stellblu said

Hey all I actually found this site back in August, and have posted a few pics of my Grady over on the Tripawds Facebook Page , but haven't really told his story. But he's six weeks out now, and I'm just so proud, I could burst!!!

A little background...Grady is a Golden, and he'll be 11 on Nov.18th. He was a Christmas puppy (my love,Mono, had crossed the bridge 2 weeks before Christmas the previous year), when my kids were 6 and 8. Grady developed a mystery limp the first week of July, literally 3 days before my eldest son, Grady's "boy", was leaving for a pre-college month-long backpacking trip. We waited about a week, thinking he'd done some boneheaded Golden thing to himself, and when it didn't resolve, we brought him to his longtime "friend", Dr. Browning. Upon first exam, we found nothing wrong, so we went home with 10 days worth of Rimadyl, and a prescription to "take it easy" (lol...he's a GOLDEN), and to come back if it didn't improve. Well, it didn't improve. Went for his first series of xrays. By this point, I was a wreck...how do I tell my son, at the most exciting time in his life, that his dog was really, truly sick?? Dr. Browning returned from the radiology room practically giggling, and told us that 9 times out of 10, with a dog this age, of this breed, with a mysterious limp, he'd have the tissues ready. Grady's xrays looked perfect, though. Some MILD arthritis, but no injury, and nothing at all to indicate a bone infection or the dreaded osteo. We ran a tick titer (negative) and went home with 10 days of antibiotics (in case) and 30 days of Rimadyl, TAKE IT EASY instructions, and come back in a month (or sooner). Worth noting, at this point, what an angel my vet is...he stopped charging for office visits, and only charged us for a single xray, even though we had like 6, and a WBC. Also worth noting, that aside from the limp, and a bit of a slow down, Grady was perfectly normal. He never made a peep during exams, and he chased balls on 3 legs like he'd done it all his life

A month later, we brought him back. Still no change, and by this point, his muscles had totally atrophied. Upon physical exam, the doc said he could feel both soft tissue and hard bone. We were most likely looking at 1) nerve damage 2) undiagnosed, badly healed injury 3) soft tissue cancer or 4) an atypical presentation of osteo. At pretty the same time, I said, " Should we just remove the leg?", as doc was saying, " We should look into removing the leg." I asked what he would do, if it were his dog, and he sId , without a doubt, he would have already amputated. We scheduled the operation about 2 weeks later. The whole time, Grady NEVER seemed to be in significant pain. Let me tell you...I know dogs hide pain, but what happened next was a shocker to me

We had been financially concerned; I knew from research that amputation didn't come cheap. However, surprise again...total bill, including post-op meds and visits, was a mere $450. Before the surgery, they ran blood work (all perfect), liver enzymes (great, thank you milk thistle), and a second leg xray and chest xray "just in case". All came back not just good, but really, what you would see in a dog half his age. He came home 6 hours after. And he was high as a kite,lol. Didn't make it his bed, just crashed on the floor. But, at 5am, he apparently decided that he'd rested enough, and walked over to wake me up! He went outside, made it down the 2 steps ( he had a lift harness on, but ignored it), peed, pooped, and asked for breakfast. We spoke to the pathologist the next day, and found out that he'd had a localized smooth muscle fibrosarcoma. It was very slow growing, extremely localized, but, since the location was basically on his elbow, the bone itself had essentially remodeled around it, and he'd lost use of the joint entirely. It also encompassed a lovely nerve bundle, and was probably quite painful. He didn't so much as whimper once.