Question Details
Mast Cell Tumor
by
Steve:

Good morning. I have a question for you re:Mast cell tumors. I have a case of a 16 year old Shih Tzu cross that one of my colleagues asked me to assess for herbal treatment. It has a MCT, diagnosed by fine needle biopsy, growing on the bottom of it's right front foot just behind and attached to the foot pad. It appears rather large to excise and achieve margins. So the owner would like to palliate only. I was thinking of using Xue Fu Zhu Yu Tang with Eh Zhu and San Leng. Is there anything topical you can suggest. In your last herbal course you spoke of DMSO. Would that be a consideration in this case?
Replies
by naturevet
March 11, 2009
Hi Ted,

That's fine to get started, including the DMSO. Some Calgary vets have been mixing the tincture into the DMSO and letting it penetrate directly into the tumor, in addition to the oral dose.

If the tumor grows despite therapy, you can experiment with preparations like Neoplasene, a US product, which will require wound management, since they are a form of chemosurgery. Hopefully it won't come to that, but for discrete inoperable tumors, they work well.

Good luck,

Steve
by
March 11, 2009
Steve:

Am I to understand that when you talk about "tincture" you are talking about mixing the herb into some DMSO then applying topically? Is there any rule of thumb re: how much herb to how much DMSO? Could one use Synotic?
by naturevet
March 11, 2009
Yes, that's right. Although we've only tried it for liquid preparations - hence the use of the term tincture. But it should work at least a little for powders, much like carriers can move suspensions of pills in through the ears. I don't use Synotic a lot in general, but if it is essentially DMSO, it should work.
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