Good afternoon all,

Today has been a rough day.. we took our "kitto" Alfredo to the vet for a CT scan and the recommendation for amputation of his hind right leg was given.  I spent the next hour a blubbering snot mess, but I think I'm okay now, comparatively.  

The story is, last spring we noticed spots of blood throughout our house and found his foot to be really swollen in the pads, so off to the vet...  Long story short, he had an osteosarcoma on one of his toes on the same leg.  The toe was removed, and we found this to be inconvenient but he sprang right back to normal form and didn't seem affected at all.  More than anything, the e-collar he had to wear was the worst part because he couldn't clean himself and if ever I thought feline depression existed.. it was at this time.

Jump forward to this past February, I saw that his paw was bigger than the left paw.  With his history, I was paranoid, so I made an appointment with the vet.  I also noticed a bumpy mass higher up on his ankle.  The vet recommended removing that for sure, but didn't seem as concerned with the swollen foot.  The vet prescribed some anti-inflammatory meds, removed the bump, and he has recovered fairly well.  But then he started to limp, which was new behavior (he didn't even limp with the big swollen bloody toe), so we ended up with the CT scan today, and now the amputation recommendation.. blah blah.

The internet has helped.  I'm seeing lots of success stories.  I understand that it will hopefully be good for him (although there is a possibility of chemo after this--but I'm putting that out of my head for now) and that it's more painful mentally for me than it will be for him.. but still.  

If anyone has any comforting words regarding rear leg amputation I'm all ears.  Thanks for taking a few minutes to read this.