Thank you for such a quick reply.  I will explore those posts you pointed me toward.  I downloaded the Three Legs and a Spare book too, which looks like it has some good information and resources. 

 I’m afraid that my other tripawd dog really doesn’t prepare me for how Katie will come through because he has been a 3 legger since he was just a few weeks old.  So that is all he has ever known.  Plus, it’s a back leg.  He still has his 4^th leg but can’t use it.  He broke it very badly, had a couple surgeries and was then in a splint for so long that the tendon (or ligament?) fused to the bone, so he can’t straighten the leg out enough to use it much.  But it doesn’t seem to cause him any pain at all.

 Many, many years ago I had a dog Katie’s size who blew out both of her knees when she was only 18 months old.  We went through surgeries and the recovery was really hard, and she was young and I was younger too, and much stronger than I am now.  She recovered well but then died of sudden heart failure a year later.  I’m sure she had a congenital heart condition, but I’ll never know if all of the anesthesia contributed to that or not.

 Thank you for that recommendation on an orthopedic specialist.  If I could get one to come to my house I would do that, but of course that isn’t going to work.  Getting Katie into my vehicle is extremely difficult and from what I’ve read it seems that she is at pretty great risk of a bad fracture at this point.  So I hate to push our luck with more trips to Vets.  Plus, it is extremely stressful for her to go into environments like that.  Her vision is getting bad, so I think that makes it worse. 

I think you are right that refusing to use a ramp is at least partially due to her poor vision.  And also this is an example of it being problematic that she is resistant to change.  She has always jumped into my SUV from the side door, so trying to get her to use a ramp in back is a change that she refuses to make, and she is big enough that it is hard for me to force her to do what she doesn’t want to.  There have been bad experiences in the past with me making her use a ramp and her slipping a little then panicking.  In fact I’m sure that is how her initial minor limp turned into a really bad one.

But, with a modified coffee table plus a ramp, I was able to get her in and out the side door to take her to the Vet appointment a few days ago without injury.  So, I guess that is progress.  But, that trip to the Vet was very stressful for her, so I wonder how it will go next time I try.

 Thank you for sharing about your dog Jerry.  That is encouraging.  I also downloaded the Dog Cancer Survival Guide a couple days ago and have been reading that and feel a little bit encouraged that maybe with the supplements recommended plus changes in diet, it will tip the scale in her favor even without chemotherapy.

 Well I’ve rambled on enough.  Thanks again.  I will be back for more reading.

Thank you Benny55 (Sally?) for taking the time to offer compassion and some good thoughts.  Sorry for your loss of Hannah, but I’ll bet her last year+ was precious time for both of you.  I do sense that although Katie is pretty miserable right now, she is enjoying how I'm spoiling her - and how mad that is making the other 2 dogs.

 This is probably going to be a serious case of TMI below, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to get details out there in case something clicks and gives you an idea or suggestion.

You asked if Katie had been evaluated by her regular vet for arthritis.  Not a thorough evaluation with x-rays, but mostly based on my description of how she would often yelp when first standing up from lying down and sometimes when jumping into my vehicle.  So my vet started her on Dasuquin a couple years ago based on that.  I never could tell for sure whether it was front legs or back legs bothering her, until a couple months ago I started noticing her holding a back leg up for a little bit when she first stood up from lying down.  But she still enjoyed hiking, with no favoring of any limb when we were out.  She would occasionally let out a little yelp when running off trail, which I assumed was stepping on a stick or something.  Now, I’m thinking it might have been the tumor in her shoulder.

Then a little over 2 weeks ago Katie yelped a little when jumping out of my vehicle when we were out for a hike, and while on the hike she was noticeably limping on the front leg.  So when we got home I tried to make her use a ramp to get out and she slipped a little and panicked and jumped and then the limp was much worse and the next morning she was in REALLY bad shape.  Not wanting to go outside, not interested in eating.  So I called my vet’s office to see if I could get a prescription for the pain.  A tumor never even occurred to me.  I was thinking pulled muscle, torn ligament, etc.  Due to confusion/miscommunication it took several days to get the Carprofen and Katie didn’t improve at all during those few days.  Then when she started on Carprofen there was a big improvement.  Still limping severely, but she got her appetite back.  Then, the trip to the vet a few days ago was hard on her and despite the fact that I added Tramadol and Gabapentin after that, I can see that she is still very uncomfortable, but still eating moderately and she hobbles around outside with the other dogs a little.

I called my vet yesterday and asked if she was confident that amputation was the right thing to do, based on what she knows about Katie.  She said “yes” without hesitation because she feels Katie is in a lot of pain now and it will only get worse.  And I can see that despite all of the pain meds she is on now, she is very miserable.  So I made the appointment for the amputation for 3 weeks from now.  I’m pretty sure at this point that I will go through with it.  I’m starting to feel like the options are to amputate asap or euthanize in the very near future.

My vet will do the surgery herself, and I feel that if she thought having an orthopedic surgeon do it would be better for Katie, she would say so.  At least I am about 95% sure that is the case.  I have been taking my pets to this vet for 15 years, so I do trust her.

But in the meantime I will explore the possibility of getting her into an Orthopedic Surgeon for evaluation.  But at this point I’m feeling better about trusting my Vet’s instincts over a Vet I don’t know at all.  She said that when Katie comes in for the surgery she will take more x-rays – lungs and I’m assuming all of her legs.  So I guess that will serve as an additional evaluation and if anything of great concern shows up then there may be a need to reevaluate plans.   

I’m near Albuquerque, NM.  There aren’t a lot of choices for specialists in ABQ.  My Vet had sent me to VCA a couple times in the past and I had one good experience and one bad there.  So I’m not particularly liking the idea of going back there. 

Thanks again.  I really appreciate the support and will keep you posted. 

I’m feeling good about my plan now.  I’m assuming she will have the surgery on 12/16 and starting to make preparations.  I need to prepare myself for the possibility that the chest x-ray just before surgery will cause a change in plans, but for now I’m focusing on the preparations.  Since Katie hates change, the sooner I can make modifications the better so she can adjust before the surgery.  And I’m going to build her a wide, very solid ramp for my vehicle.

I’m glad I found this site, because if I hadn’t I may have made a bad decision or at least taken too long to make the right decision. 

Thanks so much for the support. 

Thanks to both of you for the replies.  I had not seen the Shopping List, so thanks for that link and I will check it out.  The Flagline too.  I saw a very basic assistance wrap on Chewy that I may order now so I can get her used to it before the surgery. 

Yes, I do have a sense of relief, at least for now.  It helps that I can put my energy toward the preparations now.  Unfortunately, 12/16 is the earliest my vet can do it.  I wish it could be done sooner.  But, I guess that will give me plenty of time to prepare everything.  Plus, I'm having problems with my only vehicle, so need to make sure that is resolved. 

I sure hope Katie's pain doesn't get worse before the surgery.  I will certainly keep that thought in mind of asking for an increase in meds doses if needed.  I'm glad that she is being sensible about not moving around much.  I read the article about Patton breaking his leg the night before surgery (The Osteosarcoma Bone Cancer Fracture Risk is Real).  Scary!!

Thanks for the DIY idea.  I think I have a couple canvas shopping bags somewhere and will try to find them.

I really would like to try to get Katie in before 12/16, but need to get my vehicle problem resolved before I put her in it.  It is quite hard to get a vehicle repaired in a timely manner around here these days.  Couldn't get in to my regular mechanic for 2 weeks so am going to someone new on Tues and just hoping for the best. 

Katie is having a bad day.  Very uncomfortable and I could only get her to eat a tiny bit this morning.  She had a pretty good day yesterday, including a good appetite so I'm hoping this is just a bad day.  If I don't give the meds with a large meal they do seem to really upset her stomach too, which compounds her discomfort and may lead to refusal to even eat what I hide the meds in.  If this keeps up I guess I will call my vet Monday to see if she can add something to settle Katie's stomach.  I suppose maybe I should try giving her a little rice or something like that?  I hate to after reading about carbs and cancer, but I guess I need to do whatever works for now.  She is extremely sensitive to changes in diet though, so trying something new is concerning.  I really doubt she would eat it anyway.

This is what I've been feeding the last week or so.  Nature's Logic canned, Primal and Vital Essentials freeze dried, fresh chicken, lightly cooked, a little bit of ground beef, raw (mostly to hide meds in).  It is similar to her previous diet except I eliminated the dry food, which had some grains (Farmina Ancient Grains and Victor) and am giving her a lot more chicken now.  I previously fed the chicken raw but am now cooking it a bit.  This morning the only thing she would eat was the chicken, maybe 2 spoonfuls of canned, a little Primal, and the usual small treats - ground beef balls with meds and 2 small spoonfuls of cream cheese.  She only ate these things because I gave them to her treat style - not in the bowl.

I really think it is the meds causing her upset stomach but maybe I should also cut back on any of the food that might be contributing.  Too much fat seems to disagree with her, so I probably should cut back even more on the ground beef.  Just enough to get the pills down.  Unfortunately, the ground beef is her favorite, and something that she will probably always eat.  So . . . I don't know.

These are the meds she is on now:  Carprofen 50 mg 2x  Tramadol 50 mg 2x  Gabapentin 100 mg 2x   Dasuquin.  The Carprofen prescription is for 100 mg 1x and I started out that way but I changed to 50 mg 2x a couple days ago because I could tell the effectiveness was waning before the next dose, and I thought half doses would mean less stomach upset.  Maybe my change was the wrong thing to do(?)

So, if you have any suggestions about pain meds and upset tummies I'm all ears.

Thanks so much for all of that.  I do remember reading the article about Tramadol when I was exploring Tripawds articles.  Thanks for the link so I can find it again.  That is troubling that my vet still uses it.

She improved during the day and ate pretty well tonight.  But still probably less than a quarter of what she used to eat.  But she ate enough that hopefully the meds won't upset her tummy so much.  I guess we just keep limping along and hopefully I will get a routine down that works.