Thank you SO much for this site. I've been getting information and reading others' stories.

My eight year old Rottweiler Cooper has been through a lot since October when he had left elbow surgery for a dysplasia condition (to remove pieces of his coronoid process that had broken loose.) I've known he was dysplastic since a year old but he defied the predictions of early arthritis and has had a very full life, competing to fairly high levels in agility and being generally an active doggie who has accompanied me on many adventures, as well as keeping the other dogs in my house in line. 🙂

So...the elbow surgery was unsuccessful (I was very aware this was a risk, no fault of the surgeon.) He actually became steadily worse after a while. A month ago, a needle biopsy indicated no cancer. Unfortunately that was a false negative, as it turns out. In the meantime I researched lots of options for him and settled on the TATE elbow prosthesis which is in clinical trials at MSU. The vets agreed at that time that amputation was NOT an option, given his age and size. He's 95lbs, very lean and fit, but that is still a lot to bear, and he does have some mild arthritis in his right elbow (bilateral dysplasia.)

On Monday went to see the ortho surgeon at MSU. They did more xrays...and the tiny ambiguous shadow from 3 1/2 weeks ago is now a big blurry mass and part of his elbow joint is simply gone. They do not know what type of cancer yet (possibly synovial cell) without biopsy. But he is in considerable, unrelenting pain - Fentanyl patches may be taking the edge off at this point, but it's hard to tell - and I am down to two choices: euthanise or amputate.

I chose amputation because I do not want the life of this vital, high drive, wonderful dog to simply end after months of pain and inactivity. Right now he is hobbling on three legs and does not even want to get up unless he has to. He's wearing his tracking harness so I can help him get around. He obviously can't continue like this so the day after tomorrow the leg comes off. I realise this may be palliative, as there is a tiny spot on the lung that may be a cancerous nodule, and we haven't done an ultrasound yet to check for cancer elsewhere. But  I really, really want him not to hurt. At least for a while. I have promised myself that I won't put him through any more pain or heroic measures if the cancer spreads.

I so hope I am making the right descision for Cooper. It's been an overwhelming week.

Thank you for any words of encouragement or experience...this is not (unfortunately) the first time I have dealt with cancer in a Rottweiler, but I have zero experience with amputation.

Carina