsy anything, we’ve been recommended to go straight to surgery.
There are some “pros” here, I guess. The first MCT Mycroft had, we did have tested, and it came back as nothing the first go-around. That’s why we just left it for so long. If we had just had it removed and biopsied from the start, maybe he’d be having a better outcome right now. I’m not sure! My husband seems to think this is the logical next step, and it probably is. I just feel like the worst fur mommy ever for putting him through this again. Mycroft is 5.5 years old now, I guess if we’re going to do surgery, it would be better to do in his young adult years.
His surgery is scheduled for December 29th, and he will have both of these masses removed.
Otherwise he seems like a happy, active boy.
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The Lack of Research
Since my last post, I’ve still been doing a lot of reading and searching the internet, trying to figure out how to best keep my dog tumor-free while avoiding chemo. I was, and still am, pretty overwhelmed by the claims of “this is the best diet for dogs with cancer!”, but I couldn’t find any research supporting it anywhere. (If you have any published research papers you can send, let me know!)
If you have gone down this path or decide to in the future, you will see a lot of suggestions around feeding a diet high in protein, low in carbs. “38%” seems to be the magic protein ratio in the Facebook group I’m in, but I don’t know why 38%, and not 35 or 40%. The case against carbs is that sugars are fuel for the cancer cells, which seems like a logical argument. There is also some published research for this theory in humans, I just couldn’t find anything specific to dogs. But there will be plenty of companies ready to sell you their best cancer diet for your dog, without any real proof that it works.
I decided to exercise my professional network muscles to help me figure it out. I reached out to a former colleague of mine who specializes in animal nutrition. He too reached out to several professionals (including veterinarians) in his network. The answer wasn’t what I was hoping for, but he was able to make sense of what’s out there. And from a diet perspective, there doesn’t seem to be a best practice or set of guidelines for what or how to feed dogs with cancer. This could just be that no one is out there doing the research, but neither of us nor his contacts could put actual research behind the claims.
So where does that leave us? Well, I am going to feed Mycroft what I think is best for his health while providing supplements that at worst won’t hurt him, and at best might provide some level of anti-cancer protection. This is what I think that looks like:
We’re going to do a kibble blend – a high protein kibble recommended by the Facebook group and our dog trainer, mixed with our dog’s regular Purina One. The high protein diet (Orijen) does have high quality ingredients that I think could be beneficial to Mycroft’s health, even if it doesn’t prevent cancer. Unfortunately I think Mycroft just eats too much – he’s a big guy! – to be able to do 100% Orijen. Plus I have Atreus to feed.
We’re also adding a combination of supplements, some of which do have research to support their claims: Fish oil, broccoli sprouts (sulforaphane), turkey tail mushrooms, Benadryl, Turmeric, and milk thistle. Fish oil 2x day with meals (all three of us take that – me, Mycroft, and Atreus!), broccoli sprouts in the morning, turkey tail mushrooms in the evening. Benadryl and milk thistle are given on the 4 days a week I am home, the weekends and the couple of days I’m not in the office. I just like to be able to monitor how Mycroft is feeling on the Benadryl as sometimes he seems super zonked out, and the milk thistle is kind of a new one for all of us and I want to make sure I’m administering it right! Turmeric is given on the days when I can remember, I don’t feel like it makes THAT much of a difference, I have heard it can be poorly absorbed in humans and I have no idea how well absorbed it is in dogs because we’re back to that whole research thing. But I don’t think it hurts anything.
And if it wasn’t already obvious, I am not a veterinarian and I have no formal training in a veterinary field. I have just done a LOT of research online and have good connections with knowledgeable people.
That being said, we are now in the 4-month window of Mycroft’s “4-6 months” prognosis he was given when the MCT was removed. And he seems to be doing really well! I hope I don’t jinx anything by saying that, but he still loves to go for walks, eats well, poops well, and seems like his normal self. It is as much as I could have hoped for.
Mycroft and our cat Yusuke, while I try to make the bed, from 2018 -
Research
I haven’t posted anything lately because I’ve been doing a lot of research. I didn’t think it was possible for me to do more research on the subject of MCTs, but here I am!
In my quest to connect with people and their dogs in similar situations, a couple of weeks ago I stumbled across a Facebook group, Mast cell tumors in dogs support group in memory of Max. There’s only 337 members as of the time of this writing, so I wasn’t expecting much other than maybe some kind words. I posted a picture of Mycroft with a brief synopsis. Someone commented that I should 1) put Mycroft on a keto diet; and 2) join the Facebook group, Holistic Help for Dogs with Mast Cell Cancer. Confused by the keto suggestion and having nothing to lose, I requested to join the group and was approved the next day.
The very first post, that you “must read before posting or commenting”, lays out the basic premise behind the group and outlines what a holistic approach to treating MCTs in dogs should look like: Feed your dog a high protein kibble, or don’t feed them kibble at all. Follow the Cleo diet (I think this was where the “keto” reference may have come from). Include cottage cheese. Supplement with turkey tail mushrooms. Things I had never heard of, but am not opposed to trying. I’m just not comfortable taking all of my information from a Facebook group without understanding why I am doing these things (it took me a couple of days to find the answer to the cottage cheese thing), so… back to doing some research!
The group does have an extensive list of files but trying to navigate these files through Facebook is a bit daunting, it’s just not something I think Facebook groups do well, no fault of any admin out there. But sheesh, it is time consuming!
At this stage I’m still trying to figure out what exactly I should be feeding Mycroft. I have experimented with cooking food for both him and Atreus, but it is hard to keep up with on a regular basis. I had already started supplementing him with broccoli sprouts (i.e. Sulforaphane) from reading about those having cancer-fighting properties – not for dogs, but for humans. But I did find a couple of references that these are good for dogs as well. https://fourleafrover.com/blogs/natural-health/sulforaphane-for-dogs
But so far I see no mention of that in the Facebook group! So. Much. Research.
We both started taking a bit of turkey tail mushrooms in powder form. (Pro tip: It’s at Sprouts if you have one locally.) And all three of us (Mycroft, Atreus, and me!) have been taking fish oil for ages.
I still need to figure out what milk thistle does and I haven’t been brave enough to try the cottage cheese yet. Mycroft has a bit of a sensitive tummy and I’m not sure how that will go. Wish us luck!
In any event, Mycroft seems to be feeling well and healthy today. So far, so good. Here’s a picture of Mycroft when he was a little baby (2017) after he recovered from Parvo. Yep, he’s a Parvo survivor too!
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How We Ended Up Here
This is intended to provide a little bit of background on Mycroft’s diagnosis. As I mentioned before, I would love to connect with others who might be going through a similar situation, so it would probably help to provide some context on what our situation is.
Mycroft had a little growth on the left side of his abdomen that first showed up, I think, around the spring of 2021. We took Mycroft to the vet to have it tested. It looked very much like a mast cell tumor (MCT), from our experience with one of our previous dogs having had a MCT – that was Apollo, who is no longer with us. But the test results came back that they weren’t able to find any mast cells. We had a recheck about a month later (no labs though), and both the vet and we agreed at the time that it looked like it was starting to go away. But it never did…
Operating under the assumption that it wasn’t a MCT, we just left it there because it didn’t seem to be bothering Mycroft until more recently. He started to lick it and scratch at it; we made him wear people shirts to try and get him to leave it alone, but we eventually decided it was time to have it removed. We took him back to the vet in May of 2022 and they indicated they could remove the growth and have it tested; sometimes they are able to tell more from the actual growth than from a sample of it. Our vet didn’t seem overly concerned since Mycroft was still pretty young, he was only just approaching 5 years old. It was the results of that test post-surgery that indicated we had just removed a grade III MCT from Mycroft.
Mycroft April 2021 My head has just been spinning since then. Our vet seems to think we only have another 4-6 months left with him, although I will say that all of his staging tests (a chest x-ray, ultrasound, and spleen biopsy) have not shown any evidence of metastasis (yay!). After consulting with the oncologist, she indicated the average survival time with surgery plus chemo would be 12 months. But 3 of those months would be spent doing chemo treatments (once a week for 4 weeks, and once every other week for 8 weeks, for a total of 12 weeks). I want to extend Mycroft’s life more than anything, but I also want him to have a great quality of life for whatever time he has left. It’s not even a money issue – if I thought for one second I could “cure” him, put him into remission for years, we would be doing chemotherapy. But I didn’t want what little time we may have, to be spent shuttling him back and forth to the vet for chemo treatments. I second guess myself on this decision probably 8 times a day.
As I briefly mentioned earlier, Mycroft is our second dog to have had a MCT. Our previous dog, Apollo, only lived about 6 weeks after we put him on Palladia (a chemotherapy-type pill you can give them at home). I don’t write this to scare anyone, but that experience sure has scared us from wanting to pursue chemotherapy a second time. Apollo died in front of my eyes, at home, from what our then-oncologist said was “probably a heart attack”. That was in 2017. I never wanted to deal with another MCT ever again, much less so soon, and in a dog that still seems so young to me. Mycroft just turned 5 in June.
I will try to end this on a happier note. I did try reaching out on Facebook for similar stories from my Facebook friends, about their dogs and if they had pursued chemotherapy, what their experiences were. I heard back from one of my former coworkers. She indicated her dog had a MCT removed, and lived another 9 years! That was without any chemo or additional treatments! The dog lived to the age of 15 and eventually passed away from heart issues and pancreatitis. It was such a relief to hear this news, that her dog lived such a long, happy, and normal life. I know it is only one great story in a sea of sad stories, but I would love so much for Mycroft to be an exception to the rule. He has certainly earned it by being a good boy.
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Hello World
This is Stacey, Mycroft’s mom. I created this blog so I could chronicle what might be Mycroft’s last few months. Mycroft was diagnosed with a grade III mast cell tumor in May of 2022. We had the tumor removed (actually before we knew it was a MCT). The options we’ve been given so far are to 1) monitor the situation with an average survival of 4-6 months; or 2) pursue chemotherapy treatments with an average survival of 1 year. If either one of these end up being true, I want to be able to document our good days and be able to look back on those moments. I’m also hoping to maybe connect with others who have gone through or are going through the same events with their pups. I’ve read so many online articles at this point. Now I just want to connect with real people, and real dogs.
There is a Facebook page by the same name if you want to join us there. I think this blog will be for the longer versions of our stories, and Facebook will end up being for shorter posts or intros. But I guess I’m really just taking it one day at a time, and we’ll see how it goes!
I hope you are able to find some joy in our stories, as we’ve been really blessed to have Mycroft in our lives.
Mycroft at age 3.5
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My Time with Mycroft 