Hi,

MySweetTed's story is a little different.  His name was Ted; He was a rescue that we were told was Lab/Shar Pei mix (definitely Lab and definitely Shar Pei...and maybe something else mixed in there); he was ~8 1/2 years old when diagnosed; and he was about 73 lbs. Oh, and the most joyful bundle of JOY that I've ever met (just had to throw that in there).

He was diagnosed in March of 2016 with Osteosarcoma in his Ulna.  We tried to save the leg with an ulnectomy. ~ 3 months later he had soft tissue sarcoma in the leg. We amputated in early August.  He recovered with no complications and bounced, and bounced, and bounced until mid November.  We discovered Mets in his lungs in early November (although I suspected them earlier) and he died on 30 November.  He had no chemo.  From DIAGNOSIS to when he crossed the bridge was 8 very good months.

I would be very interested to see what the demographics are on breeds with osteosarcoma on this site.

w 

Murphy is a retriever mix and was 7 years old when he had his surgery.  He was diagnosed with histiocytic sarcoma, and the lymph node they removed at the time of surgery was positive, which meant that is had probably already spread.  His prognosis with chemo was 12-18 months "if we were lucky."  He received 6 doses of CCNU.  Murphy will be 11 next month, and it has been 3 years 8 months since his surgery.  His last chest x-ray was in September, and his lungs were still clear.  He still happily chases squirrels around the yard and loves to lay in the snow or sun.

Donna

Heffalump was a TWOPawd ( very rare indeed) who was a middle aged Great PYR ( a rescue so no definite age) who was diagnosed with OSA and who had 8 very happy months being himself before the OSA spread to his spleen ( another rarity). Even after becoming a TWOPawd, I never regretted our decision. He was a very happy boy! Now his successor, the WonderPyr CharlieBear, may be faced with an amp and radiation and chemo and, and, and... each of my boys is different but I would always make the decision to get rid of pain rather than not if I could. Jerry reminded me of that the other day!

For those into demographics, I am doing the EMBARK DNA test with Gator.  It is more expensive then the standard "breed identifier" tests, and takes a long time for results (two months).  But it is affiliated with Cornell University and if you opt in, they are building a doggie DNA database to try to track genetic diseases.  Might be hard to do if you are already fighting cancer - lots of cute chirpy messages and some simple surveys to fill out, but building this database seems an important scientific step to me.  You also get your dog's full genetic breakdown, so can work with your vet on preventative care.

Milo limped on July 2.  He was almost 10.  An Australian Labradoodle.  Neutered at 8 weeks.  (I've heard that is also a correlator, early neutering.)

He had very thorough pre-amp testing to get him qualified for a clinical trial for osteosarcoma.  Most dogs don't qualify, but he still had clear lungs, spleen, and liver 2 days before amputation.  Lymph nodes clear at amputation.  A certain telltale liver enzyme was nice and low.  Everything looked bright!

Full pathology of the leg after amputation revealed he had Giant Cell osteosarcoma.  Very rare.  He had a mitotic index of "40 something".   That means 40+% of his cancer cells were dividing at a given time.  His cells were doubling every other day.  Good mitotic index numbers are single digit.  Over 10 is aggressive.  The scale ends at 21+.

Milo bounced back after the amputation, including an awesome trip to Baltimore where he "brought the joy" to strangers as he bounced through city streets at midnight, and met kids at an outdoor cafe in the morning.  It all still seemed bright.

But it wasn't.  Late September his breathing was labored, and he crossed on Oct 6, 10 weeks post-amputation.

His grandfather the incredible stud muffin just passed at age 13 this spring.  We also met his grandmother's littermate who is 13 and going strong.  He had decent genetics.  We now have a new baby who shares a few genetic lines with him.