Well, it's 7 days today since Leland had his left rear leg amputated.  Leland had been dealing with a "mass" in the stifle since Feb 2014.  The first surgeon we were referred to took an MRI and needle biopsy.  The surgeon suspected cancer but the biopsy came back from 2 different labs as inconclusive.  So we discussed things with our local vet, who had received the MRI report from the surgeon which indicated "suspected synovial cell sarcoma", and decided to keep Leland as comfortable as possible until we would have to put him to sleep. 

Leland is a big boy (108 lb) Dobie and the local vet had concerns about the quality of life he'd have since there is concern that the cruciate ligaments in the right knee will more than likely go out.  So we would take Leland to the local vet every 1-2 months for follow-up x-rays to see if there were changes in the bone or if the cancer had spread to other organs. 

When we took Leland in on 5/12 and the vet was shocked that he was still here and the bone in the left hind leg didn't appear to look to have any signs of cancer and there was nothing new in the chest x-ray.  He told us he did not believe Leland had cancer and that we needed to get his leg fixed...the swelling in the knee joint and pushed his knee cap out of place. 

So on 5/19 Leland saw a different surgeon and after taking x-rays of his own and spending time with Leland he too did not believe he was dealing with synovial cell sarcoma.  After the bloodwork came back ok Leland went in for a TPLO procedure on 5/20.  The surgeon removed the "mass" which he said was extremely inflamed tissue and he's never seen anything like it in his 40 years of practice.  It was sent to be biopsied and it came back that it wasn't cancer but they really have no idea what it was or what caused it.  The surgeon tested Leland for all tick borne illnesses not just Lyme Disease since so many can affect the joints but he came back negative on all those as well. 

Well, Leland's recovery after the TPLO did not go well.  He had severe drainage at the incision site and we had to take him back twice and the 2nd time the surgeon admitted him on 5/29.  Leland had gotten and infection and 2 screws in the top of the plate that is attached to the meniscus had come loose and backed out. 

I suspect that all these months of Leland continuing to use the leg (it would click and pop) possibly damaged the meniscus to where it was too brittle (the surgeon mentioned it was like something in an elderly person).  On 6/1 the surgeon called us to come down because a decision had to be made...amputate or put Leland to sleep.  They couldn't get the infection under control and the tissue was not healing.  They feared if it got into his bloodstream we'd loose him for sure. 

So my husband and I rushed to the clinic with some of his favorite things to eat...he was hardly eating for the staff.  He showed us that he wasn't done yet when he wanted to play with my husband and he started eating for me.  We saw that he was pretty much just dragging his leg around...he had no real control over it's movement even being bandaged. So we made the hard decision to amputate the leg.  Leland finally went into surgery at 1am on 6/2 and the surgeon called us at 2:30am to let us know our boy made it through the procedure and it was good that we didn't wait any longer. 

We picked him up at noon on 6/3 and he's getting back to his old feisty self before he got the mystery mass in Feb.  I downloaded the ebooks offered on this site "Three Legs and a Spare " and it has been extremely helpful for us.  I'm also waiting for the Webmaster Harness which should arrive this week. 

Leland has been showing the whole family how awesome he is and that he can adapt to his new situation and that we just have to keep up....