Hi everyone! My guy Max (aka boo boo cito) is 10yo rottie golden husky mix. He was dx with osteosarcoma 4d ago and has had generalized anxiety for the last 10mos at night. He exhibits panting/wide eyes/pacing (very similar to thunderstorm fearful behavior), pawing, and what we affectionately call "lifting weights" at night by moving chairs, sliding or knocking over stools, pawing power cords out of the walls, and pulling things off shelves. We've had our routine vet exams, bw (all normal), anti-anxiety and sedating and anti-seizure meds with no luck...plus neurologist referral exam. This behavior has continued at night only,  usu 3-5 nights a week, from 1am-5am ish.

With this new dx of osteosarcoma, Max is a good candidate for amputation, the lesion is relatively small and his bw this week continues to be normal with normal urinalysis and clean chest xray. After all that bg... my question for those of you on the forum is: can dogs with generalized anxiety and pawing behavior cope with forelimb amputation?

We are very concerned that our guy will struggle and not manage well on the post-op meds. He was on 1.5mg alprazolam 2x daily, 350mg trazodone at night, and 300mg gabapentin at night, plus a test few weeks on keppra, none of which alleviated his nighttime anxiety. Our vet does not feel it's likely that the pain of his osteosarcoma tumor would have been causing this odd behavior for 10mos. Many thanks for sharing any other anxiety prone pets experience with amputation.