Purrkins said
Ok, so it is still possible it is just a soft tissue injury!

Purrkns had a soft tissue sarcoma on his wrist! He had a lump! Purrkins lump/tumor never bothered him I could touch it the vet touched it and no reaction, he never limped . When he had the surgical biopsy! Then he favored that leg but didn't limp!

Does Harry have a lump on his toe?

As for the Vet saying a year is optimistic for Harry having Osteo! Statistics don't mean anything but numbers ok!! Animals out live numbers everyday on this site! Interesting how the vets differ in opinion isn't it? Just pointing some things out!!

All’s I do know is there are tripawds that have surgery on their remaining limbs and recover.
We do not know for certain Harry has to have surgery yet. Or even what we are dealing with yet!

If it is a soft tissue injury it can heal , medication & rest & patience. Maybe he wasn't on medication long enough this last time?

If there is no lump and the X-rays were clear then I don't see any reason to be amputating a toe? Is the Vet doing X-rays again of the toe? Of the lungs ?

If it is a cancer? Then that leaves you with all the options you posted above.
What you decide is best for Harry & you I’m afraid only you know that answer!

This journey is full of Grey areas! Follow your instinct and make the best educated, quality of life decisions you can for Harry and you will make that out of love & that is all Harry could ever ask for!

We are hoping it is NOTHING but a injury that can heal !!
Sending Positive & healing thoughts your way for Thursday !
Hugs
Holly & Purrkins  

I think the option to take the toe is because, if he can't figure out what the problem is by manipulating it and doing another x-ray, he is assuming that it is cancer and that waiting for biopsy results could give it time to spread...only to have to have him back in again, keeping  in mind that Harry is awful at the vet because he's so scared there. 

It doesn't feel like a lump, exactly. It's definitely painful to touch or walk on. There is swelling around where his nail comes out and it's a bit stiff. I haven't tried pushing out his nail on that toe since his last vet visit because he really doesn't want me touching that toe, but he pulls away sharply when I get to that digit (the others aren't bothering him). 

I am very much hoping that it's a wound he exacerbated before it could heal properly, and that he just needs more time and rest...maybe more antibiotics? The original vet said that the shot she gave him lasts for 2 weeks and it was about 2 weeks after the initial visit that I started noticing trouble again. 

But beyond that, I keep going back and forth...he's just not himself 🙁

jerry said
I know that hurt to hear the vet tell you that the other prognosis was overly-optimistic. But keep in mind that 1) an orthopedic surgeon is not a cancer specialist and 2) nobody can slap a time stamp on an animal's butt. There are so many times when our Tripawds outlive even the worst case predictions. Nobody can see the future.

As for the toe-putation. Did the ortho vet say anything about Harry's mobility challenges if he loses that toe? When it comes to recovery for this procedure, animals bounce back pretty fast. I've known many who have lost toes and within a few days you couldn't even tell.

I hope things go well on Thursday and the vet finds it's just an infected nail or something. Keep us posted OK?  

He said that it's difficult to say, given that Harry's a tripawd. He said four legged cats usually bounce back  and adjust within two weeks, and that Harry may take a little longer. He pointed out that it's a middle toe and there is another middle toe that does some of the same balancing, so he could be just fine...but was very reluctanct to advise. 

I feel like...if it ends up not being cancer and I remove his toe, I will regret it. And if I don't remove his toe right away and it ends up being cancer, I will regret it  ... I know that I don't want to make the decision to end his life without having a clear picture of what we're actually dealing with. 

Yes, and if that's what it is the vet will be able to tell without amputation or biopsy and will do whatever needs to be done to fix that and send him home. He's only going to biopsy or amputate (after talking to me) if he's unable to determine what's wrong with him by looking at it and doing another x-ray. 

My understanding is that declawing involves removing the bone from the final joint in each digit and then stitching them back up. I looked into it when Harry was a kitten because he was a little Edward Scissorhands, but recall deciding that it was inhumane (I learned to trim his nails instead and semi-trained him to scratch his post and nothing else...at least not people:P) 

I've just spent some time re-reading my original thread and the blog I wrote at the time, and need to say THANK YOU again to this wonderful community! This forum was essential to keeping me sane and helping me understand what was going on, and has gone a long way to helping me approach this next hurdle from a calmish, informed place. I'd actually forgotten some of the struggles we faced in those early days and, while I remember the trauma of first watching Harry flop out of his crate all stoned and Frankensteined with the vividness of PTSD - and being miserable and insomniac - I also forgot that Harry was much of himself (more than he is now, with his sore toe) within a week... so if we have to go the toe-putation route, I feel much more confident that he will adapt. I'm glad I was able to look back over my own first hand experience.  So thank you x a million, and as soon as I pay off my vet debt Tripawds is going to the top of my charity list. <3 

.............. I still don't know what I'm going to do. I've ruled out putting him down based on tomorrow unless some major unforeseen Thing comes up during examination. I can't just arbitrarily end his life because he MAY have more cancer and I don't want to pay to find out. And he's strong enough to handle either test option. 

So. If needed. Biopsy ...and leave him in this current pain/allow for potential growth of cancer/possibly have to go back for amputation anyway. Or amputation...and put him through that pain, and the trial of adjusting when we may find out there was no need. 

:/ ... I feel like the vet should have a pretty strong idea whether it's cancer ....maybe....right? Or not? Sigh.