Karen and Anthony checking in, we are pet parents to Mr Brock Samson our Great Pyrenees/Border Collie mix who, if everything goes well will be turning 12 in January.  Samson was diagnosed with likely osteosarcoma this past Tuesday Nov 5 in his rear right leg.  His x-ray showed quite severe degradation of the bone near his ankle that is pretty much a tell tale sign of the disease.  The vet was not in favor of amputation, didn't even bring it up, we had to ask about it.  The only reason they gave though, was because they thought he was too old and wouldn't be able to adapt.  To be honest, they pissed me off pretty bad, I almost turned into the internet meme "Karen" you may have heard of her, the unreasonable b*tch who demands to speak to the manager LOL.  I did keep my cool, but continued to ask most specifically wouldn't an amputation relieve the pain, they admitted yes but countered that our dog was the equivalent of a 90 year old and in many cases, this type of surgery wouldn't not be recommended for a person that old and at least a human would have the benefit of a wheelchair , an elderly dog would be unlikely to adapt and wouldn't have the benefit of assistance that people had. 

Maybe I should back up a little too, Samson is nearly 12 and that is old for a big dog, I get it, BUT, except for the leg pain, he does not act like an old dog.  Anthony and I have had the shepherded a few dogs in senior years and like people, there is a change when they get truly "old" and they are ready to move on, he was not exhibiting any of that at all.  He has also been a healthy dog his whole life with the exception of some clumsy accidents he has had over the years, such adventures earning him the nickname Bumbles the Wonder Mutt.  We did have them do a chest x-ray too and there were no overt signs of cancer and a blood panel also came up normal. His is a little underweight right now which I attribute to the pain he is in and just not being interested in getting up to go to the food bowl as often, but when it's his favorite naughty (that is human food) treats from Anthony (bad habit of spoiling doggos with sausage egg mcmuffins and various hamburgers and doritos), well he seems to find the energy just fine.  He also eats his regular canned food feeding, even when spiked with pain meds.

We were able to get into a consult with a vet surgeon today, I called after we left our normal clinic on Tuesday. We were scheduled out to next Friday the 15th but I had explained the whole thing to reception and they called me back later on Tuesday saying they had a cancellation and could we bring him in Thursday instead, given that time was a factor.  I really appreciated that.  And so today and after an initial exam, I'm happy to say the surgeon agreed with us!  Samson doesn't show any overt reasons that he would not be a good candidate for amputation and for better or worse amputation is the best option at giving him some more relatively pain free time in this world.  They agreed that given he doesn't show an overt lack of appetite and has no vomiting or diarrhea the weight loss is likely attributed to the pain.  They also noted that for all intents and purposes he's been living as an (almost) tripawd for a little while now anyway has he fairly recently doesn't really use his right back leg, often slightly lifting it once he steadies himself, but he's still getting up and getting around.  I did feel bad because they noted that his right leg is actually pretty atrophied, he's been trying to hide his lameness, quite successfully, for a while now, which makes me feel awful that he has been in so much pain for longer than I thought. Unfortunately the earlier signs of discomfort were attributed it to a back injury that had been seen on an earlier xray (Bumbles the Wonder Mutt *sigh*) and him just feeling that more as he was getting older, it was the lump that appeared on that back of his leg that indicated otherwise.  The surgeon also noted on that point though that to them, it's just another indication that he will likely do well post op, after all they said, if he's been able to tough out the pain of the cancer eating away his bone, he should be able to power through recovery as well and will likely be feel quite a bit of relief.  They did run a couple other tests not done at his regular clinic that are minimums for what they want pre-surgery, we are waiting to hear back on a broader blood panel but assuming that is OK, he is scheduled for surgery next Wednesday.  We still need to discuss chemo options if we also go down that road but they would not want to start anything until he is healed from surgery so those details are still to be ironed out. The surgeon is also part of an internal medicine clinic and advised their recommendation at this point would be 5 or 6 rounds of carboplatin. At this point we just want to get through phase one, amputation.

I gotta say, I'm still scared out of my mind no matter how confident in this I sound from the above paragraphs.  What if I'm wrong? What if he doesn't do well through surgery/recovery? What if his QOL gets worse? We just want to do what's best for Mr Samson.  He was named after the family body guard in the Venture Bros cartoon on Adult Swim and he has been an excellent guardian for our family all these years, we want to do right by him.  He's also the only dog that Anthony and I have had together from puppyhood, so though we have loved to pieces all the good doggos we have had, he is....special.  And as we have had overflowing menageries of dogs and cats over the years, we are susceptible to sob stories of furry friends that no one else would take, we had decided that once Samson had to go to the rainbow bridge, he would be the last dog....for a while.  Saying goodbye to the furry friends does take it's toll after all.

Thanks for reading our story. This new journey is just beginning. Appreciate any advice anyone has to offer, have read through a bunch of stuff here already.  One direct question I have for the community would be if anyone has had the experience of their dogs experience weakness when tramadol was added to their pain meds?  We started gabapentin and tramadol on Tuesday, Samson was already on Rimadyl though that dose got upped from 1/2 a pill twice a day to 1 pill twice a day.  Anyway, after his new pills on Tuesday, he was having a lot of trouble getting up.  Anthony thought is was the tramadol, I wasn't sure, we didn't given him either on Tuesday night and he was able to get up and around again on his own after about 12 hours from the initial doses.  The next morning I gave him his Rimadyl and the gaba only and he was fine, in the evening we added back 1/2 a tramadol and he seemed fine.  When we spoke to the surgeon today, they advised that half a tramdol twice a day really wouldn't make much of a dent in pain, I tried tonight to give him a full tramadol and he couldn't get up by himself again, had to help him so I'm pretty sure it's the tramadol that is screwing with him somehow.  Will obviously also be talking to the surgeon about this but am wondering if this has happened to other people and what happened.  Did you have to stop tramadol? did they get used to it? I want to make sure his pain is well managed but also that he is not too loopy to be functional.

Really appreciate what you all have done to create this community, honestly if I hadn't found this place before our Tuesday visit, we probably wouldn't have fought the vet at the regular clinic. Until I saw this place I thought bone cancer was a quick death sentence, so many people who had Pyrs will tell you it was bone cancer that claimed them, and interventions were only available for rich people. Best wishes to anyone who is reading this who is sitting in nearly the same the spot we are right now...it sucks but at least we're not alone.