Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
Tripawds is your home to learn how to care for a three legged dog or cat, with answers about dog leg amputation, and cat amputation recovery from many years of member experiences.
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I wish I could reach through tne screen and hugyou right now! I KNOW you feel hopeless AND helpless right now!! And that' NORMAL! You are in a stae of sheer panic and fear!!
I am so sorry about your previous loss of your beloved German Shepard. But that was then and this is now. Different dog...different situation.
THAT DOES NOT EQUAL THIS! THAT DOES NOT EQUAL THIS!!
And I say this soooooooo lovingley......please...--so lovingly....as soon as you can....and you can because you are a strong girl......step out of that state......in fact, let's do it now while we are all here with you!! Step out of that state of fear and step into your empowered state where you will do some research and take actin!! Come on! Get out of the chair....stand up! Stand tall! Big breath!! Now step over into your strong empowered state!! GOOOD JOB!!! WELL DONE!!
Now from ths empowered stare, realize that there ARE options.....there ARE cases like Bogi here on this site who have gotten incredible good quality time!! AND BOGI CAN TOO!!
Use our collective strength to help you help Bogi! It's pretty darn powerful!
You are a stong empowered woman and I so look forward to hearng about your plan!!
Surrounding you with clarity, serenity and love,
Sally and Happ Hannah
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!
I know this diagnosis sucks and you are in so much pain and disbelief right now. I am so sorry for that and I agree with everyone else that you need to take a deep breath. And then another deep breath.
And then you pick yourself up and you take care of Bogi. Statistics are important because they give us some baseline of what to expect, but they are by no means an exact prediction. I'm not just spouting off here - I am the very proud mama of the dog who had mets at the time of diagnosis and who was given six weeks to live. Ten months later my vet was still embarrassed that he was so very wrong.
The simple fact is that some of our members have fought like hell and received precious little time with their dogs. Others have decided to let nature takes its course and were blessed with more time than anyone expected. The "lost time" that you speak of may not have made any difference in the world.
And on that note, I must tell you - you need to let go of your worries about the "wasted" time. Not one second has been wasted. Not one moment. Because, every minute that you have spent with Bogi is precious and filled with love - regardless of whether you were aggressively treating his illness or whether you were taking no action at all. Every day with cancer, no matter what type, is a Win because you are together and that day is filled with love. It is human instinct to fight and that is fine, but if you are consumed with the fight - or in this case, with the delay in starting the fight - then you miss the specialness of the very time that you are fighting for. Whether you are actively treating or not, don't let this damn disease rob you of memories with Bogi because you are wallowing in regret because, in the end, that is what you will end up regretting.
Hang in there - it will all work out. Hugs to you. Lisa
Zeus was a Husky mix diagnosed with Osteosarcoma at age 11. A visible lung met and suspicious spot on his liver meant a poor prognosis-six weeks was our vet's best guess. We decided to fight for our boy and his right front leg was amputated on 12/1/11. We did six rounds of chemo, changed his diet and spoiled him completely rotten. We were blessed with 10 great months after diagnosis. Against the odds, the lung met remained a single met and grew very little over those months. A wonderful furbaby with the most gentle spirit, he fought with a strength that we never imagined he possessed. We have no regrets...
http://zeuspod......pawds.com/
LISA (Zeus) said' !.....if you are consumed with the delay to fight---then you miss the specialness of the very time that you are fighting for."
Before I found this site, I basically stayed hysterical, frightened to the point of being frozen in fear, being indecisive, flip flopping--amputate one hour...no the next.
And that statement that Lisa presented to js ALL is true beyond words! For thirty days I was Not fully present with my Hapy Hannah---I was not living in the moment--I was not focused on the sacredness of how blissful every moment with her is...my whole being was consumd by fear. "IT TOOK AWAY FROM THE SPECIALNESS OF THE VERY TIME THAT I WAS FIGHTING FOR"!
I won't spend one second of wasting energy.....one second of our sacred time together...thinking I had wasted that time together. As Lisa said, it wasn't wasted, we were together. I learned from it. The gift is I'm able to pass that "learning lesson" o to oth;ers. Anytime you learn something, "it" happened for a reason!
Lisa, tha ks again for such great words of wisdom!!
Jamie,stay focused on your research and your special time with your magnificent Bogi and you will build memories that are fi ite!!
Love
Sally and Happy Hannah
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!
There have been several HSA dogs here and some have done very well! I think that the dogs with HSA of the leg are identified earlier than the spleen or heart dogs because those dogs have no symptoms until the mass ruptures and the dog bleeds. The leg tumor dogs either limp or have a visible lump. I would consider an ultrasound of the abdomen and maybe heart but if these organs are still clear then chemo is a very viable option. Even some spleen cancer survivors have lived over a year with metronomic chemo (that study used oral Cytoxan and Piroxicam).
Pam
Thanks much Pam. I am seeing an oncologist on Friday and will also try to get a chest xray redone and an abdominal ultrasound and heart.
My biggest fear is he started limping in February. Diagnosis in end of May. Amputation end of June.... so 5 month after initial issues started I wonder if everything is just "too late" they messed around forever because in May it wasn't really very clear yet on xrays!
@Jerry I tried member search for Butchey Hudson nothing came up!? Maybe that's just her tripawd blog name?
Also I still cant log into the chat it keeps saying ITS LOADING
Yeah, that It's loading" thing happens to me too so etimes.
But listen, as far as how much time has past since noticing the "symptons" til now....a whole lot of us here, incudi g myself, spent MANY months with the vet treaing for arthritis, or sprain, etc. first! It just seems to be the "norm".....start with what appers to be the most common problem..treat..and then start eliminsting from there. And in the cases of osteo., a lot of the dogs did't limp all the time and it would appear to "get better"
Hope that helps. I k ow othing about this jour ey seems "normal" but, really, five-six, seven mnths to get to proper diagnosis is not that u common
Hang in there Jamie and Bodi!! We're with you!
Sally and Happ Hannah
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!
Butchey Hudson's member name is doggiemomma9. Butchey also has a blog http://butcheyh.....pawds.com/
Hope this helps.
Marla and Daisy
My Two Tripawds...Biscuit 
and Spirit Daisy 
I just wanted to chime in because your comments "I wonder if everything is just "too late" they messed around forever" are so familiar. They ate away at my soul for far too long until I was able to realise that I was assuming things would have been better if we had acted sooner. But maybe they wouldn't have. We can never know and focussing on things you can't change can stop you from enjoying the time you have right here, right now. Don't let the cancer rob you of that time.
As we were going through our fight I lived by the James Dean quote "dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today". Magnum had an aggressive OSA (for a time there they thought it was HSA) and I always knew in my heart the cancer would eventually take my girl but I dreamed that she would be here long enough to beat the odds and make it to old age. She didn't. But we LIVED every day and I treasure that extra special time that we had together. We lived and loved a life time in the 8 months post amputation. And at the end, when mets showed up and we went from a 6 month prognosis to only 6 weeks, we still made every day count.
I will be thinking of you and praying for clear scans. But whatever the news, please know that you will find plenty of support on this site. Many hugs to you and your boy.
Karen and Spirit magnum
Magnum: 30th May 2002 to 5th May 2012. Lost her back left leg to osteosarcoma on 5th Sep 2011. Lung mets found on 20th Mar 2012 but it was bone mets in the hip that ended her brave battle. Magnum's motto - "Dream as if you'll live for ever, live as if you'll die today" (James Dean). Loyal, loving, courageous and spirited to the end. My beloved heart dog, see her memoirs from Rainbow Bridge ...... http://princess.....pawds.com/
I wanted to share my story with you too- the one about worrying about wasting time. Maggie had a mast cell tumor removed from her side about 6 months prior to her amp. By all accounts we were done and she was cancer free. When I found the tumor in her knee my heart sank. When the vet said amputation as the option I really started second guessing myself. Why wasn't I more diligent about checking her for lumps? Why didn't I notice it sooner? Well, we did the amp and I was getting used to the idea- ready to move on. When the path results came back with lymph node involvement I started in again....if I had found it sooner maybe no amp, or maybe no spread. Kind of like it was my fault we were where we were. And we were given 6 to 9 months with chemo because of the lymph system spread. I will admit I spent some of those months waiting for her to die, wondering why I didn't find it sooner... etc. But I finally realized that Maggie didn't know and really didn't care what was going on (except she could have done with a few less trips to the vet 
). I learned like so many here to treasure each day we had together, and to stop watching the clock. Maggie was going to leave me when she was ready, not because the stats said there was an expiration date.
Mag beat the first cancer and lived almost 4 years. I was much more diligent about checking for lumps and making sure she got great food and vet care. I was doing everything right this time!! She passed from a second type of cancer just three months after she was diagnosed. It wasn't my fault, it wasn't the vet's fault.... it was cancer's fault.
But the second time I used what I had learned and didn't waste a moment of our time together.
Karen
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