Curing Tumors in Doodles
Here is an update on my almost 15 year old Golden Doodle. To say she is the love of my life is an understatement. It’s the sad truth, I fell in love with Polly online where she was posted by a breeder in Virginia. Mostly, I fell in love with her face. She has a beautiful face. At least to me she does. But, of course I bought her for the kids. A friend of mine told me not to get a dog for the kids because she couldn’t get her kids to even look at the dog. My aunt told me as the mother I will have to take care of the dog, so don’t do it because it will drive you nuts. She had an incredibly annoying poodle named Herbie that she absolutely hated. One day Herbie mysteriously disappeared…
Still, I thought a family should have a dog. My girls were six and eight. Things did not turn out as anticipated. In my house we fought over the dog. Everyone was happy to take care of the dog. Even my late husband who told me that dogs were “rats with tails” was not immune in Polly’s Charms. I know, rats have tails right? This topic will require another post.
I digress... During the beginning of quarantine due to Covid19 she had what looked like a small tumor on her eye lid. I thought it was cancer. A trip to the vet proved it was not cancer, but benign and not to be worried about. I was relieved, but the tumor kept growing and soon she couldn’t close her eye. It also looked painful. I went back to the vet where I was told they could remove it, but she would lose part of her eye lid. This was not an option. She also had other tumors forming which the vet checked. They were all benign and common in older dogs. I was starting to think a dog riddled with tumors was my future, but then I got a hold of myself. I couldn’t allow this to happen. I searched the internet and bought every dog cancer tumor product I could find. They were expensive and they were not working.
Needless to say I was frustrated. I stopped ordering the tumor fighting products. My other problem was my dog wouldn’t eat anything but dog treats. When you’re 98 years old who cares, so she went through a ton of dog treats and biscuits. She gained four pounds. The weight created another problem which was her inability to get up by her self. She would bark and someone would help her up. Luckily for her we were all home in quarantine.
Polly was banned from the dog treats, but still wouldn’t eat her food. There was a ton of barking for dog treats and this was horribly distracting on the Zoom calls. So, I started making her dog food. Who knew she would love broccoli and spinach so much? But she did. She loves it. Slowly the tumors receded and her eye is almost back to normal. Her other tumors are also shrinking. She goes to the dog park almost everyday and is doing great.
Since I’ve been making this two to three times per week for over six months I’ve changed it up to make it interesting for her. I’ve added carrots, cauliflower and kale. Some times I add chicken thighs. I did one time add ground beef and this was a big mistake. Her body did not like it and it was a big mess for me. Enough said.
Here is the standard recipe:
Ingredients:
1 lb ground turkey
2 teaspoons of coconut oil
16 oz bag of frozen broccoli
2 cups fresh spinach
15 oz can of pumpkin purée (unsweetened)
2 teaspoons turmeric
4 cups of filtered water
In a large pot or Dutch oven heat the coconut oil and then add the turkey and cook until brown. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer until all vegetables are soft.
Pumpkin is a super food for dogs. However, make sure it’s 100% pumpkin without added salt or sugar and is not pie filling. Coconut oil is an anti-inflammatory and helps with absorption of nutrients. A small amount of spinach is good for dogs as it’s packed with vitamins and nutrients, but limit it to a quarter cup per day.