Chemotherapy is administered to dogs and other pets that are suffering from cancer or have recently been diagnosed with cancer. When your dog has cancer, your beloved canine friend can be in a lot of discomfort and pain. With human beings, there’s that advantage of knowing how to understand, analyze, and put into words whatever discomfort it is that they go through.
Whatever the type of cancer, chemotherapy is often the first choice of treatment. For many, it could be effective in killing cancer cells. But, chemotherapy can have side effects that can often be difficult to handle. To beat these effects, synthetic and chemical-based medication is also given. But, these can only make the side effects of chemotherapy even worse. Today, there’s a new trend in the health and wellness industry whereby more natural means are favored. One of the most popular is CBD oil.
If your dog has recently been given the need for chemotherapy, CBD oil can be administered to better manage the side effects. It’s found to be effective in human beings for this purpose, and its use for animals, particularly cats and dogs
Here are the usual side effects of chemotherapy that your dog will experience, and how CBD oil can help manage them:
1. Could Possibly Poison Your Dogs
Take note that there’s a possibility of a dog getting poisoned from chemotherapy. But, it’s not that imminent as long as it’s managed well. This is also precisely the reason why chemotherapy for dogs should only be administered by a well-trained and well-abled veterinarian. The dose is also kept to a minimal dose.
Henceforth, especially after the first few chemotherapy sessions of your dog, you must keep an open eye to any signs of poisoning, like the following:
- Blindness
- Lethargy
- Severe seizures
- Depression
- Disorientation
With the signs enumerated above, seizures and depression in particular work very well with CBD oil. In fact, it’s in the ability to fight seizures that CBD oil was first known and famous for. Remember that poisoning can be fatal. The last thing that you’d want is for your dog to die from this while trying to cure cancer.
2. Loss Of Appetite
For human beings who undergo chemotherapy, loss of appetite is a common side effect. With dogs, the situation is the same. Loss of appetite, which can also be accompanied by nausea, is one of the most commonly experienced side effects for dogs. Generally, this could last a day or two after chemotherapy.
To keep your pet’s interest in eating right after their chemotherapy session, you need to make some changes to their diet. This would include incorporating bland food instead, and CBD oil added to it too – no spice and fat.
A word of advice for you to remember, however, is that you must be sure that these natural alternatives are with the permission of your vet and you’re sourcing them from a reputable source. Fortunately, there are many dispensaries for you to purchase your CBD from, but not all are of excellent quality. For your dogs that are already in a difficult situation in their life, this isn’t the time for you to skimp on the quality of the CBD oil.
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3. Vomiting
Vomiting is also quite frequent right after your dog has received chemotherapy. Thankfully, this is also one of the easiest for you to discover and to manage.
Once your dog starts to vomit, you have to make sure that you clean up all their mess right away and withhold any food or drink access from your dog for around six to eight hours. After such time, you can offer your dog minimal amounts of water or ice cubes. If you notice that they’re no longer vomiting, you can start to gradually introduce water.
Other management tips that you can do are the following:
- Call your veterinarian if it does persist.
- Once you start to reintroduce it, warm the food of your dogs.
- Start introducing CBD oil.
CBD oil has excellent capabilities in curbing one’s nauseous tendencies. This is made possible through the interactions of CBD oil with the endocannabinoid system. This is that system in the body that’s responsible for controlling many of its interactions. With CBD oil, you’ll see your pet start to get more active and even more hungry as well.
5. Hair Thinning
Unlike human beings, dogs don’t go bald from chemotherapy. At most, for some dog breeds, all they’ll experience is severe hair fall or thinning of their hair. You’ll notice this when you’ll suddenly have to sweep more dog fur around the house than usual.
It’s only for those dog breeds with hair that doesn’t grow continually, which could get affected by chemotherapy. Otherwise, they still get to keep their mane.
While most dogs don’t go bald, you might be able to see some changes in their skin color, particularly their paws. This has to do with some of the agents or chemicals in chemotherapy medication, which can have this kind of effect on dogs’ skin and paws.
6. Diarrhea
Diarrhea that your dog might experience here is also of a lesser problem than it would be for human beings. This has to do with the very fact that dogs are given a smaller dose of their chemotherapy drug. So, for as long as your dog isn’t severely dehydrated, you can spare them a trip to the vet for now, and give them some time to recuperate first at home.
The key here is to observe the energy levels of your dog. If you feel that they’re dangerously weak than they usually are, then that’s the time that you should call for a veterinarian. Remember that severe diarrhea can also lead to death. Also, call for a vet when you see traces of blood on their stool.
If you wish to treat your dog’s diarrhea at home, here are some of the best pointers for you to abide by:
- Add white rice or sweet potato to your pet’s food so you can bulk up the stool or harden it.
- Avoid any other dog treats, for now, so you can minimize irritation on your dog.
- Do not try to give your dog with conventional diarrhea medicine prescribed to human beings since these could contain aspirin.
- Keep water available for your dog all the time, unless they’ve been vomiting.
- Don’t change anything right now with your dog’s diet, unless it’s with the permission of your veterinarian. This is for you to supplement your dog’s chemotherapy with more natural alternatives, such as CBD oil, which is proven to be very effective for this purpose. To ensure that you’re still within the recommended dose of your dog, it has to be administered with the advice and help of a medical professional.
7. Fever
Dogs can have a fever, too. So, as your dog begins their chemotherapy treatment, it would be wise to ask your vet what temperature is still considered normal and what could be a sign of trouble. If you don’t have a pet-only thermometer at home, now’s also a good time for you to have one.
If your dog’s temperature is still within what your vet will label as manageable, then you can also treat this fever at home. But, if it gets too high, go to the vet ASAP. That way, you can avoid any further possible complications, such as seizures.
8. Increased Hunger, Thirst, Or Urination
Another side effect of chemotherapy in dogs is a combination of increased hunger, thirst, and/or urination. This is evident if you notice that your dog’s water bowl is getting emptied more frequently, and if more urine is also spread across your home than it is normal.
These aren’t very common if your dog is solely given only a chemotherapy drug. But, if your pet has been prescribed with any other medication to go along with chemotherapy, then it’s normal for you to notice these changes in your dog.
These are generally onsets of the following drugs:
- Lasix: This is a diuretic drug that will cause your dog to produce more urine. Hence, your dog will also drink more water than usual. Dogs will be given this medication alongside their chemotherapy drugs if they also have a bladder infection.
- Prednisone: This is a type of steroid that’s generally used in conjunction with chemotherapy. Its side effect also includes excess production of urine.
Remember, however, that while your dog will exhibit signs of hunger. If you’ve just fed them, then there’s no need for you to feed your dogs any more food than usual. Else, your dog can also get overweight, which will only make the treatment even more difficult.
Conclusion
For dogs, the general dose of the chemotherapy drug that’s given to them will always be smaller than that administered to human beings. But, this still doesn’t spare them from any possible side effects.
If this is a road that you’ll have to trod on, for now, the good news is that there are natural alternatives, like CBD oil, that can help you better combat its side effects. You don’t have to administer too many synthetic drugs on your dog, doing so can only do more harm than good. Chemotherapy isn’t a death sentence for your dog, particularly with the healing magic that CBD oil can bring.
