Hi!  OK, so this is a shot in the dark here, but is there any talk at all that this could be a metastasis from the toe?  My Jill's cancer was in her toe first, she had her toe amputated and 6 months later (I know that's a much shorter time span than you're dealing with) she developed a lump in that same leg, which turned out to be a metastasis.  Not sure it really matters, but just thought I'd throw in my experience.

Anywhoo.....I really don't think you can base your dogs experience on your vets ONE dog's experience.  I'm actually a little surprised he even does.  Yes, there is a chance amputation followed by chemo might not produce results, but there are many dogs (and cat in our case) that it does get results for.  Many of us have been around now for a bit and we've seen all sorts of results.  There are some dogs on this website that are going on 3, 4, 5 years +.......however, there are some that did amputate and did chemo that did only make it a few months.  We do often say around here it's a bit of a crap shoot.  And yes, that SUCKS.

In our case, Jill did great after amputation and through chemo, but she is a 10 pound kitty, so not sure how much that helps you

Come on over to the chat room if you get a chance, theres usually a few of us in there, particularly at night.

xoxo,

Erica & Jill

We're going to defer to Jerry on that one.  Sally and I can both tell you of our struggles to finally figure it out.  That said, we have finally figured out both Photobucket and YouTube as places where you can post from.  I think if you look in the Technical Support forum, you will see directions for posting pictures.

Kathi and Murphy

Hi Mike.  I just wanted to give my two cents about Nellie and her age.  Every dog is different and that's where you have to look at her eyes and tail.  If she is happy and otherwise healthy (which you say she is), I would consider the amp.  The cancer will be so painful and like Sampson says above it is the difference between living happily (no matter how short or long) and just waiting for the pain/cancer to take over.  The picture of her implies she is one happy go lucky girl!

I can't say much for age - my Sambuca just turned seven. For an english mastiff, he's getting up there, but he's not 13.  But I can offer this:  I was concerned about how he would do with three legs and the toll it would take on his remaining front leg - not because of age, but because of his sheer size.  After the initial recovery he did great.  He went for walks, he played fetch and ran just like before.  He looked a little awkward walking slow because he is so tall, but he was pain free and happy again.  We are dealing with other issues right now, but it's been almost 8 months since his amp and the cancer has slowed him down, but the missing leg didn't one bit.  You may have to start Nellie on supplements for her arthritis and such, but knowing what I know now, I would do it again in a heartbeat.  Sam wasn't ready to go and I wanted to give him every chance he had to stay with us and to be happy.  Nellie seems like she wants to hang around with her dad for a while

Amy