Cancer Vaccine

welcome to food for thought. i’m colleenpatrick-goudreau from compassionate cooks. i founded compassionate cooks to empower peopleto make informed food choices and to debunk myths about vegetarianism and animal rights.you can learn more about who we are and what we do by visiting www.compassionatecooks.com.hi everyone. it’s been wonderful to hear from so many of you. thank you so much foryour feedback and questions and for sharing your stories with me. i really do apologizeto those i haven’t responded to yet; please don’t think i’ve forgotten. also, beforei forget, i’m offering a special price for my cooking dvd. it’s normally $20, but i’moffering a $15 special that i’d love you to take advantage of. there’s lots of goodinformation on there and will give you basic

skills, tools, and resources for making delicious,nutritious food. just go to www.compassionatecooks.com. thank you to all of the sponsors of the podcast;i’m very excited to share today’s sponsor with you: today’s sponsor is vegancats.com– whose website is you guessed it www.vegancats.com. vegancats.com is vegan-owned and operatedsince 1999 and are the product distributors of the finest vegan foods, natural supplements,and environmentally friendly products for your companion animals. i'm very gratefulfor their sponsorship, and i encourage you to check out their website, which they’realso changing and updating – so sign up for their newsletter to be notified.there are many sponsorship levels, which you can check out at www.compassionatecooks.comand click on support our podcast. if you’d

like to contact me, you can do so at podcast@compassionatecooks.comor at my myspace page, which is just compassionate cook.it’s obviously fitting for vegancats.com to sponsor today’s podcast, since today’stopic is one which many of you have written to me about. many people feel concerned aboutthe best diet for their dogs and cats, particularly once they become vegan or vegetarian and startto question the ethics of supporting the slaughter industry by feeding their dogs and cats meat.i know it’s a dilemma for many of us, and i have just one piece of advice: adopt a bunny.lol. they’ll eat lots of produce and carrots and lettuce, and you can share all your wonderfullynutritious plant foods with them, and you don’t have to worry about any of these things.ok – so that was easy. nice and short. thanks

for listening. ☺ i’m kidding.seriously, before i continue, i do want to make something very clear. i am not a veterinarian.i am just giving you my opinion – not medical advice, though i am telling you what i knowbased on research by veterinarians. i just want to make that clear. second, all of thisis just my opinion, which is why i assume many of you listen – to hear what i think.and i’m sure some of you may disagree with me. that’s fine. that’s your opinion – i’mnot presenting doctrine here. it’s just what i think based on my research, my experience,and my own contemplation about these issues. ok? so, here’s the scoop. dogs do very wellon a vegetarian diet – and when i say vegetarian,

i mean vegan. most dogs thrive on a plant-baseddiet. and i say “most dogs” because there may some issues with allergens; some vegetariandog foods may contain allergens such as corn or wheat, so it’s just a matter of findingthe right food if that issue arises. but in general, dogs do great and any vet who tellsyou otherwise is misinformed. i’ve heard from some people who were actually surprisedthat their vet recommended a vegetarian diet for their dogs; that’s great. find a vetwho will support your decision and stick with him or her, and explore the information together.if your dog is eating meat, i would transition him or her slowly, by incorporating the vegetarianfood into his or diet little by little. but there really isn’t much else to say. thereare many brands of vegetarian dog food, some

of which are sold at vegancats.com, and manyare even in your larger and smaller local pet supply stores.cats, on the other hand, are a different story. unlike humans or dogs, they are strict carnivoresand have very high protein requirements. they do not require plant products in their diet,though they do tend to consume some when they eat the stomach contents of their prey. however,this doesn’t apply to my cat simon. so, just so you know – i have two cats: simonand schuster. simon is funny and spunky and manipulative and social and demanding andfickle and gorgeous and long and sleek and skinny and full of energy with a great senseof humor. he also loves vegetables – loves them. whatever i’m eating, he wants, especiallyif it’s chick peas or quinoa or broccoli

or asparagus or fava beans or kale or cornor brussels sprouts. i kid you not. the other day he started eating my salad –carrots,crisp lettuce, celery – vinegar and all. he’s a nutty nut bar. the salad did havenutritional yeast on it, so i’m sure they helped mask the vinegar taste, but still.schuster, his brother – they were the only two in the litter – just the two of them,and they’re still very much in love. they groom each other all the time, cuddle intoa ball to sleep, and are just inseparable. schuster is the opposite of simon – as oppositeas you can get. he’s gentle and sweet and mellow and quiet and obedient and round andpaunchy and adorable and trustworthy and predictable and never gets into trouble. if there’strouble somewhere, we know who to look for,

and let’s just say it’s not schuster.and, as much as i hate it, i feed them meat. i know there will be people who disagree withme, but i feel as comfortable as one can in this crazy world of ours based on some closecalls and years of contemplation. while there are many anecdotal tales of cats thrivingon vegetarian and vegan foods, let’s just say it makes me nervous based on my own experience.i’d also like to see more long-term studies of vegetarian cats. i, like i advise othersto do “never say never,” so perhaps if i adopted other cats in the future, my opinionwould change, but i advise people to make this decision on a case by case basis. i fed my cats a 100% vegetarian diet awhileago, and i’ll never do so again – not

with these guys. i’m not saying this wasa direct cause and effect situation, but schuster developed addison’s disease, which his incredibly,incredibly rare in cats. our vet had the hardest time diagnosing him, because it’s just sorarely seen in cats. i was doing everything that was recommended, and around that time,he developed this disease just out of the blue. (addison’s is when your adrenal glandsdon’t work, so you don’t make adrenaline. schuster will be on prednisone the rest of his life.) again, i’m just sayingthis was definitely caused by the lack of meat in his diet, but this was my experience,and as much as i hate supporting the meat industry, i’m not going to put my cats’lives at risk, especially when i couldn’t

put enough nutritional yeast on schuster’sfood to get him to take his meds, and he will die without his medication.one of the potential problems that we do know about regarding feeding cats a 100% vegetariandiet is the risk of what’s called feline urologic syndrome or feline urinary tractdisease. male cats are more prone to this than females and it occurs when crystals formin the bladder and are unable to be passed through the urethra. it’s more common inmales because their urethras are more narrow than that of females, and i’ve witnessedcats passing these crystals (these stones) and it’s not a pretty sight. it’s fatalif it’s not caught, because infection can form and basically back up into the cat andkill them. in an emergency situation, a cat

can be catheterized, which is quite an ordealin itself. a 100% vegetarian diet – even using the commercial cat food that’s supplementedwith taurine and other essential nutrients – often means that their urine is more alkalinethan acidic, which can lead to the crystals forming. both my cats are prone to this – theyboth developed it years ago when i decided to foster a kitten i had fallen in love withat the shelter i was volunteering at. the problem is i didn’t ask simon and schusterif this was okay. anyway – their little bodies rebelled, and they both got blocked.i know now that it happens to simon (it’s happened several times since to him – butnever again to schuster) if he eats dry food or is under severe stress, but this is somethingto know if you’re considering feeding your

cats a 100% vegetarian diet.i do think there can be a compromise solution, and i really like the suggestions at www.vegancats.com.they suggest you supplement their meat with vegetarian food to at least cut down on theamount of meat you feed them. they do differentiate between what’s good for males vs. femalesbecause of the former’s propensity for urinary tract disease, but personally, i would dono more than a quarter of their food with veggie food, and that’s just my opinion.but see what they have to say. i think it’s sound advice. so you can try 25% vegetarianfood, and 75% meat – that will definitely cut down on the amount of meat you have tobuy. in terms of the food i buy for them, as isaid, they eat only canned, and my first criterion

for their food is that it not contain by-products.if there are by-products in your cat (or dog) food, then i recommend switching brands, especiallyif by-products appear first in the ingredients list. a lot of the cheaper, lower-grade, genericbrands and other brands use a lot of by-products (such as u.s. department of agriculture grade4-d meat, which stands for dead, dying, disabled and diseased animals, as well as filler (usuallyin the form of corn which is difficult for many cats to ingest). so, i do recommend a“higher quality” brand. i’m not saying it’s higher quality from the standpointof the animal who was killed; i’m saying higher quality from the standpoint of whati’m feeding my cats. many commercial foods are contaminated byantibiotics, hormones, pesticides, heavy metals,

and other potentially hazardous materials.so, i do highly recommend checking out some brands that have the least amount of crapin them – and considering organic if you can afford that. there are many people whoalso make their own food, and if you want to purchase whole chickens, etc. and makeyour own food, you can do that, too. dr. pitcairn’s guide to dogs and cats has some recipes fordoing so. the other issue for me is buying food that’sfrom a company that doesn’t use animals as research tools. peta (people for the ethicaltreatment of animals) is totally on top of this, and i recommend visiting their websitewww.iamscruelty.com – where you can find out about iams (owned by procter and gamble) and the horrific conditions ofthe animals in the iams-supported laboratories

– as well as a list of companies that sellfood not tested on animals. it also indicates which of those brands offers vegan dog food,so it’s a great resource to check out. btw, i’ve mentioned nutritional yeast already;i sprinkle nutritional yeast on their food at every meal. they love it. i’ve actuallybusted schuster more than once on the counter reaching his paw into the jar and scoopingout the nutritional yeast and eating it. did i say that schuster never gets into trouble?lol – well, it’s actually really cute. he doesn’t get in trouble for that. anyway,if you need to get meds into your dog or cat, try sprinkling nutritional yeast on theirfood, and save some for your own popcorn. ☺ i never eat my popcorn without it.there are some other issues related to dogs

and cats i’d like to talk about. it’ssomething that has been very difficult for me to talk about, but i want my experienceto help others so it’s really necessary that i share some information with you. there is a canceroustumor that’s seen in dogs but most frequently in cats; it’s called fibrosarcoma. it’sso commonly attributed to vaccinations that it’s also called vaccine-associated sarcoma.in 2001, i brought simon and schuster in for a check-up to a vet that we had been usingfor a little while. this vet said we needed vaccinate simon and schuster, and i was reallysurprised. they’re indoor cats and hadn’t had vaccinations for years, because the riskof them contracting anything was so low. she said “nope – gotta vaccinate.” i said,well you know i don’t really feel comfortable;

i know there are risks involved, but i’mnot clear about what they are. can you tell me?” she mumbled, “but the risk of a mousecoming into the house and them getting rabies” blah blah blah she started spouting off prettymuch while she was taking my cats in the back to be vaccinated. this is the moment for whichi feel so much guilt. it’s the moment i wish i could return to. if i could turn back,i would have walked out that door with my cats and found a new vet. i didn’t knowany better. i trusted her. i trusted her expertise – she was the vet. but i really didn’thave time to process what she was saying. before i knew it, they were back with me,and we went home. not long after that – a couple months maybe– i was petting simon and i noticed a bump

on his upper hip – pretty much right nearhis spine at the top of his right hip. i know their bodies reeeally well, so i immediatelycalled the vet in a panic and made an appointment. i brought simon in, and the vet felt the lump.she looked up and said “this is fibrosarcoma. it’s caused by vaccination needles. i’mtaking him into the operating room right now.” my heart sank. i was stunned. i really wasstill in shock. i didn’t know what she was talking about. i left hysterically crying,and i got a speeding ticket on the way home. i still think about that day when i’m onthat stretch of road going from berkeley to oakland, which is pretty frequent. i rememberthe exact spot where the cop stopped me. anyway… when we picked him up from the vet, the vetshowed me on his x-ray where the tumor was

– like i said way up high on his hip nearhis spine. i didn’t know at the time what she meant when she said “he struggled somuch when we were trying to vaccinate him; he just made it really difficult to do itlower.” but i know now why she said that. you see, in vaccine associated sarcoma, amalignant tumor forms exactly in the spot where the vaccination was given. these tumorshave been most commonly associated with rabies and feline leukemia virus vaccines, but othervaccines and injected medications have also been implicated. these tumors have becomeso common that vaccine protocols have changed. i’ll tell you what they recommend and whati know so you can avoid going through what we have and so you can pass this informationalong to your vet. they recommend that the

vaccine for feline leukemia be given onlyto kittens and very high-risk cats. the other vaccines, including rabies, they say shouldbe given every three years to adult cats. they also recommend that the vaccination begiven in a location that allows for easy removal should a tumor occur. in other words, theyrecommend vaccinating very low on the limb (as opposed to between the shoulder bladeswhere they used to give them), because if a tumor does occur, they can remove the limbor foot and thus eliminate the chances that the tumor will recur.fibrosarcoma is an aggressive tumor with rapid growth, but it tends not to metastasize. so,if you remove it – along with a very wide margin on all sides, you virtually eliminatethe chances it will recur. on one hand, it’s

good that the cancer doesn’t spread – simonnever knew anything was wrong. he was never, ever sick. on the other hand, people haveeuthanized perfectly healthy cats who had this tumor that caused distress and pressureon vital organs. it’s heart-breaking. the tumor doesn’t metastasize, but it sendsout little tendrils and spreads and grows very rapidly, and if you can remove a widemargin of tendons, etc. – anything it can grab onto – then you have a better chanceat stopping its growth. when i learned all this, i realized that’swhat the vet meant when she said that simon struggled when they gave him the vaccination.she was essentially blaming him for the fact that they gave him the vaccine on his hip– by his spine – as opposed to low down

on his limb. she blamed simon. she calledthe next day after the surgery to confirm it was indeed fibrosarcoma, and all she saidwas “my instinct was correct. it’s fibrosarcoma. you have two choices: you can amputate oryou can radiate. but the odds of survival are slim.” so, you can imagine that by nowi was out of shock. i was enraged. i told her i did have a third option: to find a newvet, which is exactly what i did. and it’s this vet to whom i owe everything.if you’re in oakland, her name is dr. jenny taylor, and her practice is called creaturecomfort on macarthur ave. she’s a holistic vet, which is where i should have gone inthe first place. the tumor returned 2-1/2 months later, and everything i read told mesimon would be dead in a few months – that’s

how quickly this tumor grows. read anythingon it, you will learn that the prognosis is sooo poor for this tumor – especially ifyou can’t remove the limb. (i know that sounds horrific. what a horrible way to treatthis tumor.) dr. taylor and i have spoken a lot about this, and she said she never wouldhave vaccinated these cats. i’m not saying there’s never a time to vaccinate, but theprotocols don’t take into consideration individual needs. my cats are indoor catsand really didn’t need to be vaccinated. so, do talk with your vet about making assessmentson a cat by cat basis – not according to some general protocol. and of course – iwould recommend that you be present if you do vaccinate and make sure they do it verylow on the limb.

so, simon’s tumor came back, and dr. taylorwent back in to remove it. at that time we had already started him on some chinese herbsas well as what is called immpower – a supplement used for humans that is basically made fromjapanese mushrooms. the idea is that these mushrooms increase what are called naturalkiller cells – these are the cells that destroy cancer cells. now, we’ll never knowwhat actually did it, but the tumor stayed away. it stayed away for two and a half years.the odds of it coming back after two surgeries was very high. if it’s removed once and returns, the odds that it will comeback right away are very high. but for 2-1/2 years, it was gone.sadly, though, it returned. the entire time, i kept him on immpower, but it returned 2.5years later. so, we removed it again. and

it returned right away. we were faced witha very difficult decision, and our wonderful vet referred us to the best surgeon in thearea. he did a major assessment and was so dismayed that the tumor was so high up. ifit were just a little lower – just a little – he felt confident that an amputation ofsimon’s entire hip and leg would have taken care of it. but as it was, the tumor was veryhigh. so, he recommended doing a major, major surgery, which consisted of removing a lotof tendons and tissue and ligaments – just as much as he could without compromising hisquality of life. then, after a short healing process, we would do localized radiation for7 weeks – 21 sessions, 3 times a week. we felt had no choice. we had to give it a try.and our odds: 50/50 that it would still come

back.what i haven’t mentioned is that simon’s personality played a huge role in our decisionto do this. immediately following his surgeries, he would bounce around like the maniac heis. he’s so strong. he gives me so strength, and making this decision was a lot easierbecause he’s got so much life in him. he never ceases to amaze me – and everyonewho knows him. so we did the surgery – it was so aggressive. he looked like frankenstein’smonster when he came home. it was the only time in his life he didn’t want schusteraround. but after a couple days, he gave schuster the signal, and i have a photograph of thefirst time he let schuster come over and groom him. schuster’s the best brother anyonecan have. we did the radiation, and he was

great. three times a week, i’d put him inhis carrier and drive him down to the specialists. after awhile, he’d go right into his carrier.they brought him right in, i’d go to a caf㩠for an hour, and i’d pick him up.in just a couple months, it will be two years since the radiation ended. the only effectswere that the fur on that part of his body grew back very thin and a light gray. bothsimon and schuster are tuxedo cats – they have gorgeous black coats, except for whiteon their chests, bellies, and paws. now simon also had white on his hip.so, that’s our story, and it isn’t over yet. the surgeon told us that the worst casescenario was that the tumor would return after 1 year. the fact that we’re almost at twoyears is a very hopeful sign. we will continue

to hope we’ll never see it again. that’sall we can do. i still give him immpower and lots of love.finally, if you don't already have a holistic vet, you can find one by visiting www.ahvma.org.it stands for the american holistic veterinary medical association. if you can’t find aholistic vet, i just hope your vet listens to your concerns and questions. when i hadmentioned to the vet who gave my cat cancer, she very smugly replied “good luck – youcan do what you want, but i doubt it’s going to work.” she was just so horrible. so,do find one who will work with you and be open to alternative methods. it’s true thatthey’re the experts, but that doesn’t mean we have to trust them implicitly. ourinstinct counts for a lot, and i curse the

day i didn’t listen to mine.but i know that all we can do is do the best we can with the information we have. and that’srelated to my feelings about feeding cats a 100% vegetarian diet. based on the informationi have, i’m not confident it’s the right thing for them. as far as dogs, based on theinformation i have, i think it’s the best thing for them. i hope this helps somewhat. i realize it’snot a perfect situation, but this is a pretty imperfect world.thank you again to today’s sponsor vegancats.com – check out their website for your companionfood needs. be well - give your dogs, cats, bunnies – orwhatever critters you share your home with - an extra hug for me. this is colleen withcompassionate cooks. thanks for listening.