I have a newly 12 year old yellow lab. She is full of life and she is the love of my life. She is a working dog, comes to work with me every day. She has a form of cancer on her leg that is growing very fast. I am faced with the situation of amputation or euthanasia as whatever is growing on her leg, in the muscle, is extremely painful for her. I am on here to find out success stories. I am worried with her age but she is such a young 12 year old. I am not even sure what kind of cancer until tomorrow. But i do not have time when i do find out to investigate. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. I have talked to dakota dog and she has been very helpful. pray for maggie.

you have our prayers here at Coops pack, I think you have already answered a lot od the questions for yourself, if she is a young 12 you must believe that she has life to live yet, you are concerned how that life will be if she loses the leg maybe, the success rate for dogs of all ages and sizes is so great here , it sounds like you dont have lots of time to decide. I encourage you to look into that young 12 year olds eyes and let her help you. Its obvious you love her , no one here can say without a doubt that if you go with amputation that she will thrive, but I think many of us here think the odds are with her if you have the amputation. It will relieve her of the pain , and it will buy you time to explore your options more clearly. Good luck and please keep us posted. We will be praying.

Coopsdad 

Hi Laurie! It was good to chat with you earlier. Keep in mind, as we discussed, that Maggie's previous embolism and semi-recovery very well may impact her recovery from an amputation. I told you we are all success stories here, and that's very true. But since Maggie has had a neurological "event" and still has some residual issues from it, she may not get the mobility back the way many other dogs here do. That's why I was asking if you were up for a cart if she cannot get back to her old self.

If you do the amputation to give Maggie a chance at quality for her remaining time, I think it's only fair to say that the embolism may slow her recovery some. That does not mean she doesn't deserve the chance; only you know about that. And yeah, it sucks that you don't have the time to get a second opinion. Unfortunately, Maggie's pain precludes that.

Whatever you decide is right for you and Maggie. Because you are already concerned that you are considering this for your own needs and not hers, that means you are a great guardian for Maggie. You are putting her needs first, and you can't go wrong doing that.

Shari and Dakota

Just been going through the same horrible situation you describe, so I understand exactly what you're feeling, all the little bargains with fate  … my heart goes out to you Laurie. 

Laurie, there is pain relief available for her till then. If you've not left the vet, tell him you want her on the type of stuff she'd be on after the amputation. If you're home, call him and go back for it. If they can provide relief after sawing through a bone, they can do it now.

Maggie may be out of it for a bit, but pain free.

And then–my opinion only–load her up and take her to someone who can help you with her TODAY. Whatever is going to happen to her, don't make her wait.

Shari

My Maggie also had soft tissue sarcoma on her left rear knee.   She was 9 1/2 years old at the time.  She is now 11 1/2 years old.  If anything I've learned so far on this site, is that a lot of dogs don't follow the "expiration" date suspected for their type of cancer.  Some dogs aren't so fortunate, however.  You have to follow your heart and your dog in your decisions…

Good luck to you and YOUR Maggie!  She sounds like a very young 12 year old.

Tracy, Maggie's Mom

good luck with Maggie's surgery!

Spencer also had a soft tissue sarcoma – they called it a fibrosarcoma and it was grade 3.  We moved really fast on the amputation (noticed the mass on 8/17, had the biopsy done on 8/18, results came in the evening of 8/22 and the amputation was done on 8/24); but the tumor had just grown so fast that we knew we had to move as quickly as possible.  We are now going back and doing a lot of the things that I think most people do before hand – getting the ultrasound to make sure the spleen and liver are clean (x-rays so far have shown the lungs to be clean), talking to an oncologist…  

But I know the amputation was the right thing for us.  Spencer is much younger than Maggie – only 4.5; but he is a big dog (85 lbs before amputation, down to 75 as of today) and I knew that could cause some problems; but it really hasn't.  He has recovered wonderfully!  I don't have a single regret for doing it.

I hope that even with Maggie's previous medical issues that she pulls though and has as easy of a recovery as Spencer has.