Hello everyone!

Background for those tuning in - Arya (9yr old Aussie) had an occasional toe touch/limp to her Right hind that started Oct and recently diagnosed with osteosarcoma on 11/29/22. Vet suggested an amputation with chemo down the road and that is what we opted for.

Tuesday 12/13/22 she had her amputation surgery - they did another set of chest xrays prior that showed no visible evidence of metastatic disease (yay). Her surgery went well and we were able to pick her up yesterday afternoon. She was very sleepy as expected so we let her sleep until it was time for her meds. They sent us home with an antibiotic every 12hrs for 5 days, carprofen every 12hrs for pain/inflammation, gabapentin every 8 hrs (for pain), and trazodone every 12 hrs (sedative). She was able to eat chicken- her fav- with her meds and peed that night! She wanted nothing to do with a sling so I am glad I had decided to use a towel as a sling vs buying one. The sling hindered her from squatting to pee - she just didn't like it there. I will say that the Ruffwear Flagline harness we purchased has proven to be VERY helpful with picking her up/down steps, in/out of the car, and even just holding the carrying strap to support her while she figured out her balance.

It was hard to see her wobbling and not being about to get her balance. It just seemed like her front legs weren't working right. I was a little concerned, especially with her front paw - she would try to lift it but it would just sort of drag behind with her toes curled under so she'd end up standing on the knuckles. Because of that my husband had to hold her weight up quite a bit yesterday as we did not want her to hurt her foot. I figured maybe it was just the anesthesia still in her system but this morning she was still doing it and just seemed way too sleepy still so I called the vet and they said the trazodone (sedative) may be too strong for her so he suggested giving it as needed instead of  scheduled every 12 hrs. 

Holding the trazodone seemed to do the trick because this afternoon she got up all on her own and hopped on over to the kitchen to check on her chicken that my husband was preparing for her for lunch! It was AMAZING. Day 2 and she is doing it!!! Her incision is looking great too. We ended up buying a soft cone collar for her because the hard plastic stressed her out too much. We only put it on her at night or if she's going to be alone for more than a few minutes.

Dogs really are so amazing and I can't thank you guys on here enough with sharing your stories and all these helpful resources. It has made this process way more endurable for me. We will get the histopathology report on the leg and the lymph node in that leg sometime next week. Hoping for the best possible outcome with that. 

She will be on strict activity restrictions for a couple of weeks but every day is progress and we can't wait to go for walks again!