Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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so sweet Luna bug had her amputation due to Osteosarcoma on May 1, 2018, just 1 day after diagnosis and about 4 weeks after first sign of limping. She ended up with an infection which delayed trip to oncologist. Today went to UGA oncologist to possibly start chemo, but they found several spots in lungs. So we left with no treatment and no plan except to spoil her and love on her and to try to stop crying. Good God she is only 2 1/2 and I have never even heard of this disease in my 53 years of life. I’m feeling quite sick and wonder if there is something more we should do to try to save her. I will be stopping at our local pet store tomorrow for some CBD OIL to try. It is made by PlusCBDoil / CV SCIENCES. if anyone has any advice I’m all ears.
God Bless you all,
Margaret and Luna
Oh Margaret, this is such a rotten kick in the gut! So hard to hear this. This disease is so brutal amd ruthless and unpredictable. You cry ans scream and rage all you want. We are right by your side doing the same thing.
Now, after you can collect yourself a bit and start to breathe again, it's important to kmow this is NOT the end of the road at all!! JERRY IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE! He lived life to the fullest for two years. Almost half of that (if not more) was with mets!!
Luna did NOT see those xrays and the word "met" means nothing to her! NOTHING has changed as far as Luna is concerned! Ahe is sympton free and enjoying all the spoling and loving you've been giving her. .and sleeping on the ved with her humans💖
There ARE treatments that can be pursued . STRONGLY SUGGEST SECOND OPINION WITH ANOTHER ONCO. Jerry did metronomics . Some do Palladia. I'm glad you're checking into CBD oil. There is a lot of discussion here, as well as among Vets, about the positive aspects of it.
As far as the CBD oil, uou want to have the mix and doses guided by a Vet experienced with this.
SUPER STU'S Mom will see this and chime in with some good input. Jackie, Mitchell's mom, also has done some research.
I think you'll feel more hopeful as others chime in with options. I can tell you from my experience with Happy Hannah who had a huge met, there is srill a lot of good quality time even after these are found. Additionally, when and if symptons do appeaer. there are still things that can be done to keep the symptoms under control for quite awhile.
Be clear on this....ypu have done EVERYTHING ....EVERYTHING POSSIBLE FOR YOUR LUNA!!! This disease is barbaric and cruel and cunning. And just so you know, many, many here, my Happy Hannah included, were misdiagnosed with arthritis, or a sprain, ormpulled muscle, for months, or even a year or so. You acted far quicker than the majority here!! You did what needed to be done to give Lunar a chance at extended quality time that is pain free. And you are still doing that. She still has more quality time to look forward to in her future and that's a promise!!!
I'm not techie enough to get you to some good links for treatments, holostic and conventional.
STAY CONNECTED . And we would love to see some pics of Luna! Remember, Luna is living in the moment and waiting for jer next cheeseburger and visits from friends!
Extra hugs
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
Happy Hannah had a glorious additional bonus time of over one yr & two months after amp for osteo! She made me laugh everyday! Joined April's Angels after send off meal of steak, ice cream, M&Ms & deer poop!
Sweet Margaret and Luna 🌺🐾
These news always feel like a punch in the stomach 😔
But you’ve got to try and fight the sadness and the feeling of being powerless for the sake of your beautiful girl.
There are treatments which can be pursued when lung mets are found, please know that.
Euryduce did metronomics , Doxorubicin and Palladia.
Others did bisphosponates and cyber knife radiation.
Each dog is different and some live longer than others when mets are found (my girl lived 6 1/2 months) but they DO NOT know they have them.
It is so, so important to put your own feelings aside and give Luna the best days, make each one special for your girl.
And please do speak to an oncologist and discuss your options fully.
I will add a link to Eurydice’s travels after mets were found when I get to my computer, I can’t do it from my phone.
Hope that will inspire you and show you how deliriously happy dogs csn be even if they happen to have mets.
I am holding your hand and Luna’s paw, sweetie, my heart is with yours 😘😘🐮💫✨🌟🌹
Eurydice 77kg/170lb Great Dane limping end of April 2016, amputation (right front leg/osteosarcoma) 4 May 2016 6 courses of carboplatin followed by metronomic therapy, lung mets found 30 Nov 2016. 3 courses of doxorubicin, PET scan 26 Jan 2017 showed more mets so stopped chemo. Holistic route April 2017. Lung X-ray 5 May 2017 showed several tennis ball size mets, started cortisone and diuretics. Miss Cow earned her XXL silver wings 12 June 2017, 13 months and 1 week after amputation and 6 1/2 months after lung mets, she was the goofiest dawg ever and is now happily flying from cloud to cloud woof woofing away :-)
Eurydice 77kg/170lb Great Dane limping end of April 2016, amputation (right front leg/osteosarcoma) 4 May 2016 6 courses of carboplatin followed by metronomic therapy, lung mets found 30 Nov 2016. 3 courses of doxorubicin, PET scan 26 Jan 2017 showed more mets so stopped chemo. Holistic route April 2017. Lung X-ray 5 May 2017 showed several tennis ball size mets, started cortisone and diuretics. Miss Cow earned her XXL silver wings 12 June 2017, 13 months and 1 week after amputation and 6 1/2 months after lung mets, she was the goofiest dawg ever and is now happily flying from cloud to cloud woof woofing away :-)
Thank you for sharing all of the travel videos and sending all the love. What a beautiful Great Dane. Not sure we can live up to that life:) Luna loved hiking in the north GA mountains but can’t seem to go very far on three. I need to look into a harness. So much to sort through, and hard to do when the news is so damn negative.
So sorry to hear about Luna. Our oncologist assured us that dogs can live comfortably with much less lung capacity than humans. Jerry lived a happy life for another 9± months after we discovered his metastasis. We attribute that to metronomics and K9 Immunity .
Don't miss this topic with many helpful links more feedback:
/tips-and-resources/metronomic-therapy-for-canine-osteosarcoma-metastasis-jerrys-experience/
The Tripawds News blog also has many posts about metastasis and you can search all blogs here .
Best wishes, please keep us posted.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
I read on a post in this tread that some dog had cyberknife when mets spread to the lungs? on the lungs? How did that turn out? I ask bec I'd like to be prepared. Simon had cyberknife on the knee instead of amp... He should soon get the vax off trial. Since I'm experienced with cyberknife already, I d like to know this option. anyone done this?
I'm so sorry, Margaret. I know this is a real punch in the guts. So brutal and so unfair. I do not have any experience to offer, but I do know from many others on the forum just how much quality, joy-filled time a dog can enjoy despite the mets. Beautiful Eurydice had been diagnosed with mets several months before I had the honour of meeting her, and I can confirm that she was still living life to the glorious full.
Sending you a big warm hug,
Meg, Clare and Angel Pie xxx
Ruby, Staffy, born June 2022, became a Tripawd, 23 November 2023, adopted 12 January 2024.
Also Angel Tripawd Meg (aka The Megastar), who died in April 2023, aged 14, after seven glorious years on three, and Angel Staffies Pie and Bille. In the pawprints of giants...
Hi Luke 🌺
Yes, cyber knife can also be used to target met lungs.
Angel Eurydice had her surgery and was treated primarily in the UK, where we lived at the time of her diagnosis and for most of her first year with osteosarcoma.
Nevertheless, we traveled extensively in Europe hence had to consult with other oncologists in different countries and, before Eurydice, I had to have very specialised treatments performed in my first Dane Kinky.
At that time I was living in Portugal.
Kinky’s oncologist in Portugal is someone I respect deeply and I resort to him to get clarification whenever there is a specific question here at Tripawds that I am not sure about.
Sadly, I wasn’t aware of cyber knife treatments when Eurydice was still here so she didn’t have a chance to try that out but at some point after she passed I asked Luis Cruz if he used this technique and he confirmed he uses cyber knife to try to treat lung metastasis.
It is done in the human’s cancer hospital in Lisbon and he gets the dogs in after all the human patients have finished their treatments.
A lead jacket is built to measure after CT scans are performed and the beams are produced according to exact measures following the scan so that healthy lung tissue is not hit.
He says sometimes cyber knife applied to the lungs can tackle the evolution of mets, sometimes not, it depends on how aggressive osteo is to the individual dog.
It is definitely one of the trickiest places to deal with but worth a try with cyber knife, in his opinion.
All I can say is if I was aware of this possibility I would have tried it with my adored Eurydice, for whatever it’s worth ...
Darling Clare 🌻
You met Angel Eurydice about five months after we found lung mets.
She was, indeed, a deliriously happy girl who lived life to the full to the very end of her journey, bless her sweet Angel’s heart 💕🐮💕
I keep the memories of our time together in my heart forever, from when you first met her in the garage and then came down and kept on saying “she is huge” as she gave you cuddles and kisses madly spinning around, to when you tried to take a selfie with her just before you left and all we could see was her ear in front of your face 😁
Wonderful forever memories 💫
Love and cuddles and slobbery kisses from above 😘😘🐮💫✨🌟🌹
Eurydice 77kg/170lb Great Dane limping end of April 2016, amputation (right front leg/osteosarcoma) 4 May 2016 6 courses of carboplatin followed by metronomic therapy, lung mets found 30 Nov 2016. 3 courses of doxorubicin, PET scan 26 Jan 2017 showed more mets so stopped chemo. Holistic route April 2017. Lung X-ray 5 May 2017 showed several tennis ball size mets, started cortisone and diuretics. Miss Cow earned her XXL silver wings 12 June 2017, 13 months and 1 week after amputation and 6 1/2 months after lung mets, she was the goofiest dawg ever and is now happily flying from cloud to cloud woof woofing away :-)
Thanks for your reply. I’m glad to know I can keep it in my arsenal. I am happy to know that my radiation oncologist is supposed to be one of the top guys in the entire world. So that makes me feel good. Hopefully I will not use it but it’s good to know
Hey Luke 🌺
It is so reassuring when we trust the professional people working with us and our babies, so glad to hear you and Simon are in the best hands !
😘🐮💫✨🌟🌹
Eurydice 77kg/170lb Great Dane limping end of April 2016, amputation (right front leg/osteosarcoma) 4 May 2016 6 courses of carboplatin followed by metronomic therapy, lung mets found 30 Nov 2016. 3 courses of doxorubicin, PET scan 26 Jan 2017 showed more mets so stopped chemo. Holistic route April 2017. Lung X-ray 5 May 2017 showed several tennis ball size mets, started cortisone and diuretics. Miss Cow earned her XXL silver wings 12 June 2017, 13 months and 1 week after amputation and 6 1/2 months after lung mets, she was the goofiest dawg ever and is now happily flying from cloud to cloud woof woofing away :-)
I spoke with my onco today about repeat cyberknife for oseto if the tumor came back and cyberknife in lung for mets. I post this for others interested in this option and I know someone replied they had cyberknife 2 x to the same tumor:
Onco said he would never cyberknife a tumor site twice., sure to fracture.. Asked why he thought this was done,, he said probably monetary incentive... sad..
Cyberknife to lungs for mets,,, he said not to this as well.. I forgot his explanation ,, sorry,.
Thank you for forwarding your onco's views, this is such an "unknown territory" when it gets to lung mets I suppose some oncologists will try one thing others will try different approaches ...
All we can do is follow our instinct and take decisions for our babies the best we can ...
Hugs and cuddles 😘🐮💫✨🌟🐾
Eurydice 77kg/170lb Great Dane limping end of April 2016, amputation (right front leg/osteosarcoma) 4 May 2016 6 courses of carboplatin followed by metronomic therapy, lung mets found 30 Nov 2016. 3 courses of doxorubicin, PET scan 26 Jan 2017 showed more mets so stopped chemo. Holistic route April 2017. Lung X-ray 5 May 2017 showed several tennis ball size mets, started cortisone and diuretics. Miss Cow earned her XXL silver wings 12 June 2017, 13 months and 1 week after amputation and 6 1/2 months after lung mets, she was the goofiest dawg ever and is now happily flying from cloud to cloud woof woofing away :-)
I'm so sorry for you and your girlie. I want to add my support for a second opinion and educating yourself on other available options.
My 15.5 yr old dog was diagnosed with osteosarcoma after suffering a pathologic fracture in a rear leg. She had a small met or two in her lungs. Taking into consideration her age, her activity level and interactivity , we elected to amputate, no chemo and to give IV Biphosphonates .
She had 19 months of quality life before passing at age 17. She made me laugh every day.
Like people, every dog is different and will respond differently. Do what you can and then focus on each day.
BIG Hugs
Carrie,
Tripawds Spirit and Angel Maddie.
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