Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Hello everyone!
So I let things play out this week since last week was so up in the air with my surgeon being sick. Things are looking good now! My surgeon is better and back to work. The consultation is scheduled for Friday and if Vaughn is approved he will have surgery that day.
His blood work looks good and we have the Amniocaproic acid tablets ready to go.
I have yoga mats all over the tile floor and have his new Ruffwear harness ready!
I am going to ask the vet but I was wondering if any of you who had dogs with Osteo had the other limbs x-rayed right before surgery to make sure it was not in the other limbs?
Thank you so much!! 
Pam and Vaughn
Oh that sounds like way better than last week, yay! I'm glad your vet is doing better, that's terrific news for everyone.
Regarding x-rays...we often joke around here that if only Tripawd parents could have a "home x-ray machine" because we always want to know the status of things!
It's my understanding that typically osteo doesn't show up in other limbs at the same time. If anything it's in the lungs as you know. But x-rays don't pick up the "micro mets" that could be there.
We didn't do further diagnostics of Jerry one we knew it was in his scapula. I think it's a safe bet to say the majority of folks don't do further testing. And even if you did do x-rays, they really aren't the best tool for seeing metastasis, a CT scan is. If you have pet insurance that would cover it, that would be a good idea but would also add more wait time at this point.
That's great news! Breathing a HUGE sigh of relief for you and Vaughn.
On the subject of other tests, one test they now offer frequently if your dog is on the older end of the spectrum is an abdominal ultrasound. This is is to determine if the bone tumor is secondary (not common) or if there are other cancers/abnormalities in the gut area (more of a concern in an older dog). Any issues there could affect whether/how you might move forward with treatment. We were told it's not strictly necessary, but in an older dog it can offer peace of mind that the treatment you're about to do is both appropriate and could produce good results.
We opted to do this for our Juno (hound mix, 9.5yrs), and it did give us peace of mind when we then pursued amputation and chemo.
I would say that it's not worth delaying the amputation to get this scan, but it could be nice to do in advance of any other treatment. I say this because it can be the case that the results need to be sent away to a specialist to be read and it can take a few days.
Natalie & Juno (aka June)
Glad to hear it's all falling into place!!
to answer your question. No I didn't get any additional limbs x-rayed, but they did do X rays of her lungs on the day of her surgery, it's also really common for them to take lymph node during surgery to have tested along with the tumor to make sure it hasn't spread there.
Ditto Whitney (Ellie). Same for my Happy Hannah. Cat scans and abdominal ultrasounds weren't even offered (and would be out of my price range anyway). That was years ago though.
Happy Hannah had a glorious additional bonus time of over one yr & two months after amp for osteo! She made me laugh everyday! Joined April's Angels after send off meal of steak, ice cream, M&Ms & deer poop!
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