Hello,
My name is melissa. I have a 5 year old Boxer named Dakota. Here's a little background.
Dakota first started limping in May 2009 at first it was thought to be valley fever since originally he lived in arizona with my in laws. After a corse of treatment for valley fever he got no better acutally he got worse. So then the biopsy....scary time ...came back that he had osteosarcoma on his right front leg. we went to several vets and specialists and we were told there was no hope, the typical 3-6 months and chemo wasn't an option for us. So we made the decision to amputate so on August 31st 2009 his front right was taken off. He did awesome!!!! He was up the day of the surgery and majorly inproved. So we were told like i'm sure most of you were that the marker is 6 months, if the cancer didn't spread to the lung or anywhere else after 6 months we could rest a little easier. We are now just about 6 months from his surgery. we recently had a set back which was totally unexpected !!!! 2 weeks ago he started yelping when he would bark of course we rushed him to the vet only to have dakota act just fine at the vet . the vet gave him a complete physical and said there was nothing he could find wrong. That was thursday feb 4th 2010. So we went home completly relived i just thought i was crazy ( these things happen !!! LOL) but on friday morning a week later 02/12/2010 Dakota stopped eating, drinking and he was falling over so weak. SO again we rush to the vet this time not so lucky. The vet took a chest xray and saw that his chest cavity was full of blood. So immediate panic set in, then we were not given a clear reason why. Dakota falls alot on his chest so it was either he fell and burst a blood vessel in his chest from the trama or GET THIS a completly unrealted type of cancer was attacking him. So we came home defeated with meds to try for a week. He was put on lasik to expell the fluid, predgisone for his lungs and antiboitics ( he had a very very slight white cell elevation) and we have a appt on monday feb 22 2010 to have addl chext xrays and bloodwork to be taken. Has anyone shared a similar story?? My vet says that IF this is cancer in his chest it is no way no how realted to the osteosarcoma and my vet said that he would be the unluckiest dog in the world for it to be another cancer.. ANY input is welcome.. We fought too hard for this little boy to be sick from another cancer monster!!! Thank you in advance for listening to our story and thank you for the input.