Jodi&Joe - dog bone cancer...

mikeandmonica

I copied/pasted this from a previous post that I wrote you on Wednesday:

I just read your post about your puppy getting bone cancer. I just wanted to let you know that I know EXACTLY how you are feeling. Our golden got bone cancer and we eventually had to put him down. He started limping a little, and we thought that it was just because he was too old to have run around the yard with a puppy. Then his "wrist" started to swell and it got to be a bump. We brought him in for testing, and turns out it was bone cancer. Because he was still a happy dog and loving life, and the xrays didn't show any of it in his lungs yet, we opted for surgery. We were worried about the 3 legs thing (it was one of his front legs that needed to be amputated), but after his biopsy it was too painful for him to walk/run on that foot, so he always ran around with it up in the air anyway. We found out it was bone cancer in May and had his leg amputated in early June. We opted to have them remove the entire leg (up to his shoulder) to make sure they got it all. We went to pick him up the next day after surgery, and he was already up/walking around. The pain pills made him drowsy, but otherwise he was his normal self. We tried to use a towel to support him walking, but it freaked him out so he was just walking on his own. It was absolutely gross to see his incision (it was a huge y shaped thing), and he kept trying to get at his bandages, so we got him some t-shirts to cover it up. It was cute, actually. After the incision healed, he was just like normal - running around the yard, having no trouble with steps, etc. It made it much easier for us realizing that he was happy and didn't mind three legs. He made it almost a year after the surgery. It was just before Memorial Day of the following year that we realized that he was having issues. He was really slow to get up from laying down, and he didn't want to go down the steps anymore. We went to the cabin, and while we were there he went downhill really fast. He didn't want to get up off the ground, he cried when we took him outside, etc. So we brought him in to the emergency vet, and it turns out that the cancer had spread to his lungs and his spine (which is why it hurt for him to walk). We had to make the super difficult decision to put him down right then - his quality of life was no longer good. I wish that we would have had our other dog there to say goodbye because she was SUPER confused about where he went, and cried the rest of the weekend. I still cry thinking about it. But we were in the room petting him when they had to put him down, and his tail wagged up until the point where he was gone. Good luck with your decisions. I know that no decision is ever easy, and no matter what happens, you are going to wonder "what if we would have tried?". We look at it as a great decision because we got almost an entire year with him and all those memories.

There are several groups that are online to talk about this stuff - this is one of the most helpful: https://www.bonecancerdogs.org/main/document/44 - here is the yahoo group: https://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/bonecancerdogs/ They are an extremely supportive group and happy to provide any information that they can. If you do join, feel free to tell them that Monica (who had a golden named Shadow) referred you. It has been a year and a half since I've been there, but they are fantastic people.

Looking at that reminded me - we also put Shadow on Artemisinin. We did 1 pill two times a day. If you decide to go that route, let me know. We still have a bunch of it that I'd be happy to send you! My thoughts are with you during this difficult time, and please feel free to ask me any questions!

Jodi&Joe

THANK YOU so much for all of the info!

Joe refuses to entertain amputation so we won't be going that route.  At this point, we are just following Coach's lead and when it gets to be too much for him, we will put him down.  I'm hoping the vet is wrong and he actually lives a lot longer (as long as he isn't in pain) but somehow, I am not very hopeful for that! 

mikeandmonica

We skipped chemo since it was so super expensive.  It has hard to deal with, I totally understand.  If you ever need to talk about it with someone who has gone through it, please let me know!