Hi everyone. My dog, Quincy, was 3 years old when he hurt his leg in October jumping into a friend's car. At the time he weighed around 95 pounds; he's mostly a GSD-lab mix. His leg never got better and after many visits to many vets, multiple biopsies, sedated x-rays, etc., they found cancer cells in the lymph node in his hurt leg and recommended amputation of his rear right leg. The amputation happened in mid-December. After his surgery, the cancer cells in the amputated leg were identified as hemangiosarcoma, which his vets found very unusual. It was not good news since it's such an aggressive cancer.

But by early January, Quincy was fully recovered. I really, really regret now that my fiance and I were so thrilled at his bounce-back that we did not limit his activity at all. We were just so happy to see him running around again; it was like we had our dog back.

In early March, Quincy began showing signs of weakness in his remaining rear leg. His leg would buckle under him when he was stepping onto our couch or putting other increased stress on the leg. We stopped his daily pack walks/hikes to let him recover, and kept reducing his activity from there, but he just continued to deteriorate. Now it's two months later and the poor guy can barely walk around without pain. He is always contorting himself in a failed attempt to walk comfortably. He seems to re-injure himself on a near-daily basis. He's seen his regular vet, whose opinion was that he was mostly healthy (i.e., not dying of cancer just yet) and just had some sort of muscle weakness/injury and needed more painkillers. So I started him on the painkillers and took him to a vet for physical therapy. He's had three sessions there and just continues to decline. Due to the pandemic, I attend the vet appointments via Zoom in my car or not at all; he goes in and comes out an hour later and I have limited information. I emailed the PT vet over the weekend to get an update and express my frustration with his lack of progress, but haven't heard back yet. It's almost infuriating after spending so much money on seemingly useless veterinary care.

It's so incredibly stressful to have a sick and injured dog. When we were ready for another dog in 2017, we got a puppy because I was so scarred by my previous dog's illness (also eventually diagnosed as cancer, but in his belly), decline, and death. I just wanted to have a healthy dog for a while. And now we are already facing the end of Quincy's life and a marked decline in quality that seems impossible to fix. I'm so sad to lose him and I'm mad at myself for allowing him to get injured on my watch--literally, I've been stuck working at home with him due to the pandemic since early March, so I've been able to supervise him nonstop.

I'm going to take him to his oncologist for a check-up tomorrow to see if they can give me any other information. And then it might be time to switch his rehab vet. All of this costs so much money and we can afford it for now, but it's a definite strain on finances. It's also a strain on my relationship with my fiance. He's not supportive about the stress I feel because of Quincy's health, doesn't understand why I'm so upset, and I just feel really alone, helpless, and hopeless. I would appreciate any moral support or stories about your dogs recovering from injuries after amputation.