Ralphie had a checkup yesterday and he is going GREAT. His tongue looks perfectly normal. You can't see a trace of the cancer.

After removing many things from his diet/environment, I think I finally traced his allergies to the clumping cat litter. I tried 2 different brands, but he had the same reaction to both (Swheat, Tidy Cats). His licking/pulling hair stopped, but my vet gave him some prednisilone 5mg to alleviate any lingering symptoms.

He has had some arthritis for the past 3 years, and he was prescribed Adequan (for horses, without preservatives, $122 OUCH!) twice a week for that starting yesterday. She says that when cats are in pain they don't eat, so we're hoping this will make him eat some more. He needs 1/4 25mg atenolol twice a day, which curbs his appetite. I give him 1/12 Mirtazapine 25mg every 2 - 3 days for appetite.

I forgot to mention in my last post that he had a Depo shot ~Jan 10 2012 for his allergies. Another SCC owner said she uses Depo shots to reduce inflammation with her SCC babies.

Ralphie 2 years ago

Ralphie today

Ralphie has taken a turn for the worse. After nearly 5 months in remission, the tumor has returned under his tongue. 2 days after noticing the tumor, he was having problems breathing. He sounded like he was snoring, but he was awake and sitting on 4 paws. It was so loud I couldn't even hear his heartrate with a stethoscope. He was restless and aggitated (how he acts when he's not feeling well). The breathing issue came on all at once Friday night. My vet was out of town, but by Sunday night he was acting normal and his breathing was near normal.

MON MORNING VET - The tongue tumor grew a little. No other tumors were seen in his mouth or throat. She did an xray of his throat and that revealed a possible tumor(s) just below the visible part of his throat looking in his mouth--a lot of abnormal tissue growth in that area. There were also some unusual spots in his chest at the edge of the xray.

Since Thursday I have been giving him 25 mg of Arteminison. Starting today (Monday) I am giving him 25 in the morning and 25 at night. I give him 1mg mirtazapine every 48 hours to keep up his appetite. He has been on 1/2 Immunity and 1/2 C-cap once a day but I am doubling that. I am also putting him back on Immunity 2, 5 and Up, 1 of each, twice a day. Basically throwing everything at the cancer except for the kitchen sink. He has been feeling good all day, and spent about 12 hours laying in the sun and on the porch tonight.

He doesn't seem to be in any pain at the moment. Fingers crossed, will keep everyone updated on his progress.

My 17 y/o Ralphie lost the battle with this nasty disease 3 days ago. He was diagnosed in December 2011, had surgery to debulk the tumor in Dec 2011 and Jan 2012, was in remission for over 5 months, but the cancer eventually returned, and this time the herbals only slowed the growth of the tumor. I kept him on pain medicine and fed him canned food, temptations cat treats, cream, whole milk, twinkies, cookies, potato chips (make sure they don't have onions or garlic)--basically anything fatty he was interested in. He was doing great, going outside, exploring, lost 1.5 pounds over 6 weeks, but otherwise a healthy, youthful-looking cat. Then one day the pain became so bad that even 4x dose of pain medicine Onsior, tramadol and aspirin wouldn't relieve his pain. So I made the difficult, but loving decision to end his suffering. It was the hardest decision I had to make, but I knew it was best for him. He was always spoiled, but he received extra treats, attention, love, petting, and basically anything he wanted for the past 2 months.

The arteminison didn't seem to reduce the size of the tumor. It did upset his stomach. I highly recommend 1/2 c-cap and 1/2 immugen two-three times a day (once a day at the bare minimum). I tried a new herbal called PetLife for the past 2 weeks. The company claims it has shrunk SCC tumors in animals. The only downside is that it takes several months to work--and it is very expensive ($135 - $150 for a 6 month bottle). If anyone wants some I will send it to you for free if you pay for postage.

R.I.P. Ralphie -- We will always love you! 

Dear Dan,

Thank you for your kind words about me and Ralphie. Another owner told me artemisinin kept his cat cancer free for 9 years, so I really hope it helps your little man.

If you are interested in trying the leftover PetLife herbal, I will send you some for free if you pay for postage. I also have some capsules and a measurement syringe. Postage is $5-$10 for priority mail (2-3 days) and $15-$30 for express mail (next day by 3pm to most areas). Just leave a message here with your contact info and I will get back to you.

The news hit me really hard in December, but I knew what to expect, and towards the end I was at peace with letting him go. His favorite activity was going outside, and bathing in the hot Tennessee sun or laying in the cool shade in the flower garden. My one wish was for him to survive long enough for one last summer--and it was granted! It was 103 for 2 days in June, and he spent the whole day outside--despite daddy checking on him every half an hour, worried that he would be too hot! 

He liked to sit on the porch at night for hours. In 3 years he never left the yard, but after his Adequan injections, he must have felt much better, and started venturing down the road at night and prowling up to 3 houses away. So that's when the collar and chain went on--which he didn't mind--as long as he was allowed to go outside! He was able to visit my parents & sisters in August, and revisit his old house/yard, so that was nice too.

Best Regards,

Brad

Hi Brad,

Thanks so much for sharing your story.  I read a couple of your reviews on Amazon as I was researching C-Caps as part of the treatment against my 14-year-old Buddy's tumor.  I was wondering how you were doing, then ran across this forum.

You did so much for Ralphie, and your care gave him (and you) some wonderful times in his last months.  Yours and Dawn's stories have inspired me to do whatever I can do to support Buddy, starting with not accepting the vet's conclusion that the best thing to do is just give him some pills to help regulate the blood pressure and breathing.  Perhaps the tumor itself can be dealt with through diet, herbal treatments and supplements.

Wish you all the best!

Hi

This is an old thread but I saw "Anonymous" posted that their cat was diagnosed with oral SCC a couple of months ago. My 12-year-old cat was diagnosed with the same in the end of July, had surgery early August and has now been on Onsior for almost two months. So far so good. I also got prescription for homeopathic remedies yesterday but am sort of confused now as to what is the best course of action - to continue on ONsior or discontinue it (am afraid of side effects) and just do the homeopathic remedies...I would love to hear how "Anonymous'" kitty is doing and what kind of treatment regimen you have chosen, if you still visit this forum. Best of luck with the kitty  - I know SCC is not a diagnosis you'd want for your cat. :(

Dear Anonymous,

I am so sorry to hear about your little darling. I hope she is doing well at the time of this post.

There isn't much research or clinical studies of Artemisinin, yet those that I have heard use it swear by it. One man has used Artemisinin alone to keep SCC at bay for over 7 years. Sadly I don't know if it will or will not help your cat.

The only side effect I noticed was a loss of appetite due to sour stomach. It's been a while, but I don't recall my research turning up liver problems as a side effect. But you may want to read more to see if that is true. You could also try Artemisinin and have your vet monitor the kidney and liver with blood tests.

THAT IS VERY TRUE...DO NOT USE Artemisinin IF THE CAT IS GETTING OR GOING TO RECEIVE RADIATION THERAPY. If you are going the radiation route you could always just use the herbals. I used Artemisinin for a very short time and in Ralphie's case anyways, I do not think it contributed to his remission. The herbs seemed to be the force behind that.

Best of luck to you and your cat. I hope she pulls through and my thoughts are with you in this tough time.

Best Regards,

Brad

Anonymous wrote:

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Hi Everyone,

A very touching forum. I just learned of my cats SCC about a week ago. It's under her tongue, they say there's nothing that can be done. One vet is willing to look into holistic remedies for me which is very kind of him.

Anyone know how long the remedies take to react? My kitty is 17 years old, soon to be 18.

 

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I'm so sorry to hear you are dealing with SCC. Your kitty has lived a long, and am sure, spoiled life. I hope you have had some success battling the tumor.

I lost Ralphie just after he turned 17 to this horrible disease. I can't tell you how long or how well this remedy would take to shrink an existing tumor. Ralphie had most of the tumor removed and then the herbals stopped/slowed regrowth. The only non-surgical case, herbal only treatment I heard of was using Artemisinin. I forget which post it was in, but a man described his success for 7+ years with Artemisinin.

My 16 year old kitty, Mandi, has oral squamous cell carcinoma that was found in Oct. 2013 when she was 15 years old. Although I began with the less aggressive treatment option recommended by the Vet, I ended that in April 2014 and began treating her myself since conventional medicine wasn't proving to be very effective.  I have been through a lot trying to conquer this thing and although I've not as of yet cured my kitty, I have slowed down the progression of the cancer. Over-all, she has been more stable using alternative methods of treatment than by using conventional methods and this has resulted in a better quality of life for the both of us. 

What I've primarily used:  The molasses/baking soda cancer cure, CoQ10, MSM, Echinacea/Goldenseal, Olive Leaf Extract, Triple Mushroom Blend (Reishi, Shiitaki, Maitaki), Artemisinin, Plant Enzymes for digestion, Red Clover Blossoms, Burdock Root, Slippery Elm Bark, Vitamin C, chelated Iron (to give before Artemisinin), and Polyvisol Vitamin Drops for infants. Occasionally I give her type1/type 3 collagen blend, pharmaceutical grade to hopefully encourage healing. 

The Molasses Baking Soda Cancer Cure is what I started with and it did seem to help as after two weeks of this, the ulceration in her mouth was gone.  However, it came back but the original cancer never became massive in size again like it did between rounds of meds from the vet. This was an improvement. I soon added Artemisinin, but found my kitty didn't tolerate this well as it depressed her appetite and gave her diarrhea. So, I backed off from using Artemisinin and in its place I added in the Triple Mushroom Blend along various other supplements that I rotated and used along with the molasses/baking soda. She seemed to do quite well for several months with this, but on Oct. 1, 2014 (one year after the cancer was found)  I took her to the vet and had an abscess treated that was cancer related. I was told then that the end was very near. Then, to make matters worse, that same month the cancer spread to the other side of her mouth and it was so massive that she could not eat on her own.  This seemingly happened very, very fast.  I had to feed her liquids with a syringe. Her appetite was poor, she was drooling again, she stayed in her liter box all day and she got even thinner than she already was.  Things looked bad, really bad. Out of desperation, I began a search to find a way to make Artemisinin work for her as I was running out of options.  Two important things about cancer stood out -  (1) cancer has a higher metabolic rate at night and (2) cancer cells have a higher iron content than do normal cells.  I used this info to create new battle strategy. I decided to give the Artemisinin primarily late at night to take advantage of the higher metabolic rate of cancer cells at that time and I also decided to give my kitty chelated iron six hours before I gave the Artemisinin so I could possibly increase the iron content of the cancer cells to better attract the Artemsinin. Hopefully, this battle plan would enhance the effectiveness of the Artemisinin enough so that I could give her less of it and avoid or significantly reduce its side effects. I continued with some of her other supplements during the day and added Olive Leaf Extract to my agenda.  I also decided to give her plant based digestive enzymes given at meal time to try to prevent the diarrhea. It worked!  After four days of Artemisinin, she could eat on her own again, although it was with difficulty. Continued use of this treatment plan further shrank the cancer, but it hasn't completely destroyed it.   Considering that the one year survival rate for this cancer is extremely poor, this is remarkable. It's now been one year and four months since the cancer was found. In spite of the cancer having spread to the other side of her mouth, she can now eat well on her own, the drooling has stopped, she no longer sleeps in her liter box all day, she's not as thin as she was, and her appetite has increased to the point that she's meowing "dinners please!!" .  However, the cancer is still there and all I can say at this time is that I've slowed down it's progression but I'm still striving for a cure.  

Artemisinin seems to have been an essential part of my treatment for my kitty.  What I've not been able to find out is what is the best kind/brand to use?  I got mine from Swanson Vitamins and it is standardized, but I've also heard that Holley Pharmaceuticals offers a very good product. Does anyone know if one is better than the other?