Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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I just finished reading the book this morning. There was so much wisdom in it and I’m very thankful that you shared what Jerry taught you. I feel like I know him now even though I wasn’t here to follow his journey long ago. Of course, the end had me in tears. What an impact Jerry (and his people!) have made on lives of so many.
So, yes, I have tried to ask about how his having had the radiation affects the cementoplasty, but haven’t been given straight answers…I think because they just don’t know. Typically, it would be recommended to do the procedure right before or at the time of the radiation or as soon possible afterwards. As the person at Theravet explained, the bone becomes fragilized the more time that passes so it’s better to do it earlier. She also said, when there is less lysis the dogs do better. The Dr. at UF and the medical expert at Theravet did look at his most recent xray and concluded that he was a good candidate….but I guess the question is: Is the xray possibly not giving an accurate picture of the reality based on radiation possibly having changed the appearance of the bone? They do plan to xray the area again prior to the procedure just to make sure nothing has changed.
Other than that, when I wrote down potential pros and cons for doing the cementoplasty, they effectively canceled each other out as Mischief pointed out.
As far as pros vs cons of cementoplasty vs amputation, I guess my thinking is that I haven’t been deciding between cementoplasty or amputation but more seeing cementoplasty as a possible extender of the time with his functional leg that we’re getting from stereotactic radiation….sort of like plan B and reserving Plan C. Meanwhile, if his lungs don’t still look clear, then I won’t be fortunate enough to have these decisions/options to decide on. I’m trying (“trying” not necessarily succeeding) to assume they will still be clear though since doing otherwise isn’t going to help my state of mind…which will only detract from this week we have together right now.
When I made the decision to go ahead with it, I think my mind was more in the space of looking at it as a minimally invasive procedure that could possibly improve how he’s feeling and reduce fracture risk yet then I got that email from CSU and it’s sort of making me doubt things because why wouldn’t one of the top veterinary schools be doing it?
Hi Eustacia. The second guessing is normal. The advice that i have given to a couple of other people just starting this process is to not hesitate in acting, ie, making decisions. (And also to go to this website). What i mean by that is that we can do all of the research in the world, but, as others have pointed out, there will always be risk. I say read what you can, get a couple of opinions, and then make a decision and go with it. I’m speaking generally here. So it sounds like you’ve researched this, determined that he’s a good candidate for the procedure, and gotten at least two medical opinions. You’ve done the work, now have confidence in the decision.
Hearing that CSU doesn’t do the procedure doesn’t help. They told me that they don’t do the ELIAS vaccine, or any of the vaccines, also. And that did make me hesitate. But you have to remember that they are a research vet hospital in addition to a teaching facility. On the research end, they’re going to be working on things that haven’t already been done by other research hospitals, and on the teaching end, they’re probably going to stay focused on the procedures that are already universally accepted and have a strong track record. Bottom line is that i wouldn’t worry too much about this.
Good luck with this. I’m very interested in hearing how it goes.
Michael,
Thanks so much. I hadn’t looked at it that way and the perspective helps a lot. I sent CSU the excerpt from their own website talking about cementoplasy. They responded, apologized for the outdated information and said they had an investigator doing a trial with it there at one point who is no longer there. I asked if they could share any results they have from the trial and they said that they couldn’t because the investigator had left. It seems a bit odd. I would have assumed any research from trials done at a University was the property of the University?
I really like to make fully informed decisions and it’s just frustrating in this case because I can’t find anything regarding dogs who had stereotactic radiation then did this procedure with this product several months later. I can’t find anyone to talk with whose dog actually had the procedure. The initial study that the company put out was with dogs that were not having any other treatments (and this was all done in Europe). I’m also having a really difficult time evaluating how badly Honor is doing as far as his leg goes. He seems worse when first gets up and does better after he’s been walking around a bit….almost more what you would expect from arthritis than bone cancer. Of course, the other aspect of cementoplasty is trying to provide extra structure so he doesn’t fracture but the strange thing there is they don’t recommend the product if the bone is very lytic. His isn’t so I don’t know how high a fracture risk he actually is although I assume over time that risk will increase.
Perhaps the study with the cementoplasty was never completed? Maybe the researcher died or was incapacitated and never finished the work? Or there was a problem with the methodology that made the brought the quality of the research into question?
You’re welcome. Your frustration sounds a bit like mine while trying to assess the ELIAS vaccine. They have a big study that was concluded in December but won’t release the results to anyone. What I’ve learned after harassing them, as well as well as several oncologists now, is that they can’t release studies like that until they’re “peer reviewed” and/or have gone through a formal process. I honestly don’t know if that is a liability issue or a credibility issue. Maybe both.
I wonder of Honor is experience a pain that appears to maybe be arthritic because he’s constantly having to overcompensate with his back, hips and other legs? It might be causing him to experience pain in different parts of his body.
I am sorry, but i have to ask why you’re not doing amputation? I really am not questioning your decisions, but i honestly forget because i think that you explained that before. Is he not a good candidate for it? If he is a good candidate, and the reason for not doing it is fear that he won’t adjust and still have a good quality of life, i would just say that i am SO happy that i did it with Ophelia. I almost didn’t out of fear that i was doing something TO her and that she wouldn’t do well. That was my nightmare scenario: having her leg amputated and then having to put her down anyway because she was miserable. I’d have rather put her down after a few months rather than for her last weeks being after having her leg taken from her. That fear was real. But boy, she’s been amazing. They’re so resilient.
That all said, if i knew that i could have safely saved that leg while also fighting the tumor that was inside of it, i would have strongly considered that option.
It’s a good question, Michael. I think I ended up going with the radiation because, after being frozen with indecisiveness between the 2 options, I woke up one weekend morning and felt there was an urgent need to do something ASAP and the place that does radiation was available to take him that Monday whereas the surgeon I would have used for amputation was booked out 2 weeks. I figured at least it was doing something and we’d see how much time we could get with him having a functional leg. I knew that it’s not always even possible in the case of many dogs to do the radiation due to the location of the tumor or the amount of bone that’s been eaten away. I figured if he was lucky (not sure if that’s the right word) to have that option, then we might as well at least try and see how it goes. And, now, although things aren’t perfect, it’s good enough that I can take him places and he can walk a little and he can do short walks in the neighborhood. He always wants to go further, but I turn him back around. At this point, I just feel like 2 weeks (likely longer in his case) recovery from amputation would take away from quality time that we’re getting. The cementoplasty is an attempt to improve on what we’ve got and hopefully extend his time without fracturing. The problem is I don’t know if it’s going to do either of those things or, more concerning, if it will put us in a worse situation. I guess that’s the big question though with all of these treatments.
Here is a video of his walking yesterday….if I can figure out how to post video correctly!
That makes sense re you’re telling of why you’ve not done amputation. Again, i was just curious.
Upload your video to YouTube and then use the “share” button, then “copy link”. They you paste the link in your post here.
you do have to have a YouTube account which is free.
Thanks Michael! That was easier than I had thought.
I reached out to the vet in NC that has actually done the cementoplasty with the bioceravet product and she was kind enough to take time to speak with me despite being very busy! She answered a lot of questions I had and I think my mind is a bit more at ease. She’s going to see if some of the owners of dogs who had it done will contact me. One of them had also had radiation.
Honor looks like he's walking really well....just the very slightest limp so thinking the pain isn't nearly as bad as it has been or limp would be much more prominent. Hope that's the case.
Happy Hannah had a glorious additional bonus time of over one yr & two months after amp for osteo! She made me laugh everyday! Joined April's Angels after send off meal of steak, ice cream, M&Ms & deer poop!
I agree with Sally - Honor is walking really well. I'm glad you were able to get some peace of mind from the other vet.
I guess the fact that his walking isn’t terrible makes the cementoplasty a tougher decision in some ways. I feel like I could be taking an ok situation and potentially making it worse. Yet, I keep reminding myself that part of the reason for this would be to (hopefully) provide additional structural support so that the risk of fracture is decreased.
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