Temper is our 6 year old black lab mix. She was in excellent health until one day she showed up with swollen leg just above the joint above her paw. We took her to the vet and at first they thought it was a soft tissue injury and she got medicine and rest. The swelling went down but came right back in a day and just got bigger every day. The first xray wasn't conclusive. Could be an infection or cancer. A biopsy showed osteosarcoma. Her chest xray didn't show any obvious spread of the cancer. 

We weighed the options and decided that she would adapt to three legs easily, so yes to amputation. We decided against chemo, though. The odds are so high that the chemo would most likely only have given her a few extra months. This wasn't going to be cured. We figured we'd give her the summer and warm months free to hop around on 3 legs to her hearts content. We know the chances are high that at some point the cancer will come back somewhere and we will do the right thing then.

Our Temper's greatest joy in life is to run, jump and chase. She couldn't do this with that leg still attatched. We wanted these months to be pain free - amputation, and carefree. 

So far, she is getting around great. She had the surgery June 26. She has a pocket of serum, seroma , that I am hoping will soon resolve itself or the vet will drain it. We go to the vet July 7th.

I just hope she has a fabulous summer, and with any luck she'll be one of the few who doesn't have any cancer spread.