Just a note: I had a chuckle (out loud in my office) when I saw the post of Wyatt asking Sasha to chase cats together. You two get a doghouse. heheheheheheh   How adorable! You two are outstanding examples of GSDs.

Oh yeah, P.S. Definitely use a specialist for the surgery! We took Cadence to the VCA here in our hometown.  

P.S.S. I just had to edit this post and say that CR you are a good looking GSD too. I'm going to have to hide this topic from Cadence. She might drool on my keyboard. 

Hello:

My greyhound has had a fibrosarcoma tumor removed three times in just over a year.  The last removal was in Sept...she now has three more growing in the same area...It is heartbreaking.  Fibros are almost impossible to ever clear up with surgery alone as the tentacles of cancer spread too far out.  I am faced now with going with a holistic vet as she is too frail to really handle chemo or radiation...it would not be good quality of life for her.  Amputation is impossible due to the location of the tumors.  If things do not work holisitcally for her, I fear the worst.. 🙁

I had a dog with osteo, and she handled her rear leg amputation like a champ!  She was ten at the time.  Dogs recover quite well from amps.  Amputation may be the only true "cure" for fibros.  I know how hard a decision it is though...Whatever you decide will be the best decision as it will be made out of love...

I also do have the care card, and I love it.  Without it, I don't know how I would have been able to pay for so many vet bills.  It is 6 months, no interest...Just don't miss a payment, and pay it off by 6 months or the interest rate is high high high!

Good luck with your baby...I am right there with you with these darn fibros!

I'm glad to hear low grade - is it 1 or 2?

My dog, Spencer is a (just turned) 5 year old doberman.  In August we realized he had a tumor on his shoulder.  It grew fast - from nothing to the size of a jumbo egg in about 2 months.  He stayed overnight at the vet when I took him in (within 30 minutes of seeing the tumor) and they did a biopsy the next day.  The vet called after finishing that surgery and said that he was sending it off for the biopsy; but that he was sure it was some form of cancer.  It came back as a grade 3 fibrosarcoma.  A week after first seeing the tumor we had his leg amputated.

At first the thought of amputation was hard; but by the time that week was up we knew it was a good thing - if we were doing the amputation then we thought there was a chance he could make it.  If we didn't do the amputation we knew it was because it wouldn't have a chance of extending his quality of life.  

but it was also hard because he didn't seem to be in any pain.  But after the biopsy I realized he has REALLY high pain threshold.  For the biopsy he had 14 stitches and he didn't want to slow down at all from that.  So who knows if he was in pain from the tumor...

I did go with our family vet for the amputation and have no regrets about it.  Now Spencer is also seeing an oncologist weekly.  This is supposed to be THE group to go to in Atlanta for serious problems (Spencer also now sees a cardiologist there) and I do think that they take good care of him there; but it just doesn't compare to how he is treated at our family vet's office.  At our family vet they LOVE Spencer.  After his amputation one of the vet techs spent the day sitting in his kennel with him.  They made sure someone was there with him the entire day.  They take the time to make sure I understand EVERYTHING and even take the time to go over things that I might not be sure about from his oncologist and cardiologist at the specialists' offices.  I have no clue how much it would have cost to have his amputation done at the specialist's office; but I'm sure it would have cost more than it did at the family vet.  I paid about $1,100 for that.  We didn't even meet with the cardiologist until 3 weeks after the amputation.  (called to make the appointment when we got the stitches out, it took 6 days to get in.)  

Pre surgery Spencer was about 85 lbs (he is an oversized doberman - a rescue - and he had a few extra pounds on him).  We now are keeping him at a pretty healthy weight for him of around 73 +/_ lbs.  he is AMAZING on his 3 legs!  He runs all over our property, has tons of energy and just doesn't seem to miss the leg at all.  I'm more cautious with him now - warning him to be careful on stairs and such; but he figures it all out.  I don't regret the amputation for a second!!!  For us, with his grade of tumor, we didn't really have an option.  But when talking to the oncologist the first time he told me, "The amputation was the right thing to do without a doubt.  And if this were a grade 1 or 2 fibrosarcoma we would consider it to likely be a curative surgery."  So for you, I bet it is a really good option.  For us, we are also doing chemo; but that is because of the grade 3.

Good luck!  And definitely let me know if I rambled here without answering something important.  There aren't as many of us fibrosarcoma folks on here; but it looks like there are a few more of us recently.