Hey all,

This is my first post here. Some back story - My 5 year old yellow lab came out of his crate in the morning in February very lame and his whole right front leg swollen. Nothing had precipitated this event and we ended up calling our primary vet. The problem here is that the only vet we like at the office is so popular we never get to see her for sick visits - so we saw someone else. This vet felt that he must have injured himself even tho he was completely fine before going into his crate the night before. So we go home and rest him. A few days later he seems to be limping less but we notice a little bump forming on the lateral aspect of his elbow. So we go back to the vet again, see the same one and he says “he must have banged it”, we then asked for xrays as this seemed super peculiar to us but he refused saying he didn’t need them. Over the next month he stops limping but the bump is still there and possibly growing. We go a 3rd time to this same vet and they again refuse xrays. The bump is now much larger.

Covid hits. I am an icu nurse and I am working crazy hours. Our pup starts limping again and we make an appt for a second opinion at another vet practice. They see him first week of May and automatically want to do xrays. He has his xrays and the office immediately tells us they suspect cancer but that they want to send out the films to the local animal hospital who has a board certified radiologist bc it’s unusual for a 5 year old dog to have cancer. The films are sent out and we are called and told - the quality of the films aren’t that great and they tell us he has elbow dysplasia.

We hunt for surgeons in our area that handle elbow dysplasia. Not many. Made even harder by covid where many places are not doing any orthopedic. We end up finding 2 surgeons both over 1.5hrs away from us to see our pup. We made appts May 15 and first available appts were 6/9 and 7/1.

We go to his first consult and this surgeon says his xrays look funny but then says he’s too young for cancer. He does have elbow dysplasia but this bump on his arm doesn’t go along with that. This surgeon thinks he has a muscle tear and books him for repeat xrays and targeted ultrasound on 7/15 (!!!??!!!)

We now decide to go to his second consult 7/1 at MSPCA Angell in Boston (tufts was emergency only!) and immediately the surgeon calls us and tells us his xrays look very suspicious and that he even ran down the hall to see the radiologist and we are not worrying about this elbow dysplasia but cancer instead.

So 7/10 he goes back to repeat xrays of right leg and chest, tissue and fluid biopsies. 7/16 we learn he has cancer. His chest X-ray was clear. We are looking at histiocytic sarcoma or synovial cell sarcoma. They sent out his tissue biopsy for additional testing to differentiate type. His oncology appt is 7/29 and they will do an abdominal ultrasound for staging.

It has been 5 months since we noticed symptoms. I am physically sick knowing my 5 year old lab might have this horrible cancer. We are now praying it is synovial cell type because he could have a relatively long life with that one - where the other is known to be super aggressive. We have some peace knowing from May to June - his xrays did not have any noticeable changes.

We are now discussing amputation as treatment. He already seems a little bummed out - his elbow site is bothering him. Plus the fluid is already accumulating again and one of his sutures popped. The surgeon said that he isn’t surprised with how much crap was in there that this is happening and that if we have to we can amp prior to the onc appt but he would like to see if we can wait to see what they recommend. It is possible if he does have spread they would not recommend amp at all.

I am wondering if anyone with experience with an amp can help me. I’m having trouble coming to terms about the recovery and how much pain I’m causing him with this surgery. Is there anything special I can prepare for with getting the house ready? Any particular harnesses? I have another lab as well and he really misses playing with her.

If you got this far then you deserve a medal. I might have rambled a bit but I am super sad and frustrated that I tried so hard to be a good advocate for my dog but I came up short.