1. What should be done when there is a mass in your pet’s cranial prepuce?
Suppose your pup had a mass on the cranial prepuce which has decreased in size from a walnut into a maybe an acorn size. The deal is that this may be where we need to sit down with a consultation. I would suggest getting that mass biopsied. But frankly, it can probably be done with a fine needle biopsy which will give you an idea if this thing is a benign type tumor or a malignant tumor and what you need to do from there. On the other hand, if it has shrunk much in just a few weeks, then you can consider letting things go for another few weeks and see if it just gets better.
2. How long does it take to experience the total effectivity of melatonin?
It can take 2 to 3 weeks because essentially, what we are doing is using melatonin in this situation to manipulate the hormone system. If things are not smoothing out a little bit more every week, then what I would suggest doing is adding 3 milligrams in the morning and 9 milligrams at night. Give it a week or so and if things are not better, then I suggest doing 6 milligrams in the morning and 9 milligrams at night and so on until you get up to the 9 or 10 milligrams twice a day dosing. It should not make your pup sleepy during the day, partly because we’re taking our time to increase the dose. Also, again because we’re using it primarily as a way to manipulate the hormone system. I hope that makes sense.
3. What should you do with a tiny Yorkie who cracks and throws up after eating?
Something is not happy there which is an understatement so to speak. Also, there could be a couple of things going on. There could be something in the stomach that’s taking up space so when your pup does eat, it’s uncomfortable. Your pup could also have an ulcer that’s making it uncomfortable when he eats. And if it’s not happening every day, then try to think about what is going on the days when it is happening. Is there more anxiety in the house? Do you have a dog that’s kind of having ups and downs? And the days when this yorkie has a problem is somebody else having a really bad day? So, kind of think about that a little bit more.
Additionally, you could also use something like Heartburn RX. What I would do is go to fullscript.com and look this up. Most of you all have credential already with the fullscript store, so check that out. It’s something that I use to help kind of seal over the gut, but it has a lot of things to reduce stomach irritation and things of that nature.
4. Swiss Study: Effects of Post Chemo to Children and Meditation
There was a study done on internalizing how you felt post chemotherapy done in Switzerland. The interesting thing is that what they were doing for children that had really awful cancer and things were not working well or the drug is working but they weren’t tolerating the drug, is teach them a meditation where they would feel the side effect of the drug and what it was doing as far as killing off cancer cells – how that felt and how it made them feel. The fascinating thing is that they were able to invoke that same set of feelings about how the drug made them feel at will and more importantly, with same effect on the cancer cells. They were able to direct their own immune system to attack the cancer cells without the actual chemo.
5. Is the PEA helpful with the itching? And what’s the use of quercetin in chemotherapy?
It may help somewhat with the itching because it does help to reduce histamine release from the mast cells. And as far as kidney goes, I did read a report where they’re using, oddly enough, quercetin and a chemotherapeutic drug – one of the nab drugs, so it inhibits specific interleukins to treat kidney disease. What they found is that it also reduces brain inflammation and more importantly, they used a combination of 3 days’ worth of these products and they saw a sustained effect for 11 days out both in supporting kidney function and in improving cognitive function. I hope that helps.
6. What is the difference between spondylosis and degenerative myelopathy and what to do?
I see a lot of veterinarians calling degenerative myelopathy as rear end weakness when indeed it is not. There are couple of things you would want to do. I would use pain medicine. Get the test and do that but do use some pain medicine because it’s going to give you an answer. Is he painful because of spondylosis or because of degenerative myelopathy? The other thing to remember is that the pain may not be in the rear end but the pain could be in the chest and the upper thoracic spine. This is where rehab type therapy is going to be very helpful whether it is spondylosis or degenerative myelopathy.
With degenerative myelopathy, you’re going to want to work a little harder and a little faster. And this is another situation where that PEA is going to be helpful. I’ve been using it personally for about a week now and I think it is helping quite a bit. I’ve got another client that’s trying it out for her dog because there’s no side – effects with it. Relieve pain if its present starting with NSAIDs because it’s a great test, and then also figure out if there is degenerative myelopathy. This is where a consultation may be quite useful to go through some additional supplementation to support your pup.
I think we’re good. Again, the next time I’ll see you we’ll be down in Mexico. Until then, give everybody a big hug and love them up. Take good care! I’m Dr. Ruth Roberts, your pet’s ally.
