Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat

My beautiful and beloved precious Oliver got diagnosed with osteosarcoma on January 13th 2020. He was a retired racing greyhound and a few months shy of his 8th birthday (April 12th). Long story short in November he started having rear limb weakness. Our home vet came and did acupuncture on him and he started improving a lot! We determined it must be a disc related injury, my boy was so active and loved to run and do his zoomies! He was arthritic but always very playful. Anyways, after hiking on my birthday in snow on January 11th, he had visible bone swelling on the rear lower limb the following day and wasn\'t bearing weight. He also had a random episode of screaming on the couch on the 12th. On the 13 we brought him in for x rays and after radiology was consulted they determined he had an aggressive bony lesion in the rear lower limb (osteosarcoma). The bone kept swelling and we took everything day by day. We did a met check in the lungs and all recommended places for met check the following day. Zero signs of mets. We also drew labs and all of his bloodwork was fantastic! I became more hopeful with all this information and we decided that a rear limb amputation was our next best option. We scheduled Oliver in for January 17th for procedure. He had such a fantastic week despite diagnosis. We were no longer able to go for walks or be active together but he ate all of his favorite foods and I just savored my boy so much, knowing that he had a poor prognosis despite no signs of metastasis. Osteo is so rapidly progressive and tends to micro metastasize. Things were looking in our favor though. I was looking forward to getting my boys afflicted leg off, he already had a micro fracture according to radiology. Fast forward to the 17th, we dropped him off, I gave him a kiss on the head and said love you and off he went with the tech. I got notified that everything was going great during procedure and he was stable in all regards. I even asked for photos of the amputation (I work in healthcare with a background in critical care and now hospice). All was looking good and the procedure had taken about 2 and 1/2 hours. My boy was very muscular, good tone, about 80 lbs! I got a call that he was waking up from surgery and they\'d wean him off pain meds and see how he fared. We could possibly pick him up in a few hours or he\'d have to stay overnight somewhere for observation, dependent on pain levels. I went into a specialty store to get him special food for recovery and 5 minutes later I got a call that he had had a massive heart attack, CPR and ALS had failed, he was dead and they couldn\'t revive him. I was driving, almost crashed into a bunch of cars in a parking lot and couldn\'t even really cry I was so numb. I literally broke down and just said \"why\" rnMy partner picked me up and we drove to the clinic as I requested spending time with my gorgeous boys body. It was helpful and I brought him outside in the open air to close our chapter together and give him all my last love and apologies and everything I felt was unsaid. I am not religious but I believe in honoring the spirit of our deceased always. He was my soul dog. He was like my son and my other life partner. rnIf anyone is curious yes my greyhounds surgeon understood greyhound surgical and anesthesia protocols. This particular clinic works on greyhounds all the time. The president of the organization I got my Oliver from works there actually. Anyways, it was a very difficult day. The biggest loss of my life and I have had some difficult other losses, believe me. rnI want to believe that it was the best death for him above any other and that it saved us from additional on going pain with his recovery, potential complications, potential and highly likely osteosarcoma invading again or metastasizing. It just still isn\'t easy and I miss him so much. He was a smiling greyhound and his signature trait even in his last week of life was \"roaching.\" When they roll on their backs and sleep. He was such a happy and joyful kid. A bit anxious at times and did have some cardiac issues which I specifically addressed prior to surgery. A grade 2 or 3 murmur and mitral valve regurgitation. I really thought we could have the rest of his life be bettered with the amputation of the afflicted limb and we would have at least a few months to a year of good quality of life. Nope, instead sudden and acute death. I\'ve since adopted a gorgeous baby girl pup whom reminds me so much of my boy, but I still am so heartbroken, it\'s a wound that will never heal because he engraved our entire life and profound love in me. The last week of his life I told him over and over that I loved him forever and always. I\'m so glad I got to do this but I still wish that I had had a sense of it being his last day on our surgery drop off day and gotten one more big hug in or one more I love you so much forever in. At drop off I was trying to be a \"normal\" pet owner. rnrnIt just all around SUCKS. I know and understand that life ends, things just looked so in our favor that week that it literally felt like the world crashed down on me when I got this call that my boy had died 5 minutes after supposedly coming out of surgery.