Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Hi everyone, although I'm sad that I need to be here, I am ever so grateful for finding this site. Our beautiful female black lab, Kylie just received a confirmed diagnosis (by x ray) of bone cancer in her left rear leg. 
We've had quite the journey just since winter. She was first injured running around with her neighbour lab boyfriend Rylie (yes "Kylie & Rylie" how cute is that??) and as they were chasing each other he came at her from the side & knocked her down, she came limping back to us. That was our first recollection of any injury & it was winter (Dec-Jan maybe?) well it rectified itself on its own but then she would do other things & reinjure it again causing her to limp a few days. This went on intermittently for a while til Feb when she jumped off a chair to run to the window to see the mailman & landed on a large piece of cardboard that she was chewing up earlier. She slipped, went down and when she got up she held her same rear paw right up tight to her body & would not put it down! Luckily my hubby works from home & was there to see it, so he rushed her to the Vet to be checked, they thought it was likely a partially torn cruiciate ligament, then later said it was adductor tendonopathy, we had x rays done at that time, they were suspicious of bone cancer so sent to some specialists for another look. More than one ruled out the cancer & we sighed in relief. We happily proceeded to focus on the leg & spent over $500 in "rehab therapy" at our Vet. This included laser therapy, massage and chiropractic treatments. She began metacam liquid pain meds once/day & seemed to improve over time. She had less therapy & only used meds "as needed" They were hoping it would heal on its own. Flash forward to this month, Aug, 6 months later. She was lame consistently for a couple weeks & saw the chiropractor who suspected she tore it further, possibly her gastcocnemius (calf) but saw Vet after too who didn't mention that. She began limping & not bearing weight again. Vet thought she should improve with meds, rest & therapy & was suspicious when she wasn't. She agreed there was something really wrong, so we had more x rays done, no real change seen with the leg. Now she's on Tramadol as well as the metacam. Then this week they did chest x rays, trying to rule out cancer for sure. Chest x rays looked clear! We hoped we were back to just the leg again. Vet sent chest x rays & all the others to a Veterinary Radiologist, paid $130 for her results, which confirmed 85% chance osteosarcoma - left femur. Vet gave us stats on survival such as "weeks to months" if we do no treatment at all, just palliative care like just pain management
, or surgery to amputate the leg then chemo, still only giving her 6-18 mos. Vet said it is good its not spread anywhere else yet.
My husband and I are devastated, like all of you were. We could not have children, we tried for several years & Kylie has been with us through all the stress & tears! She is our entire world! She truly is the sweetest, smartest best dog ever. We cannot imagine life without her, yet we also don't like seeing her currently hobbling around in pain either. So we have our consult tomorrow to see an oncologist to discuss next steps. We definitely hope she's a candidate for amputation. The stories I have read on here so far are so inspiring & touching that I cannot wait for my little tripawd to start living her life again. Thanks for reading my novel. Sorry I'm new, there was lots to tell! I am hoping for any advice, suggestions, positive thoughts to throw my way! Or advice for tomorrows appt. I'm in Ontario Canada by the way 🙂
Thank you in advance, Kylie's Mom xo
Welcome to the best club nopawdy ever wants to join, and best wishes for Kylie! Your future forum posts will not require approval.
Others will surely chime in soon. In the meantime, start here for helpful info to get the most of the many resources this community has to offer.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Hello and welcome, your future posts will not have to wait for approval.
I'm sorry cancer has brought you here, but this is the best place to be for information and support.
Jerry's Required Reading List is a good place to find information on what to expect with amputation, recovery and treatment. You can also download one or more of the ebooks that also have lots of info from this site.
It is all so overwhelming when you get the cancer diagnosis- it's hard to keep your head on straight! I'm glad you have had a chance to read some stories here and see how well pups get around on three.
And those stats the vet gives you- well they are base on lots of other dogs that are not Kylie! We don't really know how much time we will get, but one thing this journey teaches you is to appreciate every minute of every day- we call it being more dog. Live in the present and don't worry about what might be coming. It's definitely an acquired skill, I'm still practicing.
My pug Maggie had mast cell cancer and was given 6 to 9 months after her amputation. She lived almost 4 years and did not pass from mast cell! My local friend Cemil is a gigantic Anatolian Shepard front amp who is 7 YEARS past his surgery for OSA! No, it doesn't always happen, but sometimes it does- some lucky pups blow the stats out of the water. You are taking away Kylie's pain and giving her a chance at lots more quality, pain free time with you.
Good luck with your consult and let us know how it goes.
Karen and the Spirit Pug Girls
Tri-pug Maggie survived a 4.5 year mast cell cancer battle only to be lost to oral melanoma.
1999 to 2010
Hi Kylie and Kylie's Mom,
Ugh, cancer, hate it, but with the support of the wonderful people on this site, you will get through this. Remember each dog is different so if one piece of advice doesn't work the next one just might. My Baby Bandit was 10.5 when he was diagnosed. He was an amputation candidate and has adapted wonderfully. He also had a back leg removed. The first ten days are the hardest. After that everyday you see a little more of the happy baby, or at least that was our experience. Consistent medicine giving and lots of tender loving care make everything easier. Our thoughts and prayers are with you! Deb and Bandit
Hi Kylie's mom ~
One of the things that's probably top of your mind is the timeline since it all started - that it cuts down on things. Well, that could be true, but it might not. Many dogs here were first misdiagnosed. Our Murphy started limping in October 1012. We took him to the vet who found no injury, but we have 3 dogs, so you know. He prescribed anti-inflammatory & pain medications and sent us to a radiology center for x-rays. As soon as he took the medications, Murphy was able to walk on his leg. The doctor at the radiology center only took Murphy back for about 5 minutes for his x-rays and told me that everything looked fine, so we went home. When his prescriptions ran out, Murphy's pain came back. but worse - this was around Thanksgiving. I took him back to our vet, along with the CD of his x-rays. Our vet thought he saw something near the elbow, but it was blurry. On exam, there was no swelling, so he refilled the prescriptions and said if this wasn't enough, then we would get a referral to an orthopedic specialist. In January, that's what happened, but it took a few weeks to get in. Murphy's pain was bad - he yelped, and refused to eat. But on medications he could walk. In February 2013, we drove out to Michigan State University. The fellow there put Murphy through a rigorous exam then did x-rays, then when he reviewed them with me, the floor fell out from under me. Cancer? What? They did a biopsy that day in case in was a fungal or bacterial infection. We waited a few weeks for the results, but they were inconclusive (which is common). In March, his follow-up x-rays showed that the tumor was growing - eating away at the bone. In April 2013 - more than 5 months after it all started, Murphy had his amputation. The lymph node they removed was positive, so it had spread. His final diagnosis was histiocytic sarcoma, which is highly aggressive, and usually found in the liver or spleen, less commonly found in the bone. His prognosis was 12-18 months, if we were lucky. He had 6 doses of chemo. He finished chemo 3 years ago and is still doing very well. So in his case, the length of time between onset of symptoms & surgery did not shorten his life.
Donna
Donna, Glenn & Murphy
Murphy had his right front leg amputated due to histiocytic sarcoma at 7 years old. He survived 4 years, 2 months & 1 week, only to be taken by hemangiosarcoma at 11 1/2 years 6/12/17
Read about Murphy's Life on Three Legs
It's hard not to think about time when facing these decisions - how much time is "enough" to justify putting Kylie though the amputation, or through chemo, especially since these are not inexpensive treatments. For me, I knew that I had made the right decision somewhere in the first week when Otis hopped over to the sun to lay down with this sister Tess. Being in the sun is pure dog bliss, and I am glad he had it. And every month that goes by, it is even more "worth it." Otis' leg had broken, so our choice was amputate or put to sleep. And for us, it wasn't the day for sleep. Sounds like she will be a candidate for amputation (not a vet, but she really sounds like an otherwise healthy dog, and if the lungs are clear, you are likely good to go). The first two weeks are hard, but most dogs perk up around day 10 when the staples come out. Otis surprised me with how fast he got back to his normal doggy things - chasing cats and squirrels, short walks, stealing food off the counters, etc.
Otis - 106 pound lab/Dane mix, lost his right front leg to osteosarcoma on Febuary 9, 2016. Four rounds of carboplatin completed in April, 2016. Lung mets August 25, 2016. Said goodbye too soon on September 4, 2016. Lost his adopted sister, Tess, suddenly on October 9, 2016. likely due to hemangiosarcoma.
Wherever they are, they are together.
Thank you everyone for your replies! Omg What a day. We hit construction traffic twice during the 2hr drive to the appt today making us late & almost missing it! Kylie was antsy & stressed the entire ride. Barely sat or laid down. 🙁 Just whimpered & panted heavily.
The oncologist examined her and went over her file from my Vet. He too is not certain of what's going on with her, other than it's definitely a cancerous tumour on her femur & the leg has to go. Apparently she has cells that eat away at the bone AND grow the bone. But she also has a lot of lymph fluid at her elbow joint, so he is not sure if it's just osteosarcoma, something else or more than one type. He says the fact this problem started so long ago, leads him to question osteosarcoma because it's so aggressive it should have shown up by now on chest X Ray if it really started 6 mos ago. Not to mention she would have one month to live! So here we are 6 mos later & her bone is deteriorated to sheds & no tumor even microscopically on the chest X Ray. It was all very interesting! So bottom line the leg needs to go asap to alleviate her pain & then they will have a pathologist test it & that will help guide our treatment plan. Kinda backwards but it's how it has to be for our Kylie girl. So they were able to book for surgery for tomorrow morning at 9am. Worst part, after such a stressful day, was leaving her there 🙁 At a place she's never been to, with people she doesn't know and now we won't pick her up until Sunday 🙁
Its much more expensive than we expected though & at one point when they left us to discuss, we talked about all our debt & wondering if we can afford this. Both of us cried & decided we couldn't not do it. She is our everything & we are not ready to say goodbye. Debt will always be there. Kylie will not. Xoxox
We understand completely! We had to drop Murphy off the night before surgery then pick him up the day after surgery - so hard to do! To leave him all alone in that big kennel 
But when I picked him up & he hopped his way out to the car by himself! Oh what joy I felt! I had taken my son with me because I was so unsure of how I was going to manage getting him into the car & the 1.5 hour drive home (I can relate to your long commute!) ... but Murphy just hopped out to the car, pulling on the leash like, "let's get out of here!" lol The next couple of weeks are going to be hard, but you will get through it. And it will be totally worth it, especially when you see that sparkle come back to Kylie's eyes.
Donna
Donna, Glenn & Murphy
Murphy had his right front leg amputated due to histiocytic sarcoma at 7 years old. He survived 4 years, 2 months & 1 week, only to be taken by hemangiosarcoma at 11 1/2 years 6/12/17
Read about Murphy's Life on Three Legs
I know it's hard to leave her- but remember how much pain she is in! They usually start fentanyl before the surgery so she will be more comfortable there than at home. And really, it's great they could schedule the surgery so quickly. Get that painful leg gone and get on with life! And keeping her for a couple days is good too, her pain meds should be pretty dialed in when you pick her up.
You do need to find something to do tomorrow to keep you busy- it's hard waiting for that call. Maybe get your house Tripawd ready.
And actually- you are not doing things that backwards- many here opt out of the biopsy, or the biopsy is inconclusive so they end up waiting for the pathology report after surgery.
I'll be looking for an update tomorrow to see how the surgery went.
Karen and the Spirit Pug Girls
Tri-pug Maggie survived a 4.5 year mast cell cancer battle only to be lost to oral melanoma.
1999 to 2010
Kylie does have a very interesting story! I'll keep an eye on the forum to see what the outcome of the pathology. I understand the cost issue too but like you we are not ready to see Bandit go. We have a lot of love left for him. Hang in there
Boy such great people on here, thank you so much for helping put our mind at ease. Nice to hear from people who have been there. The ups and the downs. There's been alot of tears at our house tonight. I will definitely keep you posted. Its amazing how all of this happens so quickly. I was reading on the forums for a couple days and now all of a sudden its us!
Keeping busy is great advice as I will be staring at the clock all day. I told my husband I've decided to go to work. That will keep me busy (plus I have an office door I can shut when I need to shed some tears 😉 They will call us once she's out of surgery & coming out of the anesthesia. That's the next big hurdle that worries me, getting through that. The rehab with our new tripawd will be hard too, but right now I just need to know she's going to make it through OK. They also told us we can call to check on her day/night as its a 24hr/day facility. We've already called once lol Not sure it helped as they said she was anxious & hadn't eaten any of her dinner. They gave her an IV catheter with some pain meds. I suggested some wet food mixed in with the dry. Hopefully she will eat. I need her to stay strong to get through this!!
Chris xo
Hello how is your Kylie faring? I hope she's doing well.
I have a lab, too called Holly who is 12 and has left rear leg tibia osteosarcoma. unfortunately her lung xrays showed nodules of cancer so oncologist was reluctant to proceed with amputation. She has had two rounds of doxorubicin and palmidronate but showed no signs of improvement only bad side effects to the chemo so we've stopped that
Good luck with Kylie, I love labs!
Kylie - we are all thinking of you today! Hopefully she will come home today? First two weeks are hard, but then you should see her getting back to her normal self. Probably just with shorter walks. Reach out to the community for any questions. We are all with you! (Anxious and IV meds are normal. She is, after all, at the vet. And recovering from major surgery.). Most of our dogs fly out the door when we come to get them - they just want to go home!
Holly - so sorry to hear about the mets, but glad you stopped chemo, especially if the side effects were so bad. We completed our chemo, and had mets show up on his second post-chemo scan (6 months post-amp). Maybe the chemo delayed the spread? We are trying Palladia now and I am thinking carefully about the quality v quantity question. Hopefully Holly is happy and active for however long she has left.
Otis is a Lab/Dane mix. Tess is a Lab/some kind of hunting dog mix.
Otis - 106 pound lab/Dane mix, lost his right front leg to osteosarcoma on Febuary 9, 2016. Four rounds of carboplatin completed in April, 2016. Lung mets August 25, 2016. Said goodbye too soon on September 4, 2016. Lost his adopted sister, Tess, suddenly on October 9, 2016. likely due to hemangiosarcoma.
Wherever they are, they are together.
Hi Kylies mum and Otis and tess
hollys not going well pain in her leg is all consuming sadly
shes not showing any signs of respiratory issues
shes got a fentanyl patch, gabapentin and meloxicam which is helping but I'm sadly considering relieving her suffering soon
I did still even today think of amputation again but everything I've read about the spread to lungs tells me it's not a good decision
anyway much love to Otis and Kylie and mums:dads
night from Lisa Hollys mum in Perth Australia
I am so sorry to hear about Holly, but totally understand where you are coming from about the pain. We are all thinking about you both.
Otis - 106 pound lab/Dane mix, lost his right front leg to osteosarcoma on Febuary 9, 2016. Four rounds of carboplatin completed in April, 2016. Lung mets August 25, 2016. Said goodbye too soon on September 4, 2016. Lost his adopted sister, Tess, suddenly on October 9, 2016. likely due to hemangiosarcoma.
Wherever they are, they are together.
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