Just before New Year’s my 11 year old beagle, Jerry, began showing troubling symptoms. He started having spasm episodes that looked like mini seizures. He was panting in distress from these spasms and they were happening frequently and not stopping so I took him to the local 24 hour emergency vet. The vet there offered a couple of possible explanations (back spasms) and pumped him full of drugs to stop the episodes and we went home and he was fine for the rest of the night.

However the next morning when the drugs wore off the episodes started again. So this time I took him to the local vet who suspected possible neurological problem and advised me to go see the closest vet neurologist in Richmond, VA, a two hour drive away. The vet also did an xray before we left and found a large mass in his chest area. That day I drove Jerry up to Richmond to a facility that included a neurologist, as well as a 24 hour emergency care, a surgical center, and many more specialists under one roof. Jerry stayed overnight and the next day I met with doctors to discuss what they had learned in their examination. The neurologist found nothing wrong with his CAT scan and suspected that the large mass in his chest may be pressing on certain veins causing those spasm episodes. I met with a surgical specialist because it was determined this large mass was the biggest area of
concern.

The surgeon informed me that the large mass was a lung tumor and they needed to do surgery to remove it and diagnose. Jerry made it through the surgery where the tumor was found to be cancerous and the doctors told me they weren’t able to remove the whole thing cleanly meaning there was still some cancer cells in his blood and now we needed to go see an oncologist for continued care.

When I met with the oncologist it was very discouraging. She did not give me much hope and told me that these types of tumors in dogs if not removed cleanly do not have much success of being cured. She told me that even if I started chemotherapy my best case was extending his life by a year.

I saw a second oncologist for another opinion and his diagnosis was even worse. He told me that even with chemo I’d get maybe 6-9 more months with Jerry and if I did nothing he would be gone in 2-4 months. 

Let me pause to say that anyone who doesn’t know Jerry personally needs to know Jerry is a survivor. When we first adopted him he had heartworm and even then many vets didn’t give us great hope but we luckily found a great vet in New York who had experience. It was a long recovery including one episode where Jerry was coughing up blood which led to another overnight stay at a emergency clinic where doctors weren’t looking at us with much hope. But Jerry proved them all wrong and survived and recovered.

So even after his surgery and his spasm episodes he didn’t look like a sick boy. He’s a fighter and I didn’t like the odds the oncologists had given him. Also I didn’t see the point of
putting him through the pain of chemo if a cure wasn’t possible just to extend his life for a short period but the quality of that period would be questionable given the chemo treatments. Even though the oncologists made everything seem so final, I believed there had to be another way to
treat him.

Thankfully at the facility in Richmond where we ended up spending many days was a Holistic doctor. I made an appointment for Jerry and there we met Dr. Lord. Dr. Lord is nothing short of a God send. When every other doctor was preparing me for the worst and making me think my time with Jerry was coming to a close with no hope, she took the time to sit on the floor with Jerry and really get to understand what was going on with him. As far as I could tell the oncologists spent little time actually examining Jerry and only looked at this charts. Dr. Lord took the time to examine Jerry before she even spoke with me.

After meeting with her I decided not to do chemo but instead do an intensive holistic treatment including completely changing his diet. First thing we did was a three day Vitamin C
detox shortly after his surgery to flush his system of all the bad cells that may still be in his blood. Most importantly we immediately stopped feeding him his regular dog food and began cooking all his meals from natural foods. Jerry went from eating dried dog food to eating ground beef, chicken, salmon, kale, sweet potatoes, brown rice, apples, strawberries.

Almost immediately I noticed a difference. He looked bouncy, healthier. He also began a series of herbal supplements to balance his nutrition and to help support his immune system. We also started monthly accupuncture treatments. The plan was to keep him on this new diet and monitor him with xrays every month and as soon as we saw the cancer return (which the oncologists assured me it would) we could then start the chemo but ideally buy a few extra months.

That was nine months ago as of this writing and Jerry’s xrays have come back clean every month with no signs of the cancer returning! He’s reverted back to acting like a younger self in many ways. If I had listened to the Oncologists I’m not sure I would be able to say the same thing or still be enjoying my baby boys company today.

Dr. Lord and the staff at Four Paws Holistic Vets saved his life and opened my eyes to the benefits of feeding your dogs real food which is just as important to health as it is for us humans.
Jerry is the proof and I’ve convinced family and friends to switch their dogs over to homemade meals as preventative measure so they don’t have to go through what Jerry and I went through. We hope other dog owners can learn from his story and find success with holistic care for their loved ones.