Hi all, time for us (I'm Tony, Emma is my partner and our beautiful 6.5 year old Great Dane Huckleberry) to say hello.

We live in Melbourne, Australia.

Unfortunately, as with most people that find this wonderful site, the reason I am here saying hello is not a good one.

It looks like Huckleberry will soon be joining the Tripawds gang thanks to cancer in his left rear hock.

It has been an absolute roller coaster of a couple of weeks, so I'll break down a brief timeline for you guys before I go any further.

Wednesday 29th April - Huck slipped over at home in the middle of a round of "zoomies", he got his back legs tangled and tried to stand by pushing up from the outside of his leg. It took me a second to run over to him to help, by which time he'd obviously hurt himself. He settled down and slept for a couple of hours so I didn't disturb him. When he woke up I took him out for a pee to see how the leg was. He seemed fine, no limp unless he tried to run, but not too bad. The next day he was fine, no sign of any pain or limp.

Sunday 3rd May - A few days later we walked him to the shops. As him and I were stood outside waiting for Emma I noticed he was holding hi leg up when stood still. He walked fine, but as soon as you stood still he held up the leg. When I looked closely I saw the hock joint was quite swollen. This was a Sunday evening.

Monday 4th May - On the Monday night I took him to the vet after work. Prognosis was likely a bad sprain from the slip, presenting late due maybe to Sunday's walk being a bit too much on a weakened joint from the fall. "Worst Case" the vet though possible fracture or ligament damage which may need to be fused. We scheduled an xray for the next day.

Tuesday 5th May - Xray day, we dropped him off for the xray, expecting at worst to be told we'd need to fuse his hock. When we got a call on the afternoon the news broke our hearts. Suspected Ostosarcoma! Pure co-incidence with the fall. Our vet didn't think his chances were great. He was very against amputation due to his size and thought chemo "might" give him a little more time, but basically we were to prepare for palliative care. We were absolutely heartbroken. They kept him in and did a bone biopsy.

Friday 8th May - Bone Biopsy results came back with no sign of cancer. That gave us a fleeting glimmer of hope, but the vet went on to explain that it's quite normal not to get a result, it just means they didn't hit the right spot with the biopsy but looking at the xray there's little doubt it's an advanced bone tumor. Once again, heart breaking news.

Tuesday 12th May - We took him to the Victorian Animal Cancer Center specialists to see what we could do for him. They were AMAZING in there. Dr Laura spent a whole hour with us and talked us through all the possibilities of what it might be, and what his options were. Ranging from palliative care to chemo to amputation. I told her our concerns that our local vet though amputation was a bad idea but Dr Laura explained that there would be no problem on three legs at all and that they have a saying that all dogs are born with three legs and a spare! They scheduled him for a CT scan and a Jamshedy biopsy the next day to try and find out exactly what we're dealing with. The chief suspect was still Ostesarcoma and course of action was penciled in as amputation and chemo with a possible average survival time of 12 months.

Wednesday 13th May - Back to VACC for CT scan and biopsy. Dr Laura extremely confident she was able to get a good sample and also took a secondary backup tissue cell swab.

Thursday 14th May - CT results back, no sign of any spread as yet so that was great news. Some minor things showed up on the CT like the onset of arthritis in front knees and hips and 3 bulging discs in his neck but nothing to cause great concern. Surgical consult booked in for the following Wednesday pending Jamshedy results.

Friday 15th May - Jamshedy biopsy results back, NO SIGN OF CANCER. Now they're all stumped. Everything else still points to cancer. Based on where the tumor is though, and that is is growing toward his foot rather than away which is more usual and that it has crossed the cartilage they now suspect a rare type of bone fungus infection. The pathologist was going to retest the biopsy sample for fungus over the weekend. Prognosis if fungus found would be drugs first, then possible a bone scrape and bone cement followed by amputation if we are ultimately unable to kill the fungus.

Monday 18th - Fungal result back, NO SIGN OF FUNGUS. OK, this is getting frustrating. Everyone's back to thinking it has to be some form of cancer. Dr Laura then sends off the secondary backup tissue swab sample for testing to the same pathologist.

Tuesday 19th May, (yesterday as I write this) - swab results are positive for cancer cells. At last, not great news, but at least we're getting toward a diagnosis now.

So, as I write this on the morning of Wednesday 20th May, the current thinking is that he has some form of cancer in his left hind leg, not necessarily a bone cancer but a cancer that has spread into his bone. Of the possible cancers that it could be, one would be completely cured with amputation and not require chemo. The other would require amputation and chemo and average life expectancy of 18 months but it is a weird cancer that in come cases can turn aggressive.

He is scheduled to see the surgeon on Monday morning, 25th May, and depending on the surgical exam as to whether he is a good candidate for amputation they may remove his leg the same day.

As it stands, we are preparing ourselves for him to lose his leg on Monday and then they can property test the removed leg to find out exactly what we're dealing with so we know whether chemo will be required and what his prognosis might be.

I've been reading the forums a little over the last week or two, but was reluctant to post until we knew what we were dealing with. Now it looks highly likely that he'll have the leg amputated, it's time to get into research mode, 3-leg proof the house and arm ourselves with as much info as possible on how to deal with a 165 pound 3 legged dog when he comes home from the hospital!

Thanks for a great community, resources like this prove invaluable at these times. We will keep you updated as we go and would love to hear from anyone who has gone through similar, particularly with large breeds, and tips for coping.

We were pretty distraught at the outset but it has sunk in a little now and we are coping. He comes to work with me everyday, so I get to spend a lot of time with him. We've come to accept what's going on and now just need to ready ourselves to deal with whatever is thrown at us to give him as long as possible at the best possible quality of life and we have discussed and agreed that as soon as he starts to suffer we'll make the necessary decision as to what's best for him.

Thanks for listening.

Tony, Emma and Huck.