07/16/2026
This is going to be a long one friends, so buckle up for the ride. Topic: Canine cancer
This is Rooster. Or Biiiig Woooosty as we commonly refer to him. He is a 4.5 year old South African Boerboel (South African Mastiff). We adopted him from Green Dogs Unleashed when he was about 6 months old. First, let me say, I'm a lover of "almost" all dogs (😂) which explains the variety of breeds we have rescued over the years. We have bulldogs, frenchies, mixed breeds, malinois', and mastiffs. I absolutely adore my mastiffs, especially my Woosty.
So when the news came in that our Rooster had aggressive T-cell lymphoma at just 4.5 years old, our hearts sank. What a punch in the gut. Of all the dogs I've had over the years, this is the first incurable cancer in a young dog I've ever experienced, personally. (You can treat it, you don't cure it) Apparently, lymphoma is not uncommon in Boerboels.
Upon hearing the news, there was a mutual understanding that we would not pursue chemotherapy. This is a very personal choice for everyone and we each have our reasons - a big one for us being that Rooster is a guardian breed who doesn't do strangers well or vet visits without sedation. So frequent visits to the vet for chemotherapy would be stressful for him and therefore affect his ability to naturally fight these evil cancer cells.
That being said, upon first learning his lymph nodes were enlarged, even before receiving the final results from the tests, I immediately started him on a strong holistic protocol. Once confirmation came a week later, we opted to start him on prednisone. You know what they say....pred or dead. But I'm here to inform you that whether or not you choose to do chemotherapy you can pair your traditional treatment plan with holistic modalities.
So while Rooster is on prednisone, we are supporting him naturally in the following ways:
1) Diet - Rooster has eaten nothing but raw or gently cooked since we adopted him and most recently he has been on Goodness Gracious gently cooked. Soon, he will be transitioning to one of Goodness Gracious' restorative formulas, Reveal, which is intended to aid in metabolic disorders.
2) Real Mushrooms Turkey Tail capsules
3) MycoDog Vitality mushroom tincture
4) CBD Dog Health Heal
5) The Adored Beast Apothecary Vital Defense
6) Solutions Pet Products, LLC Turmeric & Ginger
7) Six Gentlemen tea pills and two other Chinese herbs
8) Carna4 Synthetic-Free Pet Food Sprouted Seeds
9) Green Juju Just Greens or Bailey's Blend
10) Biostar US Hedgerow for continued gut health
11) Iceland Pure Shark Liver Oil
12) Adored Beast Liver Tonic to detox the liver and
13) some high fiber foods to help with hypercalcemia - pumpkin, greens, and Fiber One.
If your pet is fighting cancer now or in the future, you have options! While it's only been a couple weeks since that first vet visit that indicated larger than normal lymph nodes (by quite a lot), I'm pleased to say that at the moment, most of his nodes feel almost normal size right now. For how long? We don't know. What we do know is that we will continue to do whatever we can for him and love him as much as humanly possible. I'm a firm believer in allowing yourself to feel the feels upon that first gut punch but then being positive and acting "normal" after the initial shock. I know that animals pick up on our emotions, stress, sadness, anxiety, etc. And I don't want Rooster to pick up on emotions that may also make him stressed. I need his Immune system as strong as possible to fight as long as he can. We can cry when he's gone.
Here's to Rooster and his and our journey! ❤️
