Hi there,

Dymond was originally diagnosed with a soft tissue sarcoma (STS). It was also suggested to me to amputate, given the re-occurrence rate with this cancer type. I made the difficult decision to amputate her right front leg 10/18/13. Last Friday (11/8/13) marked her three week ampuversary and I'm absolutely amazed at her progress. When the surgeon removed her limb they also removed her lymph node, which revealed disease in her lymph node. I have decided to pursue chemotherapy especially since there is no sign of lung met. 

I understand amputation is a very difficult decision and it is definitely an adjustment, but it will become your new normal. 

I feel like we are On the same rollr coaster! My golden had one surgery to remove a lump that was said to be too small to biopsy on October 9. Oct 14 it came back as fibrosarcoma. Oct 23 I was given clean bill of health by my primary. Oct 26 grape size lump appears at the same site. Oncology visit confirmed regrowth oct 31. The oncologist spoke of a second surgery with possible radiation if need be. I schedule surgery for nov 7. The surgeon was brutally honest and said now due to size , location and nature of the lesion surgery most likely would not cure it alone. And with radiation who knows if that's going to kill all the microscopic cells left behind. He said the only real curative measure would be amputation. Thus we are scheduled for amputation dec 13,2013. Its a front leg. He's a 6 year old golden retriever. His name is rusty Russell. I made a Facebook page to follow his progress.. Listed on facebook as tripawd rusty. Everyone here has been awesome.. Hope u find the encouragement, advise, support, answers you need.. Laney and Rusty Russell

As far as steps, being away from the other dog, how many days to take off.. it really depends on the dog, but I can tell you about my experience and maybe it will help? You're seriously going to be amazed at how well he does

Barret is/was 4, very energetic 25 lb dog.

Surgery was the 11th, came home the 12th of June

We tried to prevent him from using the stairs, but it was pointless. He snuck over or around the barriers right away. It was no use. I lived downstairs with him the first night, but the second night he snuck upstairs before bed so it was back to business as usual.

I could tell he was definitely in pain, but he was still lifting his leg to pee (and falling over when he did it), up and down stairs, jumping on the couch.. We TRIED to limit his activity as much as possible, but a stubborn dog will be a stubborn dog. The hardest part was finding the right combo of pain meds the first week that controlled the pain and phantom limb pain. Ice and heat packs helped too. 

I took 3 days off work, however went back to work after only 2 days off because being around him 24/7 was driving both of us crazy. I think he was sensing my anxiety over his every whimper. It was tough to keep it together for him, but I tried my best. I used a web cam to check in on him throughout the day and went home at lunch to administer pills. 

I have 2 other dogs, they honestly backed off because they could sense he wasn't feeling himself. Keeping him confined was the least of my worries. 

Within a few weeks we weaned off the pain meds and haven't looked back since! 

Hope that was some help!

I know I'm late; but thought I'd share my thoughts.

I'd guess by now that you have made your decision and the surgery is done.  I'd also guess that Jackson is likely up and around by now. 

My dog Spencer was only about 4.5 when he was diagnosed with a fibrosarcoma.  Unfortunately for us, it was extremely aggressive.  Between that and the location, amputation was the only possible first step.  Spencer was over 80 lbs before surgery.  He was down in the range of 78 lbs after surgery and through diet we got him down to about 74, which was a great weight for him.

After about day 4 I had to really work to keep Spencer from doing stairs.  For the first few days I used the sling to take him out the front door and around the house to go to the bathroom rather than have him deal with the deck stairs.  By 2 weeks post op he was handling stairs no problem and ran right up (or down) what ever he encountered.  

Have the doctors told you what grade the cancer is?  Generally fibrosarcoma is not an aggressive cancer and according to our oncologist, if Spencer's had been a grade 1 or 2 it would have been safe to assume that the amputation would have been a curative surgery.  Sadly, Spencer's was a "grade 3", which means very aggressive.  We tried chemo and I like to think that it bought him some more time with us.  

I never once regretting the amputation and now know that if ever faced with it again, it will not bring the tears that the suggestion brought for Spencer.  I can still remember my first post on this board and how just 2 weeks later I was completely sold on it (his amputation was 1 week after my first post - 1 week after we found the lump, I'll give myself another week to have realized that he was still going to be able to get around and not hate me).  In the 6 months that we had him as a tripaw, Spencer still went on hikes with us, climbed stairs and was pretty much just the same, just minus one leg.