Five days out, and Dixie's recovery from her right rear leg amputation has gone better than I expected.  She never lost her appetite, and the pain meds made her somewhat groggy but it was hardly noticeable.  By Sunday she was hopping along nicely, and by Monday she was moving around the house with ease.  She takes 1-2 stairs, both up and down, at a time with absolutely no help from me.  When I take her out to potty I have to trot alongside her to keep up! I am torn between trying to limit her so she doesn't overdo it vs. encouraging her to continue to improve.  The vet clinic was really surprised at how well she was doing when we came in yesterday to remove her drains.

The hard thing for me right now is that as great as her recovery is going, it's no indication of where we're at in terms of cancer.  I don't even want to type the word.  We are still waiting for lab results so that we know what we're battling. My friends and even my husband always say things that indicate they think the surgery was an attempt at a cure – it's hard for me to explain the reality of the situation to them each time I am asked.  I think my husband gets it now, but he doesn't want to think about it.

I just ordered "The Dog Cancer Survival Guide" by Dr. Dressler with the hope that it will give me some direction as to our next steps. I can't seem to make a decision in regards to her diet – there are soooo many options!  Also – Chicago pawrents – are there any rehab clinics in the area that you recommend?  I live in the SW suburbs but am willing to go anywhere.

Etgayle, thank you -I will look up Cynthia for sure.

I liked the Dr. D. book. As you mention, there is SO much info out there and I think his book does a good job of weeding through all the options and summarizing everything. We are not doing EVERYTHING Dr. D. recommends – but that's another nice thing about his book – he kind of highlights how you can pick and chose the things you want to try. He also mixes the traditional w/ the holistic, which is nice. (I call that going "halflistic" since we are not wholly holistic. We are doing some holistic supplements, but also MP – chemo pills given daily at home.)

It's true the surgery is not intended to be curative – but you never know… You could be one of the lucky ones and it could be if the cancer has not already micro-metastasized.

Hope you get good results from the lab report! (Abby only had 2 episodes that I thought might be phantom pain – or just plain 'real' pain. Hopefully Dixie will only have those 2!)

Hope Dixie continues to recover well,

Jackie, Abby's mom

Sorry about the phantom pains :-(  We didn't have those with Chili Dawg.  I am so glad to hear that she's having a good recovery, it's nice to hear, specially lately with all the dogs crossing the rainbow bridge lately.  We didn't do any rehab with Chili Dawg, but there's got to be places around here that do it, like Naperville or closer to the city.  You could also try out one of those balance discs.  I think Maggie the agility dog and Butchey and Kess the disc dog use those- I might be wrong.

Jenna

Glad to hear Miss Dixie is recovering so nicely. Rio never had the phantom pains, but then her cancer never caused her pain prior to the surgery either.

I know that hearing your dog has cancer is fairly intimidating, but don't feel you have to make any snap decisions regarding chemo/metronomics/etc.. Take a little time, do some research, familiarize yourself with treatment protocols for your particular cancer, ask lots of questions both here and at your vet's/oncologist's office, make sure you are comfortable with the information before deciding anything. And know that even if you do decide to do chemo, you can stop part way through if you don't feel comfortable with the side effects. They typically don't dose the dogs nearly as hard as they do humans, because its simply meant to buy some time, not cure. Rio only had a few side effects with either of her chemo treatment protocols (she had chemo in 2008 and then again earlier this year), but some dogs don't handle it well.

If people ask "why did you remove the leg if it's not a cure," just tell them that, short term, you were getting rid of the pain, and in the process, hopefully you will have bought her a lot more quality time.

Good luck,

Micki and Rio

Hi Dixiekicks,

You've got a pretty good recovery going so far…my Maggie didn't have phantom pains but she was on Gabapentin before AND after surgery as her pain was very severe before surgery.  I'd highly recommend gabapentin!  The local vet up here didn't know what it was but my sister, who is a Vet Tech at a holistic vet downstate did and recommended it to me, thankfully!

Chilidawg is right…I do use a balance disc with my dog, Maggie.  I also use balance pads and balance domes.  I just got another balance dome in hopes to work Maggie on top of two at the same time, to mimic working on top of an eggball.  I'll be trying it out tonight.

Here's a link to a blog that Admin did on Maggie's workouts FYI:

http://gear.tri…..s-workout/

If it weren't for PT work I do on Maggie, I'm afraid she wouldn't be as strong as she is today.  She's really a couch potato by nature and even moreso, now being 3 legged…  So she must do her workouts!

I am not sure when you should start, however, this being so soon after surgery…I would give it a month or more, I guess to get her recovered well.  Maybe Admin can direct you to Dr. Waldman's CARE videos as well regarding PT work.

Tracy, Maggie's Mom

Yay for Dixie for doing so well!! That is so completely Awesome!!!! Boo for the phantom pains though. Hope you can find a way to ward them off. Valentina never had them but from what I have read in many other posts they can be really horrible. I'm glad she is doing so good in all the other ways and I will be keeping the two of you in my thoughts and prayers.