My dog has a mast cell tumor. Are there alternatives to surgery or light therapy?

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I am sorry to hear that Fudge has a mast cell tumor. There are a few options that I typically recommend for a natural means of treating mast cell tumors. The first is called Oral Neoplasene. This is a liquid type medication that is derived from the bloodroot plant that is used to treat cancer in dogs. The dosging for this product is based on body weight and is usually given prior to feeding two times per day. The second natural remedy I recommend is called Max's Formula. This is a blend of herbs that treats tumors in dogs, cats and horses. It is a blend of eight different herbs that have been carefully chosen to treat tumors. There is a bulk powder you can buy and also capsules. The third product is called Stasis Breaker. Like Max's formula, this also is used to treat tumors in dogs, cats and horses. This is meant to go after the root cause of the tumor. As with any alternative medicine, there is a chance that these products will not work at all. However, if deemed safe, which all 3 of these are safe to use, there is no harm in giving any of these to Fudge. You can order these 3 products online quite easily. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

Skin grafting can be tricky and there is a high risk that the graft would fail, especially when it is applied to an area where there previously was cancer. Mast cell tumors require 2 to 3cm margins and on the leg, many times, this is unachievable. Amputation is likely the best option. If you want to try and save the leg, I would discuss this further with a soft tissue surgeon and then an oncologist. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please feel free to contact me with any further questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

I'm very sorry Daisy has so many tumors! The course of treatment depends on the grade of the mast cell tumors (MCT). In low grade tumors that have been removed with adequate margins, further treatment is typically not needed. If there is spread to local lymph nodes, for example, then addition treatment is needed. Once the grade of the tumors is known, that will help your decision, but given that you think she might be at stage 3, I would recommend doing surgery and chemotherapy. As for holistic treatments, there may be complimentary treatments you can do in addition to the surgery and chemo, such as acupuncture, and I would discuss the use those with your vet.

It's a bit of a tough call, but I can see 2 potential options. You could have your vet take the tumor with conservative margins - i.e. leave enough to keep the penis covered - then biopsy that in order to get the grade of the tumor, so that you know what you're dealing with. After that, you might elect chemotherapy, or as you say simply monitor the site, since many are low grade. Your other option would be to consider a course of Palladia, which is a chemotherapeutic drug that is often used in mast cell tumors. It can significantly shrink them, so that they are easier to remove with margins.

Hello, thank you for your question about Zeus. If the lumps/masses were removed with relatively good margins, meaning that your veterinarian was fairly confident they removed all portions of the tumor, and the mast cell tumor was low grade no additional treatment is required other than close monitoring for recurrence in these areas. Although not as common with low grade mast cell tumors, you could elect to look for any evidence of metastasis, or travel of the tumors. This would likely include chest x-rays and an abdominal ultrasound. However, I believe it is also appropriate to continue monitoring Zeus. Hope this helps, good luck!

I’m sorry to hear about Tsunami’s diagnosis. MCTs are quite common in dogs, and unfortunately due to the cell distribution around the primary tumor, incomplete margins are common. If you want to be confident you’re pursuing the best options for the best prognosis, I recommend asking your vet for an oncologist referral. A veterinary oncologist will be the best specialist to be able to present all the options and their given pros & cons, and they have access to chemo medications that most primary vets don’t carry. If you choose not to pursue referral, then I recommend reaching out to your vet again to discuss the next step. If this were my case, I would probably recommend sampling Tsunami’s lymph nodes with a needle to look for evidence of regional metastasis, and based on those findings discuss if a second surgery is appropriate. Hope this helps!

Surgery to remove a peripheral lymph node is not any more invasive than the surgery to remove a mast cell tumor on the skin. I'm assuming this lymph node is one that is near his shoulder or behind his knee. This could provide valuable information, because additional treatment would be recommended if cancerous mast cells are confirmed in the lymph node even though the initial biopsy came back as a low grade tumor that is less likely to spread. You can always ask your vet about the potential complications of surgery.