Zeke is a little over 3 weeks post-amp and we took him on Monday to the Vet for a checkup and to have staples removed.  His incision is healing well, but they called to say they wanted to keep him a couple nights for possible pnumonia.  He had a little cough and fever when we took him in.  Yesterday they called my husband and said the chest xray they did on Monday compared to the one yesterday (Wednesday) had drastically changed and they were very concerned the cancer had spread to his lungs.  How does this happen when the chest xray was clear prior to amputation???  We are so devastated.  He is now on antibiotics and steriods, but it is near impossible to get him to eat, although I just cooked chicken breasts and he ate almost 2 and I was able to stick one of the pills in it.  My heart is breaking, I don't know how much time we have with our big boy.

I am so sorry to read your news of Zeke. I don't know how that happens so quickly. Are they suggesting chemo?

Give your big boy a hug for us, and please keep us posted. We're also sending you a BIG Hug!

jerry said:

. . . Well, lung mets apparently are so microscopic that a large percentage of dogs do have them at the time of diagnosis, only the mets are too microscopic to show up on x-rays.

We are so very sorry to hear of Zeke's problems. Miss Cherry's first chemotherapy treatment occured just hours after the amputation in an effort to attach aggressively any cancer cells that were already in the blood stream. Just why the cancer developes in the lungs and others have much longer is one of the extreme mysteries of this dreaded illness. If you can get Zeke to eat and regain strength, he may have a fighting chance to combat these mets. There have been a number of this community that many great months after the discovery of lung mets and we will be saying a prayer that Zeke can be one of these.

Give him a big hug from all the TriPawd community.

Spirit Cherry's Dad

Wow, you all just amaze me!!  Zeke and I thank you for your kind words, please know they mean so much to me and instantly make my heart feel better reading your posts.  Jerry, thank you for the explanation on how this happened, I am learning so much and although sometimes I don't like to hear the honest answers, I also feel that I need to educate myself and truly be able to understand what is going on.  The vet is supposed to call us later after talking with the Oncologist there, but he hasn't been able to track them down.  We have been dealing directly with the Nuerologist this entire time.  There has been no mention of chemo to this point, and I would suspect this is because Zeke really has been difficult for them to diagnose.  His diagnosis of a joint tumor is still preliminary, believe it or not, they are still waiting on the final results from Colorado State University – so frustrating!  He is on the steroid "Dexamethisone", I know they put him on this one prior to the amputation and he responded very well, so I'm hoping he does this time around as well.

We are spoiling him rotten for sure and not losing hope.  Also Jerry, what you said about cancer and loving each day and not taking it for granted is so true.  We will continue to remind ourselves of this.  Thanks again for everyone's kind words and support, it is much appreciated.

I'm so sorry to hear about Zeke. He is such a beautiful boy.  I will keep you both in my thoughts and prayers.

Never lose hope and do keep spoiling the handsome guy!

FortisDad

I'm sorry to hear about Zeke's setback…  I know you must be feeling like things are hopeless… but as you've already read here… many dogs have lived many happy months after getting lung mets… so, there is HOPE…

In the meantime… Just keep loving and spoiling your beautiful Zeke! Sending you both a big fat hug!!!

Angel Jake and Wolfie's Mom

I'm really sorry to hear about Zeke.  I think about lung mets a lot with Sadie.  I wasn't going to have a chest x-ray done at all because I didn't think the results would change our course of treatment.  Then I thought if she had them and we cought it early, we could do something so we did them and it was negative. I was happy, but I was prepared, and almost expecting that it would be positive. That was a couple months ago. We just went back to the vet today for an unrelated issue, and did another chest x-ray. The vet showed them to me and said he was pleased because they looked great. I kept thinking I saw "something" like I'm still expecting them to be there.  Is there such a thing as "x-ray addiction?" Anyway, I think my point is that Sadie can develop lung mets tomorrow, and leave this earth shortly after, and I'm always trying to prepare for that. Zeke could live with his lung mets for many months.  We really are all in the same boat. Call it the "USS Live for Today" beacause we truly don't know what tomorrow will bring. Or maybe the "USS Think Like a Dog".  Anyway, my thoughts and prayer are with you, and I hope my rambling wasn't too annoying.

Hugs and sloppy Sadie kisses,

Lisa & Sadie