Pandorable said

akita said
Just an update to Katy's condition.  As I last wrote, she was doing great after the cyberknife.  Unfortunately shortly thereafter, her tumor started growing again.  There is a small percentage of cyberknife patients that don't respond to the radiation and she happened to be one of them.  After what seemed to be initial shrinkage, it started growing again after week 5 and we've been dealing with the next step in her treatment.  We also discovered a very small nodule in her lung after 2 treatments of Carboplatin.  She however has been as alive and happy as ever and we've needed to restrain her from running given the sensitive nature of her condition.  The discomfort in her leg had grown a week ago, we increased the dosage of deramax slightly and occasionally give half a tramadol as needed.  After consultation with her oncologist at the Veterinary Cancer Center and surgeon we decided to amputate today.  As of now, she seems to be doing well post surgery, hearing she is sitting up and looking alert to her surroundings, looking for food they said.  After this journey, we still see her full of life and too happy to not give her a chance.  Her cyberknife was non invasive and we don't regret for a second going that route.  It is a financial consideration that one must think about but the potential outcome of something minimally invasive, limb sparing and providing comparable time extension was what we went for. Staying positive and keeping our paws crossed for a good recovery and many happy times ahead.

Hi Akita,

 

Your story sounds so strangely familiar.  My 7 y.o. female Akita Pandora had an amputation straight off (diagnosed 12/24/14), but lung mets were noted after two treatments of carbo.  This wasn't supposed to happen until 4-6 months post-amputation!  I wonder if there is a breed-specific difference in the biological behavior of the tumors?  I mean, some sub-populations of different ethnicities are more prone to getting some genetic diseases than others, so this could be the case in our dogs.  

 

How is Katy doing, by the way?  My cousin's Doberman was diagnosed at 8, had an amputation and carbo, developed mets 8 months later, and was gone 2 weeks after.  Pandora was diagnosed at 7, has mets just 2 months after her amputation, but she's doing quite well and does not seem like she's on her way out by any means.  

I'm sorry to hear of Pandora and for the very late reply as we hadn't been on the website in nearly a year.  Katy was lost March of 2014, a few months after the amputation.  She started limping after slipping outside but it never got better and only worse after 5 weeks.  We realized there was a growth at the amputation sight that changed in size almost daily and that the hip of the leg where she was limping was enlarged as well in that last week.  Her lungs were clear the whole time.  I think in reference to your point about something breed specific, we didn't see any research concluding there was any relative outcomes to our dog's breed.  She was on the shortend on a number of fronts with several pretty severe health issues that we got under control (1 very Akita and Poodle specific autoimmune issue).  So we think she also had a very impaired immune system which didn't help in her fight here.  

We hope Pandora is doing well.