My First Patient
The call came when I was away at a seminar- my last seminar to get my Naturopathy Doctor
certification. “The groomer says Allie’s lymph glands are swollen and she needs to go to the vet”
I hoped it did not mean what I knew it meant. I hoped against hope that it was due to a severe ear
infection instead. I grasped at straws- the unexplained vomiting could have been caused by the ear
infection which we were treating. I was 1 week into a 3 week seminar. My husband brought her to the
vet who recommended a biopsy.
When I got home her jaw looked like it had a hard boiled egg under each side of her jaw. I knew it was
not an ear infection. My heart sank. The journey that I did not want to go on began. The first step was a
biopsy of the node. She went in four days after I came home. I picked her up from the vet and the tech
said “I think that they grew even since last week when she was in”. My heart sank further. I took my
sleepy dog home and waited.
The results came back in a week- Multicentric B-Lymphoma. Off to the Veterinary Oncologist we went.
Standard therapy is 3 drugs (alternating weekly in dogs), except prednisone which is given throughout
until the dog responds to chemo. We visited the vet every week. Fortunately Allie loved everything
about the vet- it was like visiting the dog park for her. So many new people and pets to meet. Most
people were cool and let her meet them, many pets were too but our day was orthopedic & oncology
days so the guardians of dogs that just had hip dysplasia surgery were a little perturbed when the dogs
wanted to play with her. She loved the staff and they loved her.
I am a pharmacist and am comfortable in the medical realm. I had just become certified as a naturopath
and was comfortable in that realm as well. My unofficial expertise had been combining supplements
with drugs for a favorable outcome. My dog was my first client.
I created a vitamin & supplement regimen for her to strengthen her cells while she underwent chemo &
to counteract the nutritional effects of the drugs. Within a few months we began to cook her food-
chicken or other meat & steam veggies for her. I tried to purchase organic vegetables and grass fed
meat when I could but often used standard fare. We did try to eliminate refined carbohydrates, corn,
wheat, dyes, etc. but the dog was such a foodie.
Many dogs do not go into remission, she was one of them. In that case they treat lymphoma as a
chronic disease, like diabetes or hypertension. Our treatment protocol went to once every 3 weeks.
She responded to the treatment well. About 10 months into