[easyazon_image align=”right” cart=”n” height=”500″ identifier=”B076V4ZZCZ” locale=”US” src=”https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51XA6jQ0SGL.jpg” tag=”mcurle08-20″ width=”389″]I haven’t been writing much lately because I discovered a golf ball sized lump on my dog’s hind quarters. I’m pretty sad about it. My dog, Charlie, probably has cancer and it will probably end his life. However, he has outlived all the other dogs that we have had and is older than average dogs his size at 16 years of age. So, the ketogenic diet for my dog’s cancer is an experiment to see if I can’t stop the progression and buy him a few more months.
Why the Ketogenic Diet?
The ketogenic diet is very low in carbohydrates. The idea behind doing the ketogenic diet for my dog’s cancer is to starve the cancer cells. I honestly don’t know if it will work. The great thing about it is that the dog loves all the foods that I’m feeding him. If this brings him some joy and satisfaction during his last few meals, I think it will have been well worth the effort!
How Did I Start the Ketogenic Diet for a Dog?
This one was a bit trickier. I went online and found a keto calculator and entered in the dog’s weight. Keto calculators will give you an estimate of what your target macros should be, but dogs tend to have different nutrititional needs than humans.
I started by giving the dog an egg for breakfast and a tablespoon of coconut oil. The coconut oil is for medium chain triglycerides and the egg was for some protein. He loved it! He even asked for more. (Charlie has a difficult time with satiety. He always wants to devour food, so I can never tell when I’m overfeeding him. I’m hoping this will stop with the ketogenic diet. Hoping he becomes fat adapted.)
I shared in the ketogenic motivation group that I had started my dog on the ketogenic diet and low and behold, someone else in the group feeds her dog raw food. She directed me to a website to learn more about tweaking the nutrients for Charlie. I love helpful people!
How Long Will He Be on the Diet?
We bought two weeks worth of beef and cooked it up into small portions that we can give at each meal, so we are committing to it for at least two weeks! Hopefully that will stall the cancer and we can keep him around to test it out on him a bit longer.
Charlie’s tumor is near his anus. As it grows larger, it will block his digestive track and he will eventually die from the toxicity of not being able to relieve himself. I’m hoping that we will be successful in shrinking the tumor, but like i mentioned previously, he could die of old age any day now. I’m not dealing with a young dog. He is already partially blind and deaf, so his quality life has been deteriorating. Fingers crossed that this diet reverses some of the deterioration!
That’s actually interesting, I’d like to know how that turns out. Dogs are meat eaters so fatty meat will probably work well for him. Coconut oil, well that may work or not. Keep us posted.
He’s been eating meats for the last two weeks and loves it. So far, it doesn’t seem like he is suffering from the tumor yet. He had me scratch it, which he hadn’t let me touch it before, so there may be some improvement.