Our irish red and white setter Riley has just had a soft tissue sarcoma removed from his front elbow. While the tumor was large, it was difficult to get all of the tissue because the vet said she couldn't get additional margins, and that these types of tumors often send out tendrils that move between muscle and other tissue. Now the oncologist says that a surgeon should remove more tissue in a second surgery next week rather than do an amputation or have radiation, but our own vet who removed the tumor disagrees and says that we should have the leg amputated. We dont' know how to decide on this, because the two seem to disagree on which option is best. Our dog is almost 11, very active and up til now, very healthy. I am reassured to see that quality of life continues welll for dogs with front leg amputations. It is a hard thing to face, and I see that others have faced it successfully. Thanks for the support. Have any of you faced this decision? We want him to have as long a life as possible as comfortably as possible. In addition, Irish red and whites like to be up high on beds and couches…not on the floor. What can we do to accomodate that? Any thoughts?

I tend to agree with Comet on this one.  I would most definitely go for a tie breaker.  It may seem kind of crazy to go for a third opinion, but this is the kind of thing where there aren't do overs.  There are people on here that have tried to spare the leg and it just didn't work out.  Whatever you decide, just make sure it's the best thing for your pup.

Leslie

Thanks for all the quick responses. We are going for an opinion from the surgeon on Monday, and now the vet is saying that we should go with whatever the oncologist suggests, as she has more experience. I am saddened to hear that usually the cancer returns. This is Low Stage II, and it is not painful, as it isn't osteo, but soft tissue. He has experienced no pain with this other than right after the surgery. Hopefully the surgeon can suggest what is right, as I found a surgeon who is most involved with soft tissue sarcomas.

I just want Riley to live as long as possible, with as much joy and joie de vivre as possible, since that is his personality. Any of you in the chicago area? I would love to meet a person with a three legged dog who has successfully made the transition at the tender senior age of almost 11. I hope that Riley can live the full term that large breed dogs enjoy. He is such a loving and happy dog….

My dog, Sophie, a golden retriever, was 12 and a half when she had her front left leg and shoulder amputated due to a soft tissue sarcoma that was diagnosed initially in April 2009. She never showed any pain with this tumor – the only reason I found it was that she was going in to the vet to have some cysts removed from her back, and I had to mark them all for the vet to find in the morning. I found a golf ball sized lump under her left front armpit.

Sophie did quite well – for a senior golden retriever – becoming Tripawd. It is much harder on the humans. Yes, there are definitely adjustments.

You have expressed the same concerns that all of us had expressed when faced with this decision. 

My two cents is…. be sure – in your heart – that you are making the best decision you can – for your dog and for you – with the most information you can get. Make your decision – and don't look back.

Thanks for everyone's responses. All this support is so helpful and needed. Well, after much discussion between surgeon, vet and oncologist, the decision is to go with surgery to excise any other tumor material, and follow with radiation for one month to get microscopic cancer. so far, they feel that this type of tumor, being Low Stage II, doesn't likely grow aggressively, and won't metasticize to other areas, which have been checked.  It was a hard decision, but they think that this will be a good choice for an active, large breed, and that there is always the possibility down the line of amputation (which would be hard to follow this, given the pricey nature of all this! Radiation is more than "an arm and a leg." So there we are, hopefully for the long term, and not just the moment. Thanks for all, and hoping that we have chosen the best option. beth

Hey good luck!  We faced a similar situation with a chondrosarcoma (which is a tumor of the cartilage and although it is often discussed along with OS because it often occurs in the limbs, it is actually correctly categorized as a soft tissue tumor and thus behaves more like a sarcoma  – we had the same discussion with the vets re the tendrils of the tumor, etc.)  It was also low grade, so radiation was an option because of lower chance of metastasis.

The difference for us was that the tumor was basically at the knee, and 3 vets agreed that the only surgical option was amputation — none of them thought there was a chance of getting out enough of the tumor twith enough of a margin to make another surgery at all useful.  But, lilke you, I definitely wanted a clear answer on that.

If you are interested you can look up chondrosarcoma and Ajax and find all my posts.  I looked fairly in depth into radiation, given the low chance of mets.  However, this type of tumor was categorized as "locally invasive" and they basically told us in 6 months it will come back locally, and since it is on the knee joint, it will cause pain.

After much drama, we opted for amputation because when push came to shove all the vets really agreed that was the best idea.  Our pup is an 8 year old Lab and in good shape, so we didn't have a lot of concern about his ability to bounce back.

We're doing great, but in your shoes I may very well have opted for the radiation.  Hang in there and don't drive yourself crazy thinking there is a perfect answer that you are somehow missing.  

there are some posts on this site about radiation as well.