this story will be familar.  11 year old husky wolfdog Denali was diagnosed with metastatic apocrine cancer in his elbow (which is highly unusual for this type to be in the elbow). The specialty vet thought they could save his leg so we have done surgery, stereotactic radiation, carboplatin, and a little bit of palladia since June 2018. 

After all that, the cancer has returned to his leg and is probably still present in one of his nodes. A chest xray 1.5 months ago showed no cancer. He is limping,  very slow, and not putting much weight on the bad leg. Currently he is on gabapentin, carprofen, and trazadone for the pain. I’m trying palladia again if he doesn’t have diarrhea from it. 

The oncology vet said we could discuss amputation to relieve his pain, but it would not be a cure-all for this cancer “on fire.” So now we have a decision of amputation or palliative care. 

Some things going thru my brain-

1.  Even if amputation relieves his current pain, he is an older dog and will have to recover from it. Not sure if he has arthritis in his other limbs. He has recovered very well from other surgeries. 

2.  He will probably die within 6 months ? (No one is saying but this is my guess) - so will amputation help his qol in his short time left?

3. We have spent probably $30k on his diagnosis and treatment thus far. We make a decent living so we could afford it. We made a deal to ourselves not to regret the expense even if Denali died soon after. Amputation would be $5-7k? A part of me wants to stop spending money. I feel very guilty about this. [insert rant about my $8k car and how $30k could have bought me a new Subaru Outback lol]

4. My husband is willing to throw money towards the dog (who is like my first born son) and is pro-amputation. But he is much softer hearted and I am harder hearted and more pragmatic. I have been at many animal euthanasia’s and know it’s a peaceful process which we will do at home)

5. Is there anything else we can do for his pain? Acupuncture? 

6.  We discussed amputation at the beginning of the process but opted not to. I’m trying my hardest to not have hindsight regret. 

Thanks for reading. This is such a difficult decision when we know death is coming fairly soon either way. 

-Jen