Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat

I got the biopsy results back on Friday, she said that the cancer is low grade. They narrowed it down to 2 types of cancers, hemangiopericytoma and fibrosarcoma, said that they 2 can overlap sometimes. So thats good news its a low grade cancer. I have asked my vet serval times before what she would do if it were her dog and she always kinda just seemed neutral and didnt have an answer. But when she called with the results she told me if it were her dog she wouldnt choose to amputate. Maybe she didnt wanna give advice till we knew exactly what we were dealing with. She said that it would take Brandi a long time to adapt after surgery and she wouldnt have a good quality of life after. So after a lot of thinking we decided to try to remove the tumor instead of amputating. I hope its the right choice. She goes in for surgery tomorrow morning. Please everyone think postive thoughts for Brandi, even though we arent amputating its still a very tricky surgery and very scary.

Also the punk show fundraiser last night went awesome!! We raised $550 for her surgery, $350 in cover charge and $200 in dontations!!!

Good luck with the surgery!  We didn't have that choice.  We are a non-discreminatory community...four legs is a good thing!  Prayers for you tomorrow.

Pat & Spirit Ruthie

Thank you all for your thoughts and concern!! Brandi's surgery went good this morning. She had to stay overnight which breaks my heart but atleast she made it through the surgery. I get to pick her up at 10am tomorrow.The vet said her heartbeat was good through the whole surgery. They did have to take a lot of skin off her arm, took some from the shoulder. Since most the skin was taken, when sewing her back up there was so much tension in the skin the vet warned me, not to be alarmed but there are tiny 3mm cuts all along her legs to relieve some of the tension. She has drainage tubes right now and has to go back Friday to get them removed. Her activity is restricted for a week. She is only allowed to go pee on a leash and come back inside. We managed to get the in laws to watch our other dog for the night so Brandi can rest. Im not sure what to expect tomorrow but im so excited to get my dog back and have most of the stress gone.

All of you guys have helped me so much through this horrible events and I dont think I could of stayed as strong without your support and stories!! Thank you guys soooo much!! I will keep you updated once I get Brandi back on how she is doing

Lol you were exactly right. The day I brought Brandi home she was running around, trying to jump on the couch and didnt act like she just had major surgery. She has a massive incision, 4 drainage tubes that she just got removed yesterday. She is doing really good, other then the fact that she is too active so it will slow the healing process. She was very clingy for the first few days, I think the overnight stay at the vet was traumatic and we have our other dog at the inlaws since the surgery on Monday and I can tell Brandi is loving all the extra attention and being the only dog of the house. Her leg is looking really swollen today down at the paw not by the elbow where her incision is. Im thinking it might be cause the drainage tubes are out. Brandi is such an insipiration , she is to tough

Mandi, 

What did you guys end up doing for Brandi?!  I am in the same situation with a Border Collie/Blue Heeler mix.  Her name is Lilly and she is 13 years old.  Here is Lilly's story:

Lilly used to belong to my older brother until he couldn't afford all of her care so I basically adopted her so that she can receive the care she needs with a house that has a dog door and a large yard.  It made sense to both of us.

6 years ago, Lilly developed cancer on her right forearm.  We took her to 4 different vets back in 2011 because our vet advised to amputate her leg and my brother and I found that as an absolute last resort so we searched for other options.  All vets told us to amputate her leg until my mother-in-law showed us her vet that was very confident in his ability to save her leg.  (Lilly used to work on a farm and heard cattle on weekends for our uncle so this would save her job also).  

Our vet told us that this type of cancer might grow back so we put her on cemo pills.  The tumor didn't grow back for two years and we thought the procedure was a success!  The tumor came back slowly in 2013 so we scheduled another surgery to remove the small tumor again.  A year later, it came back a third time so we put her through a 3rd surgery.  It was gone and she healed up after a hard recovery.  Well last year in 2016, it came back AGAIN and our vet now states that she is too old for another surgery and that amputating her leg is going to kill her.  She would be a potato if she made it through surgery.  Her joints are shot from excessive exercise as a cattle hearder and her muscles are very small.  My husband and I feel that it's getting close to her time now that the tumor is putting her through constant pain although she currently is still eating and drinking.  Her tumor is becoming infected and antibiotics are not working.  

The issue that we are running into is that my brother thinks now that we should amputate her leg.  I'm worried that he's thinking through emotion and not reality. He insists that we at least try so I'm trying to get some other opinions on this matter.  He also isn't seeing her very often and doesn't know what she goes through daily.  I'm trying to avoid family problems by insisting that we put her down when she's ready but he refuses to hear the fact and wants the amputation done.  I also feel that this will just put her through more misery trying to recover.  

anybody's input would be helpful!