Question Details
Feline Oral SCC
by heartland - November 23, 2009
Greetings Dr. Marsden:

In your book, Manual of Natural Vet Med, you highlight a case of a German Shepherd with oral SCC. He was treated with the Hoxsey-like formula. Is this formula safe and appropriate for cats? What dose would you recommend for a 14-yr old MN
DSH 10.8 lb cat with a 1x1 cm sublingual mass presumed to be SCC by oncologist? The only other known health issue is hyperthyroidism which is managed with Methimazole. Thank you in advance for your comments.
Replies
by bannink
November 24, 2009
Hi,

While we are waiting on Steve I can give you a little feedback from my experience with these. Oral SCC in cats is a notoriously difficult disease to treat successfully. Even with chemo and radiation, survival times for non-surgical tumors are seldom over 4 months. I have not had much luck with oral Hoxsey Tincture in these guys because of the alcohol in the extract causing pain when administered as most of these tumors are ulcerated and painful already and the patients are usually not eating great to begin with. You could consider the homeopathic version which is better tolerated but not as good for this aggressive of a tumor, or maybe have the owner put it in capsules and give it that way. Another option would be to warm up some broth or baby food, then add the Hoxsey and letting it sit for about 10 minutes so the alcohol evaporates off -this will help somewhat with the taste. The dose I would use for a 10 pound cat would be 0.4ml once to twice daily. I would start low and work up. Hoxsey can cause some GI upset and Si Miao San can help to minimize that. Si Miao San also happens to be a good choice for a lot of these inflamed oral tumors. I have two cats with oral tumor who are doing relatively well considering the size of the mass. Neither of these have SCC though. Those are tough.
Maybe Steve has some better success stories.

Good luck!

Erin
by naturevet
November 24, 2009
Hi there,

I've had one SCC in a dog that went into remission over about three months, and then remained there for another six, while on Si Miao San and Long Dan Xie Gan Tang. I chose the latter because he had eye involvement, but otherwise, you can combine SMS and Hoxsey. As Erin suggested, the homeopathic version is probably much easier to administer, although it's our sense that it only works about 85% as well as the tincture. You can try diluting the tincture, or even gently steaming the alcohol off in the bottom of a hot saucepan, but you'll still have the bitterness of the Hoxsey (and Si Miao San) to get past. If the owner can give small gel caps, then you're all set at that point. Or you can try both mixed in a little milk (enough for the fat in the milk to blunt the bitter taste). Tuna juice sometimes also works. Liquid SMS from Kan Herbs may be less bitter and more palatable, although you'll have to de-alcoholize that, too.

Those are just some ideas to improve the taste of the herbs for cats.
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