Hi all, I am so happy to have found this forum. As I have read, it’s not happiness that brings us here, but it sure is helpful to see there is a community of humans who have been through this.

My story is long, but I want to share my experience in case it helps anyone.

Toro, my almost 10 year old Havanese boy, had his right hind leg amputated 12 days ago. He is going in on Wednesday to have his staples removed. I am so proud of my boy - he has been a real trooper through a really tough few months. 

How we got here is a bit of a roundabout saga. He was diagnosed with a partially torn ligament in August when I brought him in to the vet to get a limp checked out. They ran x-rays and determined that the injury would heal in a couple of weeks if he took it easy. They gave me Gabapendtin and Rimadyl. The Rimadyl made him nauseas so they switched that to Tramadol.

When he continued to limp a few weeks later, and I was having trouble getting a hold of the vet (a whole other story), I took him to a dog physical therapy center to get him on track. They did a thorough exam and noted that he was putting very little weight on his right hind leg. They also noted that he had a swollen lymph node. Before they would begin a 6-week treatment that would require 3 visits a week, they said I should get the lymph node checked. 

I brought him to a new vet who aspirated the node and found it was just a reactive, not cancerous. He recommended surgery to correct the partial tear. On the day of the surgery, the doctor anesthetized him, shaved his leg, and then noticed a mass on his leg. The vet called and told me he had osteosarcoma and I should have the leg amputated, so that he could have 3-5 months quality of life, but that would be the extent of it. 

Devastated, I scheduled the amputation in a dazed shock, but the next day I decided to call an oncologist to confirm I was doing the right thing. In a phone consult, the oncologist said it was incredibly rare for small dogs to get osteosarcoma. She said she’d only seen one in the past two years, while she sees 3-5 a week in bigger dogs. This all made her very curious about what was actually happening. I canceled the amputation and brought Toro in for a battery of tests - a fine needle aspirate of the mass, ultrasound of his tummy and a thorough x-ray review. The cost was about $2000 for these tests. 

They found no signs of cancer anywhere else. The pathology of the mass came back as “suspicious of sarcoma” and she recommended I move forward with the amputation so we could do a full screen of the mass. She did not recommend a bone biopsy as it would very painful, weaken the bone, and make it prone to breakage, which would likely lead to amputation. So amputation it was, but now I knew for sure I was making the right decision.

Toro’s pain was clearly escalating - he was no longer eating very well and put zero weight on his leg, which he just held up so it didn’t touch the floor.

I booked the surgery with the original surgeon (Dr Patricia Simon) who discovered the mass. Her fee was reasonable at $2000 (far less than any place else I called) and she came highly recommended. 

She did the surgery and he came home with me that day. They used Nocita to ease the pain for the first few days. He was also put on a week of Metacam, as well as Tramadol and CBD. 

He had a rough first night coming off the anesthesia. He cried a lot. Poor baby. But with each day, he has gotten a little better. His appetite returned in 2-3 days. He had some bouts of trembling and shivers in the first 5 days. 

The pathology came back last Tuesday and the surgeon informed me that his cancer is a soft tissue cancer and is likely all removed. I can hardly believe it’s true. His oncologist has asked for a couple more slides to be run, assuming to figure out if he should have a round of chemo or not. I should hear this week. I'm cautiously optimistic. 

A COVID blessing is I’ve been able to be by his side the entire time. I can’t imagine having had to leave him to go to work. 

Thank you for wading through my long story! 

Toro is my first dog ever and he is my baby. It’s our agreement. I’m the mommy - he’s the baby.

He loves being mom’s baby. Always has.

May our agreement continue for years to come.