Luna is a worrier.  She's very friendly and I don't think she would ever act in a threatening way to anyone, but she gets very worried in new situations, and now, I imagine, worried at the vets, since she's been through so many unpleasant procedures in so little time.  Vets and vet nurses tend to love her because she's a brave and easy dog.  Her worry tends to manifest itself not only in the usual hefty panting, but she also turns into a wiggle-worm.  I imagine the chemo nurse couldn't get her to hold still and so had to sedate her a bit.  I saw it coming, actually.    Most of the time she's a really calm, steady dog; a couch potato, really. Two days after chemo now and she seems to be doing just fine.  The crying and wimpering was limited to that one night.  I don't know what sedative and reverser they used, but I am going to find out because she has had this sad side effect from it twice now - the other time was after her X-Ray.  I wonder if she acted that way after her op as well but I just never saw it, since she was in the animal hospital. The duty vet said Luna never settled and was very nervous in the hospital. It ripped my heart out.

I'd rather Luna not go back on Rimadyl.  She had that for her post-op pain meds.  She reminded me of a bed-bound, clinically depressed junkie. Nightmare.  Naturally, I didn't expect her to be her old self just after major surgery, but while she was on the full dose of Rimadyl, I couldn't see through her fog to any of the dog I knew and loved.  Once the dose was halved (she's off of it completely now) she returned to her usual happy self.

Luna is relatively stoic and has a high pain threshold... all down to her breed type, I think. We would have *never* guessed she was as ill as she was.  The vets missed the cancer for a long time too.  I just hope that we didn't catch it too late for her to enjoy life for some time to come.  The surgeon/specialist said that it had not spread to her lungs as of amputation day.  He showed us the CT scan and explained it, but I'm not trained to understand the scans, so I just had to trust him. We got the usual (from what I've read so far) prognosis: four months without chemo, up to one year with the chemo. It makes my heart glad to see other dogs have lived longer, but I'll take each day as it comes and love my dog as long as I am lucky enough to have her with me.

A word about supplements.  I have read that large doses of fish oil has the potential to cause a vitamin E deficiency (which can be painful and fatal) in dogs. Does anyone have any experience with this?  Luna was getting a glucosamine/chondroitin/MSM/omega 3 supplement but I stopped it because I didn't know how it might affect her with the Rimadyl.  I will probably start her on it again.  She has been eating a good quality dog food (complete dry mixed with wet tray 2x day) for a long time now. The food (Wainwright's for those in the UK) has no colourants, preservatives, derivatives or wheat.  The wet has little filler and is at least 70% meat.  Occasionally she gets fish skins from our own dinner and raw chicken necks and giblets.  She does love her food!

Thanks again for all the links and suggestions!  Soooo much appreciated!