12-02-2021, 12:07 AM
Due to our nationally higher exposure rate to harmful UV radiation in Hawaii, we experience a much higher rate of skin cancers. So much so, it's not considered as dire a diagnosis in Hawaii vs. other states across the USA. It's just a common thing out here.
Our dog developed basal cell carcinoma a little over a year ago. The vet wanted to schedule him for surgery that consisted of him going under anesthesia. Our dog doesn't like anesthesia. He will tremble substantially if we revisit a vet that has put him under with anesthesia. Not sure why that is, maybe he's the type that can still feel all the pain and remember everything when under. For whatever the reason, we have a moral obligation to avoid anesthesia for him, if possible.
After his original diagnosis we debated on how to approach the surgery, our biggest concern was the anesthesia aspect. Long story short, he developed large bulbous scab that prompted us to see the vet to begin with and those bulbous scabs would on occasion seperate from the lesion and bleed a while. Typically we used Neosporin on the lesion to stave off infection till it scabbed back over. After a few months of this and the lesion was growing larger, we were out of Neosporin after an incident his scab seperated. We happened to have a tube of Mupirocin on hand and decided to use it instead, just a human prescription based antibiotic, also safe for dogs.
After a couple weeks use of Mupirocin, the legion shrunk down to 1/10th of the size it had grown to with no bulbous scab developing. We gave it week rest period of use and the legion remained lightly (normal) scabbed over but didn't produce the bulbous scab and didn't get any larger. Then we continued with another couple weeks use, this time the entire legion healed up and the raised mole it was on, shrunk up to around half of its amassed size. Gave it another weeks rest and applied it for another couple weeks and the mole had all but vanished, leaving a wrinkled skin behind from being stretched out by the giant mole it had ammased to. The reason for the rest periods between application periods is to avoid possible fungal infection.
This wasn't something that was supposed to happen, not with a topical antibiotic. It shouldn't have healed and it had been this way for months, not healing, only getting larger. I decided to look up Mupirocin use with skin cancers and found it had been recently spit out of a drug repurposing computer program as possibly being effective against cancers. They ran preliminary tests and found it indeed was effective against skin cancer and study suggested further indepth testing was warranted.
So, now our dog is at a stage where he can get a local anesthetic for a minor skin surgery of a current benign stage basal cell, instead of the condition he was in, before inadvertently fighting the cancer back.
As anecdotal as the above is, still felt it worth sharing for people who might be diagnosed with skin cancer, you might mention Mupirocin to your doctor, cite the below study and see what they think about using it as an interim treatment while waiting to get a surgery scheduled. It may prove very beneficial.
These are the photos of the lesion without the bulbous scab on it, before being inadvertently battled by Mupirocin. The last photo is after Mupirocin treatment.
https://www.future-science.com/doi/10.41...er%20cells.
Our dog developed basal cell carcinoma a little over a year ago. The vet wanted to schedule him for surgery that consisted of him going under anesthesia. Our dog doesn't like anesthesia. He will tremble substantially if we revisit a vet that has put him under with anesthesia. Not sure why that is, maybe he's the type that can still feel all the pain and remember everything when under. For whatever the reason, we have a moral obligation to avoid anesthesia for him, if possible.
After his original diagnosis we debated on how to approach the surgery, our biggest concern was the anesthesia aspect. Long story short, he developed large bulbous scab that prompted us to see the vet to begin with and those bulbous scabs would on occasion seperate from the lesion and bleed a while. Typically we used Neosporin on the lesion to stave off infection till it scabbed back over. After a few months of this and the lesion was growing larger, we were out of Neosporin after an incident his scab seperated. We happened to have a tube of Mupirocin on hand and decided to use it instead, just a human prescription based antibiotic, also safe for dogs.
After a couple weeks use of Mupirocin, the legion shrunk down to 1/10th of the size it had grown to with no bulbous scab developing. We gave it week rest period of use and the legion remained lightly (normal) scabbed over but didn't produce the bulbous scab and didn't get any larger. Then we continued with another couple weeks use, this time the entire legion healed up and the raised mole it was on, shrunk up to around half of its amassed size. Gave it another weeks rest and applied it for another couple weeks and the mole had all but vanished, leaving a wrinkled skin behind from being stretched out by the giant mole it had ammased to. The reason for the rest periods between application periods is to avoid possible fungal infection.
This wasn't something that was supposed to happen, not with a topical antibiotic. It shouldn't have healed and it had been this way for months, not healing, only getting larger. I decided to look up Mupirocin use with skin cancers and found it had been recently spit out of a drug repurposing computer program as possibly being effective against cancers. They ran preliminary tests and found it indeed was effective against skin cancer and study suggested further indepth testing was warranted.
So, now our dog is at a stage where he can get a local anesthetic for a minor skin surgery of a current benign stage basal cell, instead of the condition he was in, before inadvertently fighting the cancer back.
As anecdotal as the above is, still felt it worth sharing for people who might be diagnosed with skin cancer, you might mention Mupirocin to your doctor, cite the below study and see what they think about using it as an interim treatment while waiting to get a surgery scheduled. It may prove very beneficial.
These are the photos of the lesion without the bulbous scab on it, before being inadvertently battled by Mupirocin. The last photo is after Mupirocin treatment.
https://www.future-science.com/doi/10.41...er%20cells.
