Rooney became a Tripawd on 6-15-21. Her’s is a long journey and hopefully it’s about to get a lot better.  

In March 2019 she had a Soft Tissue Sarcoma removed from her front right leg.  We were optimistic because our vet was able to get good margins and this type of tumor rarely spreads, however it has large chance to come back in same spot.  In November 2019, it returned & was removed again. Because so much skin was removed around the tumor, our vet didn’t think it would be able to be removed again if it came back because they would not be able to get a wide enough margin.

Our vet mentioned radiation or amputation as a future option if the tumor came back (chemo is not an option for this type of tumor). He said he would not put his dog through radiation. He also said that dogs do great with amputation and said he thought this was a good option for Rooney.  

In February 2020 the tumor was back. We found it so quick that our vet removed it once again.  She recovered really well after all these surgeries.  She still would go on at least 2 mile walk daily. We moved out of state in the summer due to my husband’s job and Rooney continued to due really good.  We thought the tumor was finally gone for good!  

In December 2020 it was back.  We could not find any vet to see her because of COVID and their reduced hours or surgery schedules months out so we took her over an hour away to an animal hospital with an radiation oncology department on site, praying for any other options.  We were told that they could not remove it for the same reason as our original vet stated.  He mentioned radiation or amputation (again chemo not an option). He said that radiation wasn’t a good option because it would do more damage to her leg and would just reduce the tumor size.  He said that Rooney would do great with amputation and that he felt that she has several good years left (she’s only 9 now) and she would not die because of this tumor.  He also said before amputation to have chest X-rays because it rarely spreads but if it would spread it would be the lungs.  Her tumor was still small and she was not having any problems walking yet, so he said to wait and when she started limping or the tumors started ulcerating it would be time.  He also said another vet could do an amputation so we wouldn’t have to travel so far.  

Rooney continued to do really good.  The tumor was growing and she was still walking a lot and going strong. In May we knew it would not be long, she was getting tired on walks so we made an appointment with a local vet and took their first appointment which was a few weeks out.

A week before her appointment, she started limping and and her tumor started ulcerating.  At her appointment, they did her bloodwork and chest X-rays (luckily they were clear).  Her surgery was scheduled for 10 days later (that was the soonest they could get her in, apparently all the vet surgeries around here are backed up because of COVID and many are not doing them. If was a difficult 10 days.  

Rooney came home yesterday and is doing ok so far.  She is sleeping a lot. It was difficult to see he after surgery and it’s difficult having a positive attitude around her when all I want to do is cry.  

Reading all the stories about other dogs on TRIPAWD helped me come to the decision that I wanted to give Rooney this chance. Thank You!