Barney, our beautiful, goofy yellow Lab, entered my life in 2004, just a couple of weeks after I lost Opie to cancer, my best friend of 13 years. Barney was a shelter dog that a friend of mine introduced me to. From the moment I met Barney, when he jumped up and “hugged” me with his front paws around my neck and gave me a big, wet sloppy kiss, he has been a bright spot in my life, a constant source of love and happy memories. This is not his entire story, but rather the overview of how he came to be a tripawd, and his successful progress to date.

Like many of our loved ones on this site, Barney developed a limp at summer’s end of 2007. Since he and our other boy, Floyd, love to chase each other and play, at first we thought it was some sort of strain from over exertion. After a couple of weeks with no improvement, we went to see our vet, who also thought it was likely a ligament or muscle strain, but we went ahead and took x-rays. The x-rays revealed nothing except what appeared to be beginnings of arthritis. We decided to force him to rest and incorporate the anti-inflammatory, Derramax.

I immediately saw improvement and we went on our merry way for a couple of months until around Christmas time when the limp returned. Then, in January the limp worsened and we went back to the vet. We repeated x-rays which, again, revealed nothing significant so my vet suggested we see the specialists in our area. Our first appointment was with the orthopedic surgeon because we still thought we were dealing with some sort of tear or muscle damage that might be repairable with arthroscopic surgery. We decided to first do some diagnostics – an MRI and an ultrasound, and that’s when the real culprit was revealed – a huge tumorous mass which was wrapped 3⁄4 around Barney’s right front shoulder.

The doctor shared the MRI films and report with me and told me he was 99% certain that it was cancer. It was not OS, but rather some sort of soft-tissue sarcoma, but would still require amputation right away to relieve Barney’s increasing pain and that we would also surgically remove the lymph gland that was integrated in that area, and test it for possible spread. They said that there are several different varieties of soft-tissue sarcoma, some with better prognosis than others, but we wouldn’t know exactly what kind Barney had until we did the surgery and received biopsy results. So, on February 14, 2008, Barney became a tripawd and we tentatively waited out the official biopsy results from the surgery.

Barney’s biopsy revealed that his soft-tissue sarcoma contained markers for the worst of the possible soft tissue cancers, histiocytic sarcoma, so we started talking about possible treatment options. At two weeks post op, we moved to the Oncology Department, and after Barney had his staples removed, they did a chest x-ray, and abdominal ultrasound to check for metastasis in lungs, liver and kidneys. When we found no visible signs of spread, we decided to go ahead and move forward with chemotherapy. The vets were careful to tell us that even with chemo, this type of cancer carried a prognosis of 6 months.

The chemo treatment plan for Barney includes 5 rounds of Doxorubicin (aka Adriamycin) at two week intervals, with a re-check of chest and abdomen before the third treatment and a month after the fifth. Had the vet seen signs of nodules prior to the third treatment, she would have switched chemotherapy drugs, but we were all clear, so we stayed on the original plan. We are now getting ready for round 4 on Wednesday, and Barney has tolerated the chemo quite well. He is just now showing some signs of hair loss, and interestingly enough, the spot where he’s lost the most is at the top of the surgery site itself. (I’ve seen Darcy Deerhound’s pictures on this site, so I’m hopeful that Barney’s hair will grow back equally as beautiful and luxurious!)

We include Metacam in Barney’s daily routine for his hip dysplasia, and we also are including fish oil and the antioxidant, CoQ10. Both Barney and Floyd are enjoying their Innova EVO diet, supplemented with fresh carrots, apples and cottage cheese, as well as some other random things that make it into the dog bowls courtesy of my daughter. EVO is especially good for canine cancer patients because of the high protein amounts and high quality ingredients, made right here in the USA. (for older dogs which compromised kidney function, this might not be a good choice)

I’m including Barney’s picture from a recent romp on the beach in Galveston, Texas, and as you can see, he’s thriving in his new tripawd body! I’m praying that we will beat the odds of the prognosis and have much more happy time together.

Much love to Jerry and his pawrents, AND to all of you for all of the knowledge and support that you continually share.

Hugs and wags,

- Linda and her son, Barney B