Welcome Bailey and Ashley,

You have come to the best place possible for support, advise, and encouragement. First, let us tell you how sorry we are to hear of Bailey's diagnosis. I know how devastated I was when I heard that Cherry, my essentially eleven year old Standard Poodle companion, was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma. For us, there really never was any choice regarding the treatment. An amputation, which removes the cause of the pain, followed by aggressive chemotherapy would provide Cherry with the greatest chance for a return to the quality of life that had defined her previous eleven years. When I say aggressive, I mean aggressive in that the first treatment was hours after the amputation. We have had many ups and downs, and while many have had an easier time, many have had a harder time. Our local vet, who is also a family friend, told us that two others were diagnosed with Osteosarcoma but either could not or would not aggressively treat it like we did. Both of them were gone within months while we are more than eight and a half months post amputation and doing extremely great.

The estimated life expectancy most often quoted with even this type of agressive treatment is a year. However, that is just a generic average. Jerry, who was the inspiration for this web site, lived two years before they let him go in the Greater Yellowstone Area. This morning I replyed to a posting celebrating their seventh month ampuversary. (You will have to get used to our coin words like pawrent.) There is Nova, a great dane, and Trouble, a pitbull, who celebrate their ampuversary just days before and after us respectively. While we all still have down days, there are many more great days that we can celebrate. For us, it was less about the quantitiy of days but more about the quality of those days. However, we are getting both. I will never be ready to let go of Cherry but will find the courage when necessary. There are many Blogs regarding these journeys and I have kept a journal of Cherry's journey with photos at http://home.com.....ryjourney/

Above all, you know Bailey better than anyone and know that you will make the best decission possibe for Bailey. With paws crossed, and sending the best positive thoughts possible, we look forward to hearing of Bailey's journey and helping wherever possible.

Bob & Cherry

Glad you found Tripawds.com!  It's been a lifesaver for me!!

Yoda's limp took about two months to diagnose, his regular vet thought it was tendonitis, then a calcification, then tendonitis again and she was focused on his shoulder, when it was really in his foreleg.  Then when they did find the cancer, first one vet told me that Yoda probably only had two months (without treatment, but she also gave me the impression that treatment wouldn't be worth trying) and then the next told me another patient she'd had made it 4 months (I think this was again, without treatment, though she didn't specify and I didn't ask), and only the second vet even mentioned amputation as she went through what the specialists might suggest at the vet school, where they would refer us if I wanted (I sure did!), and what she told me about it was: "...amputation is a very painful procedure and Yoda is already in a lot of pain."  This was very confusing for someone who had already seen Jerry on PBS!  So I made myself keep an open mind until I saw the oncologist and she confirmed what I expected, that amputation was the best way to relieve Yoda's pain and give him the best quality of life as he continues, with or without fighting the cancer with chemo or whatever.

Yoda has been doing awesome over all.  He's had his two month ampuversary and his chest x-rays were clear this past Thursday.  He had no perceptible side effects to his first two chemos, except for an eye allergy that they think may have been brought on by something in conjunction with his chemo, but that's been easily treated with an ointment.  He had vomiting after his third chemo, but some anti-nausea pills cleared that up no problem

Results vary, of course, both with chemo and amputation, so it's never and easy choice, but for what it's worth, this is how it has been for Yoda.   You may notice my recent post today, that Yoda's oncologist was a little concerned today that Yoda looks like he's favoring his back right leg.  Hopefully it's nothing, but hypothetically if it's another tumor and Yoda takes a downward turn after just these two months, a variation on what Seanne had to say about Wrigley, amputation was still the best choice for Yoda's quality of life.  AFter his recovery from his amputation (which took a little over 3 weeks), he has been back to the park several times and played with other dogs, he wants to take long walks, he's playing ball again, and he visited his best dog buddy in Minnesota and did lots of wrestling together.  He can do everything he did before, he just takes more rests and water breaks, and lately he's taking breaks a lot less on our walks.  So just this past month would have been worth the amputation.

One other thing...where are you located?  We have people here pretty much all over the US, in England, Canada, and Australia.  Hopefully we can recommend specialists who live in or near your area.

Welcome to a wonderful web site  group that no one wants to belong to.  I am sorry for what you are going through with Bailey.  We have all been there and know how hard this is for you.  I am sure that you will make the best decision for Bailey.  When we first found out Emily was sick I coud hardly breath.  It is so scary.  Emily is only five but not as young as Bailey.  I think it doesn't matter what age our dogs are they are our babies.  At first we were against amputation.  We thought it would be too hard on Emily but when we realized without amputation she would be in continual danger of her bone breaking time and time again we knew amputation was the only answer for us.  We also made the decision to have chemo and Emily is enrolled in a drug study as well.  She is not on K9 immunity because of the drug study.  We have been blessed that as things go Emily is doing very well.  Yes, there have been hard days (then I run back to this site and ask everyone's advice).  I would without a doubt do the amputation again.  Good luck with your decision.  Where are you located?  I know everyone would love to give you a recommendation for a specialist.

Debra

Hi Ashley - Welcome to our family - as everyone as said, you will find mountains of support and lots of love and understanding and hopefully answers to many of the questions you will struggle with. Most important - you have to listen to YOUR heart...YOUR gut and BAILEY. You are your Bailey's bigget advocate and cheerleader. I cannot stand it when I hear that a vet is so negative and pessimistic...true, that they have to give you facts, statistics and most likely the worst case scenario, but at the same time they can also be supportive and helpful in getting you answers as quickly as possible so you can make your decisions...AND tell you what other OS survivors are trying and succeeding with EVEN IF THERE IS NO SCIENTIFIC evidence yet. Ugh!

Zeus is a golden too...10 years old when diagnosed and he is now 16 months post amputation with no evidence of cancer anywhere. We, too, had a limp for a few months before diagnosis and we amputated within a week of receiving that heart stopping, stomach sickening, dreadful news of bone cancer. Remember that only a biopsy will determine OS...Zeus' leg was biopsied after amputation and it confirmed OS. You may not even be dealing with OS, but possibly a less aggressive form of bone cancer. How can that vet be such gloom and doom when he/she doesn't even know what you're dealing with exactly? Unless I've missed something in the posts...?

We did chemo (4 treatments of carboplatin 3 weeks apart) and then we did 2 treatments of pamidrinite (bone strengthening treatment) each a month apart. Our oncologist said that there was NO SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE that the pamidrinite would help keep the cancer at bay, but all her patients that had the treatment survived much longer than those that didn't have it. That sold me. Zeus' supplements are very simple - dasuquin for joint support and 6,000mg of fish oil with omega 3's. That's it. I always want to try different things to "help", but my onocologist said she doesn't want to change a thing because obviously something is working well! Each dog is different and you'll try things here and there and figure out what is going to work for Bailey...and you.

KEEP THE FAITH...live in the moment as best as you can...stay pawsitive that you will BEAT THIS EVIL disease...and then turn the rest over to your higher power. Life will unfold the way it is supposed to and the important thing is to cherish the moment and have no regrets. Lean on us...we will be here for you every paw step of the way.

Good luck tomorrow - please keep us posted.

xoox

Love and hugs,

Heather and Zeus