Melissa,

I am so sorry to hear about Tucker but glad you found us. I lost my girl, Shelby, to hemangioscarcoma and she had lost her leg as well. She did GREAT on three legs and did outlive her initial diagnostic expectations. It's still awful and horrible and I miss her every day but this group has been one of the most supportive in the world. We are ALL here for you. We send you lots of hugs, healing energy and love as you go through this. And remember, Tucker has no clue about his diagnosis. He lives in the moment and I hope you can as well. Shelby taught me the greatest lesson in life - Be More Dog , live each day to the fullest and love much! 

So lean on us. We are here for you. We will make you laugh, cry and everything in between! And we love photos so the more the merrier!

Hugs and love,

Alison & her Shelby fur-ever in her heart 

Melissa,

So sorry about Tucker.  You have done all the right things.  Tripawds are amazing! The first 2 weeks really suck (We are at day 14). Things are going well! We have the whole set of labs- Because nobody can have just one lol... Keep in touch and lean on us for support.  This site is what helped me through it.  Tucker will do well. In our thoughts...

Laurie aka Jake's Mom

Hi Melissa, so sorry about the cancer diagnosis but as others have said, you'll be amazed at how well Tucker will do on 3 legs.

And the fact that he's young will help him with recovery. Do you have hardwood floors? If so, get lots of throw rugs and runners. We found a carpet outlet that did custom cuts and binding of remnants and it was very reasonable; made a big difference with Lexie getting around more confidently.

Is Tucker on pain meds pre-op? Lexie also had a soft tissue sarcoma and Gabapentin, Tramadol and Yunnan Baiyo helped her a lot.

As you've seen already, this is a wonderfully supportive community...you've come to the right place.

Take care and keep us posted. Tucker is lucky to have a great mom!

Hi again! Great idea to get a second opinion.

Just FWIW, we ended up starting with palliative radiation to try to shrink Lexies's tumor (her STS actually morphed into two tumors by the time we started treatments -- hers ended up being a more aggressive STS than most, and she also had lung mets). The radiation did shrink the tumors but unfortunately she got an infection and was in a lot of pain. I wished we had amputated sooner in hindsight, but every situation is different.

From what I've read and from what our onco said some STS cases may not be not as clear cut as many other forms of cancer in terms of pathology, staging, etc. The good news is that they are often a less aggressive form of cancer and depending on margins may have a better long-term prognosis.

Please feel free to read my earlier posts if you think they might be helpful to you (click screen name under avatar to see profile, then click on Posts Started By). Keep in mind that Lexie is much older than Tuck and hers was an unusually aggressive form...so please don't let that scare you.

One thing I would keep an eye on is the size of the tumor and how it is growing. I took pictures every few days when Lexie's started getting a lot bigger. If you decide to do the same you might want to hold something near it to get a sense of proportion -- like a quarter, or even a cut-out of a larger circle depending on its current size. Hopefully it won't grow dramatically but if it does seem like it's growing a bit faster than expected you'll at least have a reference point to show your vet. (And in the off-chance it does get a lot bigger in a very short amount of time I'd get him seen ASAP.)

So glad you saw all the happy, hoppy videos, too -- they made me feel so much better about amputation.

Hang in there and keep us posted!