Our American Bulldog, Loki, was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma in August of 2019. We were absolutely devastated. She was only 5 years old at the time. So hearing “amputation” and possibly only 3-5 months to live was overwhelming. So we came home from the vets that day, and cried. And cried….we couldn’t believe this was happening. My daughter was able to reach out to our vet friend who got us in contact asap with an oncologist in Akron, OH….about an hour and a half drive….our journey began. After seeing and talking with her, we made the decision to amputate her front leg. Scared to death because of her size….she was 136 pounds at the time….and had had torn BOTH ACL’s when she was 1 AND 2. But because of the metal plates in her back leg, they felt her legs were strong enough to support her weight. So we scheduled her surgery for 3 weeks later….and I’m telling you it was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Her rehab was not easy due to her back left paw buckling under…so here we were with a 3 legged dog, and being a bull dog, she did not like being helped. Slowly but surely we started having better days….her foot started straightening out….and finally she had healed enough to where we still needed to get her back to the vet to start chemo. We found a vet closer to us that we were able to start treatments with her. Loki had 4 chemo treatments….we were supposed to continue to have X-ray check ups after that, but as we all know what happened in March of 2020….we never went back. We only did her checkups with our local vet, but she showed no signs of decline. In Oct of 2023 we found out Loki had a mass in her intestines, and were able to have that removed successfully. Unfortunately the biopsy came back as lymphoma….so we took her back once again to our oncologist vet, and we started chemo once again. 

But here we are, almost 5 years later, and she’s showing no sign of slowing down or giving up. I have her on only one prescription, Carprofen….everything else I give her are supplements. Are they helping her? I have no idea, but I will continue doing exactly what I’m doing for her.

So I know the diagnosis is scary…and the expense is overwhelming. We are so blessed to have been able to do what we’ve been able to do for her and I never imagined she would have made it to 10. I hope if anyone out there gets the same diagnosis, know that every dog is different….but they certainly have a strong will to fight and live. I couldn’t imagine my life without her❤️