Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
Tripawds is your home to learn how to care for a three legged dog or cat, with answers about dog leg amputation, and cat amputation recovery from many years of member experiences.
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Hi all,
I have stumbled across this forum and feel very grateful to have found it.
Our 6 year old Whippet cross, Alan, has a suspected mast cell tumour on his front leg and coming to terms with possible amputation has been tough. He is such an active boy and loves to run and swim, so the thought of taking his leg is scary. Will he still be our beloved boy, full of character and life, post surgery.
What makes it more difficult is that our vet is uncertain that it is definitely a mast cell tumour. Despite wall to wall mast cells present at the first aspiration, when she went in to biopsy, there was no defined lump, just thickened tissue. However the pathology came back as stage1 mast cell tumour. For now we are monitoring the lump, treating with antihistamines, and hoping it’s just a crazy allergic reaction. He is getting aspirations once a month to monitor, the last one had less mass cells than the first aspiration, but that could be indicative of the antihistamines controlling a tumour. We just don’t know.
As hard as it is to say this, I wish someone could tell me he had a tumour, for certain, and I would amputate. But with the uncertainty, it’s hard to make such a drastic decision. We can wait a bit, but we don’t want to wait too long, as if it is a tumour it will spread. Such an agonizing decision.
Would love to hear from anyone who has been through something similar, some advice and words of encouragement would be wonderful right now!
Thanks everyone
Kathryn and Alan x
Hi Kathryn and Alan, welcome! Your future posts won't need to wait for approval so post away.
You're so right; amputation is tough under any circumstances but when the diagnosis is uncertain, it's even harder. Have you sought second or even third opinions from veterinary oncologists? That's a good next move if you haven't already. A veterinary teaching hospital would also be a good resource, that way you have many bright minds looking at his case and hopefully they can reach a conclusion and plan of action.
For now though, IF you had to do amputation (we hope you don't of course!), know that Alan has everything on his side for life on three legs. He's young, he's small, fit and active. That would make transitioning to the Tripawd life relatively easy.
You'll hear this a lot in the three-legged world: amputation is harder on the people than the animals, and it is so so true. Chances are Alan will bounce back very well, much faster than you would ever believe. Sure, recovery isn't a picnic but when that's over, dogs go on to have terrific lives on three.
If you haven't already seen Jerry's Required Reading List or our book, Three Legs and a Spare , I highly encourage you to check them out. And stay tuned for feedback from others! Thanks for joining. Alan is adorable, love that avatar!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Hi Kathryn and Alan. Alan is so cute! My dog Jake lost his front left leg to a soft tissue sarcoma 3 months ago. He's a lab, 3 years old. The cancer was in his elbow and couldn't be excised. This site gave me the strength to help Jake by removing his leg. He is doing awesome! He's happy. He runs, swims, etc. I just posted some videos to commemorate his 3 month "ampuversary". What I can attest to is that if Alan does need to become a tripawd he will still be happy and bring you much joy! Good luck.
We know this uncertainty rough. ,Of course, Alan isn't worried about a thing. That's the bliss of being a dog!
As you already alluded to, once you can formulate a plan and move forward, you will have a sense of relief. And we are here for you on whatever treatment plan the Vet suggests. And yes, second opinions can be helpful in situations like these.
Okay, stay connected update when you can.
Hugs
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
Happy Hannah had a glorious additional bonus time of over one yr & two months after amp for osteo! She made me laugh everyday! Joined April's Angels after send off meal of steak, ice cream, M&Ms & deer poop!
Hi Kathryn and Alan, welcome.
I'm sorry you are dealing with potential mast cell cancer. My first two Pugs each had multiple MCTs over their lives. Our oncologist said that mast cell cancer was one of the cancers she found most difficult to treat because it was so unpredictable. My first Pug Maggie lost a leg to a MCT then had more tumors show up that just sat there. She also had a poor prognosis of 6 to 9 months after her amp yet she lived almost 4 more years and did not pass from mast cell cancer. I had a couple tumors removed from my second Pug Tani and before the path report came back two more popped up. I stopped removing tumors from Tani as she got older and they just sat there, she never had internal metastasis and she lived to almost 15 years old and did not pass from cancer.
It's not clear from your post- are you working with an oncologist who is experienced with mast cell cancer? In my experience if the aspirate comes back as mast cell cancer then the tumor is a MCT. I think my two girls between them had something like 20 or 24 MCTs over their lives- every lump that aspirated as a MCT and was removed for biopsy came back as a MCT. You said that the biopsy came back as a grade one but you are sill watching the lump? In my experience the only way to get a grade on a tumor was to remove it and submit it for analysis. Did your vet only remove part of the tumor? Maybe because it was on the leg? That's one of the problems with a MCT on a limb, it's hard to remove the tumor with enough tissue to get good margins. Did you also get a mitotic index on the path report? A low MI indicates a less aggressive tumor.
Also- did they do any other tests to check for mast cell cancer? An abdominal ultrasound is usually done to check the liver and spleen- mast cell cancer will spread there. There are also lymph node aspirates and I think we did something with bone marrow on Maggie. She lost a back leg because the tumor was in her knee and could not be removed with any kind of margin. You can read her story and about her amp and chemo if you are interested- the links are in my signature below.
I hope that is it was a mast cell tumor it is in fact a low grade that isn't going to do anything.
Karen and the Spirit Pug Girls
Tri-pug Maggie survived a 4.5 year mast cell cancer battle only to be lost to oral melanoma.
1999 to 2010
Thanks so much for the encouragement. The vet is planning on doing an ultrasound, when we have decided what the next step is for us. The strange thing with this potential mast cell is that there wasn’t a defined lump when the vet did a biopsy. She said she has aspirated 100s of potential tumours in her career and never seen this before. She said it was ‘thickened tissue’ but no defined lump. That explains her reticence to jump to a cancer diagnosis right away. I appreciate her approach, as she has our dogs best interests at heart. She is connected with a forum of oncologists and is very experienced with cancer treatment in dogs.
I feel great comfort from reading all these messages, thank you for all the support. The more I read and the more videos I watch, the more settled I feel.
Bless you all xx
I appreciate her approach, as she has our dogs best interests at heart
It is soooooo important to have a good relationship with your vet and have that level of trust!
I'm really curious about this 'thickenend tissue' so please keep us posted. I've been fortunate with my last two dogs (Pug and Pug mix) to avoid MCTs (at least so far, knock, knock, knock) but I try and keep up with the latest info since Pugs are one of the breeds prone to MCTs.
Still hoping for you and Alan that it is not a MCT!
Karen and the Spirit Pug Girls
Tri-pug Maggie survived a 4.5 year mast cell cancer battle only to be lost to oral melanoma.
1999 to 2010
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