As per a recommendation from one of the members that I continue Abner's story on a new topic and since it has been almost three months, I figured I would start over.  His amputation was March 5th and was followed up with a confirmation from the pathologist who analyzed the removed leg bone that he did indeed have osteosarcoma in his right femur.  At 15 days out we had a single session of Carboplatin which he didn't tolerate at all.  After dealing with three infections and a clearly miserable dog I suspended chemo.

He has had a moderately good summer.  Some days his energy is better than others although in truth he has never really accommodated well to having only one hind leg.  He does the best he can but it tires him out quickly.  He is still being treated for the possibility of discospondylitis although that infection has never been confirmed.

As of Friday we now know that he has at least three visible metastatic growths in his lungs.  They are small but visible and I am once again confused by conflicting advice and information on how to proceed.  It seems the two principal options are to just let things progress and treat symptoms until he just isn't having a good quality of life any longer.  At this point there don't seem to be any obvious symptoms of the disease in his lungs.  The other option seems to be to begin a course of Palladia.  I have read differing opinions on who well this works, in what percentage of dogs, and how much one can expect to delay the inevitable progression.  I have a request for information from the director of a study done at NC State Vet School this past spring and am hoping to get very current stats.  I do understand that many of the dogs who are put on this regimen have GI distress and that one should probably treat with Prilosec or similar from the outset.

I don't want to subject Abner to anything that is going to extend his life but make him miserable for the time that he has.  This was why we gave up on chemo in the first place.  I would be interested in the thoughts of people with large and giant breeds who have used this treatment for mets from Osteosarcoma after amputation.  One more issue to consider is that Abner turned 10 in July so he is not a young dog.

I have already perused a few posts from people whose dogs had digestive tract issues but I would like to hear specifically from others with giant breeds as I gather the reactions are different in the bigger dogs.

Thanks, as always for the existence of this forum and for the help of the people who follow it.