Hi Ally and Mom.  Sorry to hear about this diagnosis, but please know that you have found a wonderful resource in this site.  Our Zeus was diagnosed at 11 with OSA and had his front leg amputated almost five months ago.  I would like to add some thoughts about your fear of causing her more pain.

Not sure what kind of surgical repair they did on Ally's fracture, but I can speak as to leg surgeries vs. amputation and the pain associated with each.  Through the years we went through three ACL/luxating patella surgeries on Zeus' brother (he had terrible knees).  In my opinion, hands down Zeus' amputation recovery was much easier than the other types of surgeries we experienced.  Don't get me wrong, it is a major surgery and the first couple of weeks are very hard.  But usually after the first couple of weeks the pups get their stitches out, come off of the loopy pain meds and really start making progress.

Usually with amps, they remove the entire bone which means that they are cutting through muscle as opposed to cutting, drilling or pinning bones which is more painful to the dog (and calls for a much longer confinement/recovery).  Depending on the prior surgery she had, I don't know if you can really compare that pain with what she will experience with an amp.  It is well recognized that the pain from OSA itself is excruciating and the short term pain from the amp is minimal compared to continuous pain from the tumor.

Each of us must make the decision that is right for our family - emotionally, financially, etc.  There really is no "right" answer.  Just the one that you have peace with.  Good luck to you!

Lisa

One thing I thought I "heard" in your first post was some worry about what amputation would do to your active dog. Maybe I just read concern into your words, but it was something that worried me when I learned we would have to amputate Sammy's right front leg. He absolutely loved to play ball; he lived to play ball. He bounced through life full-speed ahead. So I worried that my poor three-legged dog would be awkward and depressed.

Well, I didn't know much about tripawds! Sammy could still outrun, outswim and outlast every dog he came up against. His enthusiasm for life was unchanged and he was happy and pain-free for about a year after the surgery. I don't think that would have been the case without amputation, since he was having severe pain before the surgery — and that was with no fracture. So, if that is factoring into your decision, please know that your active dog will approach life with the same zest and joy that he did before.

Prior to OSA, if someone had told me that I could be closer to my sweet furkid I wouldn't have believed them. But those 13 extra months we had with Sammy were so special that it is hard to explain. We so admired his courage and dignity, and he seemed to realize how much we wanted to help him. Each day was a gift and, when sympathetic strangers approached us, they left knowing what I didn't know before: tripawds are amazing.

All that said, I am not rying to convince you that amputation is the answer for you. As several others noted, you alone know what is the right decision for Ally and your family. I just wanted to address something I thought you might be worried about. Whatever you decide, the group will be here for you. 

Best,

Beth and Spirit Smilin' Sammy

I'm so sorry you and your pup are having to go through all of this.

I just want to share my experience with our Lylee. She is a 12 year old Shepherd mix, she had a fracture of her humerus on her right front leg in April of 2010. The vets were worried about a pathological break so they did a biopsy of the bone when they did the repair. It came back negative.

Forward on to April 2011 and she was in increasing pain on the same leg and after numerous x rays, another bone biopsy we still didn't get a clear diagnosis but there was 'something' they could see on the xray. It was so obvious that she was in increasing pain that even though we did not have a clear diagnosis we decided to amputate. The pathology then came back as positive for osteosarcoma.

We, like you, were so fortunate to have the Tripawd community to support us. I knew that even if we had only a few months that removing the pain was paramount. Plus the recovery from the amputation was much easier for her - no bone to heal with all that drilling, pinning, etc to add to the trauma of a fracture. She was down on the beach on day 11 after the amputation surgery!

Now we are going to celebrate her 10 month ampuversary in 3 days - woo hoo. It has been a glorious 10 months! Check out her blog http://www.lyle.....ipawds.com.

Activity wise she doesn't have the same stamina than with 4 legs (no 3 mile hikes through & up the mountains) but she still has huge love of life and goes for beach walks, etc and has her chariot to aid her on longer walks (she loves it!).

It's great you have the good specialists to advise you. Know you have support with your journey from us all.

Hugs & wags

Joanne & Lylee

I agree with Jerry (that seems to happen a lot).

I've read so much about how active tripawds can be on this forum so I wouldn't assume that your dog would have to be sedentary after an amputation. But, some places (e.g., Colorado State vet school) offer stereotactic radiation to kill bone tumors. It is as effective as amputation in getting rid of the primary tumor. You might talk to a vet at Ohio State about that... We had it done on our K, and she's as active as before her diagnosis (that includes long trail runs, climbing mountains, plowing through deep snow). A neighbor who lives in the same rough mountain area as I do had her dog's hind limb amputated, and her dog went snowshoe hiking through 3' of snow within a couple of months of the amputation. So, there really are very good options out there.

I am so sorry that you are going through this. Right now, the shock and fear is probably terrible. I hope that you can get to OSU vet school to get some helpful guidance.

Jerry,

I am simply citing what the CSU oncologists told us. They said that their current patients had a 5-10% chance of primary tumor recurrence after stereotactic radiation. They said that the incidence of recurrence was decreasing because they are better at choosing the cases that are suited for stereotactic radiation. However, they hadn't yet published their more recent data in which they felt that they were choosing patients better for stereotactic radiation.

The bigger risk, in the minds of the CSU vets, was a pathological fracture, because the bone is weaker where the tumor was, yet a dog will use the leg just like it's normal. They said that they had about a 5% incidence of that. It could usually be fixed by putting in plates and screws or splinting, but occasionally the limb had to be amputated after a major fracture.

I'm no expert but my understanding at the time that we made our decision was that there is also a risk of osa tumor recurrence in amputation. I read about it occurring at the stump. I have no idea of the rate of incidence of that.

Back when we were making the decision, I found a research paper that supported the CSU vets' statements about stereotactic radiation's effectiveness against OSA tumors but I'm not sure where. I'll have to look.

I don't mind you asking the critical questions! I'm a physiologist/biologist by training so I'm used to it and even like it.

KB