Such great information in these posts. Thanks to all. Ollie is 1 week and 5 days post-op amputation and today seems to really have turned a corner. I know things can go the other direction and am braced for whatever comes. He is on Tramadol (100mg every 8 hrs.) and takes it easily as long as I squish it in some cheese. He'd probably take anything as long as it was encased in cheese! We are considering going 12 hrs. to see how he does. It is such a guessing game.

I do worry about the stress to Ollie's remaining limbs, especially the front right. So much to research and figure out. But, I'm determined to make him as comfortable as possible. We are considering chemo, but not sure we want to go there. If anyone has anything to offer on that front, it would be extremely appreciated.

Jill, I hope Emma is improving. The underwater treadmill sounds like fun! Ollie is lab/border collie and should like water, but hates it.

 I look forward to hearing how she is doing.

olliewogforever said

I do worry about the stress to Ollie's remaining limbs, especially the front right. So much to research and figure out. But, I'm determined to make him as comfortable as possible. We are considering chemo, but not sure we want to go there. If anyone has anything to offer on that front, it would be extremely appreciated.
.

Hi - not wanting to hijack Jill and Emma's thread here (but I'm going to briefly!)- just to say Peda had four rounds of carboplatin starting 3 weeks after surgery. Chemo was every 2 to 3 weeks (can't quite remember as it was last year). She was pretty good with it - very minimal side effects - a bit of a white blood cell count drop (which is expected!) and a bit of lethargy at round 4 (but she is an older doggy and it was getting hotter weather at that time).. She was also on piroxicam at that time but she sort of wound up off it - it wasn't brilliant on her tummy. Earlier this year when she was diagnosed with a single lung met, she commenced Palladia. We provided gut protection and played with doses a little to get it right for her. Unfortunately we had to stop around week 4 has she became very unwell although to this day we do not know if it was Palladia and only way we will know is if we put her back on it (and I'm not going to do that - nor are the vets).

Chemo is a very individual parent and dog choice. The one thing I will say (as many here on the forums have also said) is that you can always stop it - it is not a course of treatment you have to stick with. I was very nervous she was going to get sick - and if that was to happen we would have to ride through it and manage it (a few dogs do get sick though it is rarer as dosages are very different to humans - but it does attack the rapidly dividing cells in the body (so gut and bone marrow etc - I'm sure the vet experts can chime in).

If you want to have a more detailed discussion, fire up a thread for Ollie on this topic and I am sure you will get lots of input!

Back to you Jill & Emma!!

Kirsty and Peda