Our Personal Experience with Essiac
With the overwhelming evidence and testimony for its use, we just had to try Essiac. Our first experience was with Cookie, a 6-year-old DEW (dark-eyed white).
Late one night, Diane noticed a mass in Cookie’s abdomen. A midnight exploratory surgery revealed a huge tumor, running up under the ferret’s rib cage, all the way down to press on the bladder. The vet asked if Diane wanted her awakened, or if she should just put her down right there. But Diane wasn’t ready to give up just yet.
She started Cookie on Essiac: 2cc, twice a day. At first, the tumor seemed unchanged; perhaps even getting larger. But then, within a few days, it seemed to begin to shrink. And then it shrank even more.
Within 3 months, the tumor had shrunk to about 1/3 its original size, and seemed to have broken loose from the organs it had in its grasp. Then, sadly, Cookie died.
A necropsy revealed a few interesting facts:
1. Cookie died from a bleeding ulcer; it had nothing to do with the tumor. At the time we weren’t familiar with the early symptoms of this ailment, and didn’t have a good treatment for it.
2. Cookie’s tumor was lymphosarcoma; a normally deadly cancer.
Finally, and perhaps the most startling, was the fact that the tumor had in fact shrunk: It was about 1/3 the size it was three months earlier, and was loose. Had she lived, the tumor could now have been removed safely.
Since then, we’ve used Essiac to treat a number of ferrets with various illnesses. Here’s what we’ve discovered.
1. Essiac seems to have a strong effect on lymphosarcomas. In general, they seem to get larger and firmer at first, and then begin to dissolve.
2. We’ve had great success in treating ear tumors: Two ferrets’ tumors have disappeared completely using Essiac.
3. Essiac seems to be helpful in treating nonspecific ailments that defy diagnosis. Ferrets on Essiac seem more alert, more active, and more playful.
4. Essiac was instrumental in treating a ferret with Megaesophagus: a rare ailment where the esophagus swells shut, preventing food from reaching the stomach. The ferret, Moose, is doing great, and still receives Essiac three or four times a week.
5. Essiac hasn’t been as successful with inoperable adrenal tumors, but it may have slowed their rate of growth, and made the ferret more comfortable in the time it had left.
6. We’ve also had good success using Essiac to treat mast cell tumors, by applying it topically to the tumor. Within a week the tumor falls off.
7. Essiac won’t help with insulinomas; in fact, it actually lowers the blood sugar, so it’s more successful for treating the opposite condition: diabetes.
Using Essiac for Ferrets
Essiac comes in liquid form; the best way we’ve found to use it is to add it to a soup, consisting of half A/D, half water. For others who wouldn’t eat the A/D, we’ve used a little Gerber’s chicken or turkey baby food (Gerber’s doesn’t add onions to their food, so the ferrets seem to like it).
More recently, we started making a soup out of their regular food. We boil water, then add their food and let it sit for a few hours. Then we use a mixer to whip the concoction into a smooth, soupy consistency, about the thickness of tomato soup.
We put a small amount of the soup in a custard cup, and then warm it slightly in the microwave oven. The ferrets seem to go nuts over it.
The amount of Essiac depends on the size of the ferret and whether you’re trying to treat an illness, or as a supplement to maintain good health. Click here to download our dosage recommendations.
Is Essiac a Miracle Cure?
At this point, all we can say is “maybe.” But our results so far have been encouraging enough for us to continue using it, and recommending it to others.
If you’ve had any experiences with Essiac in ferrets, we’d love to hear from you. If you have a ferret you think might benefit from it, all we can say is try it, and good luck.
