First of all, thank you to the people who led me to this place the day after we discovered that our 7 3/4 year old Irish Water Spaniel, Presto had what was at that time (and later confirmed) Osteosarcoma in the hock area of his right rear leg, Tracy and Sumac. They have been there for me from day one. 

Just after Canadian Thanksgiving (Oct 8th), I noticed that Presto was favoring his right rear leg, initially periodically, and over the next few days, more often than not. Friends from out of town had been visiting and not being dog people, had been throwing his Jolly ball into a fenced area which meant he had been making hard turns to get off the tiered decks to the ball.. until I realized what they were doing and quietly put the ball away, and showed them the jumps and how to send him for bumpers on flat ground. 

We had checked toenails, pads, felt along his entire spine, and leg to see if we could locate the source of what was bothering him.. he had been swimming daily, doing retriever drills and agility through the summer, and been mistaken at a distance for a 2 year old due to his energy level. I was due to leave for the American Assoc. of Pet Dog Trainer's conference, on Oct. 17, and decided that rather than take him for chiropractic and acupuncture, I had better take him for an x-ray, since it seemed it might be an ACL tear, despite the lack of heat and swelling. 

Oct. 16th, as the vet, vet tech and I held Presto in place for an x-ray, the vet ran her hand along the leg, after having examined it and said she did not think it was ACL, but agreed an x-ray was in order... she got to the hock and much to her own surprise as well as mine, uttered an OMG... took another shot, and put the x-ray up to show a very messy picture, which she said she could only imagine was Osteosarcoma. She did a referral to Ontario Vetinary College at the University of Geulph which is less than 1/2 hour from here, for further imaging, but suggested we investigate Stereotactic Radiography. With a heavy heart, and after long discussion with my partner, we agreed I should go ahead to the conference because we could not get the appt. for the procedure until I returned from Kentucky. The day I returned, we met again with the vets at the University, listened to their opinions, said we were going to do the bone-saving technique, and then drove directly to our wholistic vet. Although she does not have a post-doc in Radiology, she put the images on the computer up, enlarged them and pointed out a hairline fracture in the bone, which meant that the bone-saving procedure was not an option... so cancelled, all that, and scheduled the amputation. In the meantime, I had met people I knew at APDT who put me in touch with Tracy, who led me here... downloaded the e-book and began reading everything I could find here (SO helpful, it is hard to imagine coming through what followed without it).

We had to argue to have them keep part of his tibia in place, partly to make it possible to use a harness that we had which hooked around both rear legs in order to help him get up, before we could order the RuffWear harness, and partly to have an area on which acupuncture could apparently be done more easily to help with any Phantom limb pain.

The day of surgey, it became clear that something was not quite right... no phone calls from the surgeon, even after repeated calls, and ultimately calling to say that if no one called us, we would be there in a half an hour in person. He had gone in at 9:30 a.m. and at 6:30 p.m., a Resident finally phoned .... stammering and obviously very nervous, and before even saying Presto was alive, said there had been an "accident." My partner, Marg, and I were both on the phone, as he bumbled along... and we had to be quite aggressive (when assertive did not cut it) practically shouting... "Is Presto alive???" 

Yes, he was alive and the amputation had been done, but the plate which is put under patients (human and canine) to ground the electricity generated by the cauterization tool, had slipped out from under him, and he had been being burned on his thorax during the entire surgery by the table which was serving as the ground resulting in 3rd degree burns. 

We were down at the hospital the next morning to find a frantic dog, whining .. with the various parties there to try to placate us... saying, "See he is so happy to see you, he is whining." I pointed out that he is not a dog who whines when excited or happy, but a butt wagger, and his tail was pinned to his stomach, he was whimpering and in obvious pain. He had had a poor reaction to Gabapentin before the surgery.. and they then, admitted he was dysphoric with one of the pain meds they had given him. Clearly his pain was not under control... and again we had to be very pushy to get agreement that they woud increase the low dose of Tramadol he was on and find another pain med to replace the other one (name escapes me).

His amputation was Oct. 26, and he was kept in hospital because of the burn for 4 nights...when we went to get him, they said we were to come to oncology to have his stitches removed so they could begin chemo immediately. I said that my understanding was that chemo suppresses immunity and surely the burn had to heal before chemo, at which point they said they would do a skin graft (more time in hospital, more anaesthesia ... he has heart arrythymias under anaesthesia) and 14 days time kept quiet to heal. 

We went to our family vet,  (Nov. 7) when it was time to have the stitches removed, and she found us another oncologist, not affiliated with this University, who will treat him, when the burn is healed.

In the meantime, the burn is slowly healing, and he is learning to hop along pretty well, and has wonderful periods where he is very interested in his bumpers, tried to head to the pool (which is luckily closed and covered), and although very tired, much of the time, has some of his spark back.. which we are treasuring.

Managing the changing of dressings and cleaning the wounds, etc. has been a major challenge, but he has been an angel, letting us do it 4 times a day. 

We have opted not to have any surgery, and to let the burn heal., using various natural things to help... and they are working, as the vet is amazed that i.. we know it is risky, given the aggressiveness of the cancer; there were no spots on his lungs, but we know that the common knowledge from studies in vet journals we requested and were given, that it has probably some metasases (spelling looks wrong!?) somewhere, and in the meantime are using a number of herbal remedies given to us by the wholistic vet, giving him IP-6 and other supplements to help with the healing of the burn... and have a consult with a homeopathic vet lined up. Also looking into Artemensin, but not sure we can get it here ... 

What we need most is information on how to support his body during chemo. We have very mixed feelings about chemo., but to date, even the vets we have seens over the years, some of whom we called, who use Traditional Chinese Medicine and other modalities, agreed that it would be his best chance. 

We have one other dog, a female Schapendoes, who we adopted at age 9 1/2 from Quebec, because we had lost our other two IWS's ... one to lymphoma at 12 and one to hemangiosarcoma at 12 1/2, in the past two years since we moved from the city to the dream acreage in the country for the dogs.... Preso was not doing well as an only dog, and we knew an older bitch would be the best match for him... and Phoebe is just what he needed (and is even learning English.. probably because our ango-accented French is so awful!). 

Presto is now wearing a thunder shirt to hold the burn bandages in place, with vet wrap on top of that.. he became allergic to the vet wrap against his skin, and is finally not in so much pain from the burn... and lying by my feet, happy after his hop to the barn and back... and his just being here right now brings us joy. 

Thanks for any help or leads to places I might find more information that might be helfpul...