Tips to Keep Your Pet Healthy and Actions You Can Take to Prevent Cancer Furever

Cancer is a word no one ever wants to hear, especially when it comes to your pet’s health. Pet cancer can be just darn bad luck, but some cancers have a known cause. While we can’t change the risk of getting cancer,preventative care and early detection can save lives! Although many types of cancer in dogs are genetically influenced and unpreventable, regular vet check-ups and at-home exams are the key to early diagnosis. There are also several lifestyle changes you can make for your pet to ensure they’re living life to the healthiest.

Neutering Your Pet is Recommended
There’s widespread evidence that spaying or neutering your pet can greatly reduce the risk of developing certain cancers. Spaying your female dog before her first heat significantly decreases her risk of breast cancer. Spaying removes the ovaries and uterus, and the infrequent diagnosis of ovarian and uterine cancer in dogs is a direct result of this frequently performed surgery. Same goes for a male dog, where it similarly decreases the risk of testicular cancer, although this is not a highly malignant form of cancer in dogs. 

Avoid long-term exposure to the sun 

As in people, light skin pigmentation combined with lots of time outside, can increase the risk for some cancers. Reduce the amount of time spent out in the sun. Make sure your pet can get out of the sun and avoid prolonged exposure to sunlight when it is strongest, around midday.

Avoid Secondhand Smoke

Quit smoking not for yourself but also for your furry companions! Your doctor would want you to quit smoking to decrease your risk of lung, throat and bladder cancer but did you know smoking can cause cancer in your pet? Dogs living with a smoker have a greater risk of developing nasal cancer, and cats exposed to secondhand smoke have a greater risk of developing lymphoma and oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Provide Them With A Chemical-Free Environment

​​​​​​​Chemicals pose very serious health risks, not only to humans but also dogs. Your dog should live in an environment that does not have chemicals that cause/increase the risk of cancer..
Lawn treatments are another serious threat to your dog’s health. Herbicides, pesticides, dangerous household cleaners and other chemicals can get into the bloodstream and increase the chances of cancer development. When your dog is playing, always ensure that he or she does not walk or play in such areas. If you suspect that your dog walked in such an area, wash paws immediately with chemical-free shampoo and water.

Oral Hygiene is Important

It is important to ensure that your dog’s teeth are always clean. This will drastically reduce the risk of oral cancers. Dogs whose teeth are brushed regularly are less likely to develop oral cancer compared to those that are not brushed. Brushing your dog’s teeth isn’t always fun, but it is necessary if you want your dog to grow healthy.

Provide Them with an Anti-Inflammatory Diet

Avoid feeding your dog anything that promotes inflammation. When you’re feeding your dog, avoid food that contains a high percentage of carbohydrates. Try not to give them processed grains, starchy vegetables, potatoes, fruits with fructose among others. All pet food contains some starch. It is good to buy foods that do not contain a lot of starch. Always buy a balanced diet for your dog. Pet grain-free food is good because it has a small percentage of starch compared to other types of food.

Avoid feeding your dog with food with high concentration of omega 6 fatty acids or food too low in omega 3 fatty acids. Omega 6 fatty acids promote/increase inflammation, but omega 3 fatty acids reverse the effect of omega 6. You can also feed them Omega 3 supplements such as Francodex Omega-3 to reduce heart disease, allergy-induced skin irritation and address kidney disease symptoms.

As pet parents, we want our puppies and dogs to be happy and healthy, so a diagnosis of cancer can be devastating but we can still do our part to make sure we provide them our furry friends the best so that they can be around as long as possible.     

Tags: Tips