Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Such great news to read! Thank you for sharing. Reading this before bed and it gives me hope as my 75lb girl goes in for her amputation tomorrow morning. Lacey certainly had a rough beginning but she is doing so well! And she is absolutely beautiful!
Thank you and I'm happy our story gave you hope for tomorrow. Wishing you all the positivity and strength for your big day tomorrow. It's hard but you'll get through it. Please keep me posted on how it all turns out.
Thank you so much for a detailed account of Lacey's recovery. My 7 year old Great Pyrenees mix (97 pounds), Ellie, heads in for a front leg amputation in about an hour.
Funny enough, she is also going into a clinical trial at CSU for her chemotherapy so I see a lot of similarities. I never heard the slow mover/critical thinker, but I always explained Ellie as a "solid medium energy dog" haha which fits me as I'm a medium energy person 😂
Sending all my best for Ellie's surgery and let me know how it goes. Can I ask what kind of chemo? If there's any help I can provide, I'm here! Yes, Lacey still studies her path for a while before she starts hopping. But, she's always accurate!
Ellie did well in her surgery, she had an upset stomach through the night, though, so may not come home today, but we will see this afternoon!
her chemotherapy will be Vismodegib plus Carboplatin. Vismo is an oral drug currently used for human skin cancer- they have seen results where vismo delays the spread of osteosarcoma and are evaluating the safety and molecular effects of vismo.
There were other trials, but they all would mean delaying her getting her amputation and that just wasn't something I was willing to do and the fact that she will still get carboplatin made me feel better as well.
If you're interested heres a link to the study overview: https://www.csu.....eosarcoma/
What was Lacey's?
YAY Ellie! Congratulations, one hurdle is over!
Oooh Vismo eh? That's a new one to me. I'm so excited you get to try it out. Thanks for sharing the link.
Sending my best on her recovery! I haven't heard about vismo either. You gotta love the crossover cancer work they're doing with canines and humans. Lacey had an immunotherapy inhalant (IL-15 for 14 days) immediately after her amputation. After that it was 4 carboplatin treatments. We sat on that for a while, then I decided to do Torigen for extra measure. But, I pleaded with UCD to get a sample during the amputation that Torigen put on ice until I was ready for them to make it, and they did.
Sounds like you're off to a good start and I hope she's home and recovering soon. Keep us posted.
So much hope🤔 Thanks for helping out inthe research Tyson!!😎 You're a very good boy♥️
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!
Hello, I was curious if there is an update on Lacey? My girl Ellie recently showed signs of lung metastasis and we are considering the MIMIC trial. I was curious if you went through with that or just how Lacey is doing in general?
Hi. I'm so sorry about the lung mets. I did email them about MIMIC but didn't hear back. I also didn't follow up on it because I just thought it would be too much for Lacey (travel, dr visits, etc). Sounds like this could be great for you though. If she's doing well with the amputation and has energy, and you can make it work, I'd love to hear all about it.
My status update is that Lacey was doing fine until about a month ago (May). No obvious signs that her lungs were bothering her, but she has started to slow down in her ability to get around. I think it's arthritis. AND, what's worse, is that I noticed a growth on her neck about 3 weeks ago. Took her in and they think it's thyroid cancer. When I noticed it, it was a racquetball size, now it's baseball. I decided to not have it removed and wrestle with that every day. Even if I had it removed, she's still having trouble walking so why put her though surgery. But, she's eating so there's a win. And I spend as much time with her every minute I can. She turned 11 this month also so that's something to celebrate for a big girl.
That is very much deserving of celebration, 11 for a Pyrenees is pretty impressive, but add cancer that's freaking incredible!! So sorry to hear about the growth, I definitely understand not having it removed I know that must have been a really hard decision to make, but you're doing it for her well being and making her last days the most pain free possible, I'm sure she's loving all the love from you and simply enjoying life.
Yeah I originally reached out about the MIMIC trial right after Ellie had her amputation and they took nearly a month to get back to me (and that was with me following up!)- they definitely have some forwarding issues going on over there, but it worked out when I actually needed to get a hold of the vet running the trial I had his direct email.
Ellie has adjusted to 3 legs really well, it just sucks we are making these decisions so soon, it's only been 2.5 months since her amputation. So we are actually waiting a month to redo the xrays and see what her lungs look like again- as long as there's not a big increase we'll move forward, but otherwise it's really not worth putting her through a surgery.
Thank you for the update, sending Lacey all the healthy vibes!!
Amy thank you for updating about Lacy (and thanks for that nudge, Whitney). I'm sorry about the latest condition, what a gut punch! I think I would probably make the same choice as you did as far as whether or not to treat it. Tough call for sure.
I hope that she gets lots more happy days ahead with you and her favorite people. 11 is a big deal! Love that girl give her tons of kisses and let her know the Tripawds community is cheering her on!
You have always put Lacey's quality first, and this is another example of that. Spending time spoiling snd just bring together is the best kind of "treatment " as far as Lacey is concrrned.
.Hope you get ice cream and cake for your birthday celebration.🎂🥳🍨
(((((((((((((((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!
Thanks so much for documenting Lacey’s journey with this. My 8 year old, heart dog, Great Pyrenees was diagnosed with this horrible cancer last week and I am trying to weigh out the options and am now between stereotactic radiation/chemo vs amputation/chemo and really can’t decide. My thought with the former is I’d just buy time with him having a functional leg then move to amputation later, but not sure if that’s a good way to proceed. It’s really hard getting any definitive answers in this. I’m so worried he might not be mobile after amputation and he weighs 120 lbs. Anyway, it seems like Lacey had a rough start but things definitely improved over time so that is encouraging.
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