Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Hi
New to the site so not sure if i am writing in the correct section or not...
We have a 4 year old Alaskan Malamute named Montana who is currently weighing in at 58kgs that has just been diagnosed with osteosarcoma in her front right leg just under her shoulder..(Chest xray clear) Serium ALP Levels were normal.
We have been informed that this is not cureable long term that short term the best option is amputation followed by chemo. Is this correct?
is there no possible way that after all this that there could be a chance of long term survival??
We had reservations about amputation and how she would cope but after reading this site and looking at some video's and pictures of other large dog breads they seem to do quite well. Montana is our baby and we just want to make sure we do what is best by her so i was just after another opinion on the matter.
How long after amputation will she take to recover and be able to get around ok? Is chemo wise to get when from what we have been told it dosen't stop the cancer coming back anyway.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated as we are just not sure what to do.
Thanks
Tracey,Stuart & Montana - cherishing every day we have together
Trac said:
... is there no possible way that after all this that there could be a chance of long term survival??
"Long term" is relative. Sadly, osteosarcoma is a prety aggressive cancer. But amputation and chemotherapy are your best bets for keeping it at bay. Jerry lived a happy healthy life on three legs after his os amputation. We think that's pretty long term considering the alternative.
We have heard tales of some dogs still living up to five years after amputation with osteosarcoma. But this is rare. Unfortunately we can provide no "average expectancy" since all dogs are different. Some last only a couple months, but this too is rare.
The most important thing to consider when making the difficult decisions you face is quality of life, not necessarily quantity.
Thank you for joining the discussion Trac! FYI: We moved your comment to its own topic here since you're asking about Treatment options for Montana. If you have specific veterinary questions, please feel free to post in the Ask A Vet forum where you started.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Osteosarcoma is an aggressive cancer but there is a 5% cure rate if caught early. Chemo prolongs the life of most dogs without many side effects. Some dogs only get a few months but the average is 1-2 years with amputation plus chemo.
I would at least consider amputation since it very quickly relieves the pain and even big dogs do well. My Tazzie weighs 190 # and lost her right front leg 8/26/08. She still runs and plays but only in short bursts and I don'l let her do steep flights of stairs. A smaller dog like a Malamute should do even better (Tazzie is a Mastiff).
Good luck,
Pam and Tazzie
Cherry's dad here,
We all are very sorry to hear of Montana's diagnosis. We were faced with a similar diagnosis in November 2008 and our vet provided us with a web article discussing our options which included "life expectancy" numbers. The following is a link to that article http://www.vete.....038;A=1035. As so well put by "Jerry" these numbers are only large scale averages, do not necessarily represent what your dog may experience, and it truly is about the quality of their life and not necessarily the length. For us, the only option which offered any real hope that Cherry would recover the quality of life that defined her 11 years prior to the diagnosis was amputation and chemotherapy.
Cherry's first chemotherapy treatment was literally hours after the amputation with the logic that we wanted to attach the cancer cells prior to their settling somewhere else in her body. By far and away, the chemo was worse than the amputation, but every dog response differently. I kept a journal of our experience and posted it on the internet at http://home.com.....ryjourney/. This journal allowed me to make accurate assessments regarding her progress or regress. The journey has had ups and downs but as we approach our fifth month anniversary, I can honestly say that the sparkle in the eye, the inquisitive nature, and yes her willingness to get into mischief have all returned. This journey has been both emotionally and financially draining, but we could never really replace what she has given to our family any other way but to be there for her during our toughest battle.
Getting back to the basics, Cherry's was a left front amputation and her weight before the diagnosis was a very trim (for a Standard Poodle) 45lbs. (Similar to Montana) She gets around reasonably well with the help of her Rough Ware harness. Finally, be sure to treat the sprit as well as the body. For Cherry, this means daily rides in the car/truck. These trips helped to lift her spirits during the darkest times and helped give her purpose to continue. You found the right place for support and assistance.
Sending you all the positive thoughts possible from Northern California
Bob and Cherry
Welcome to our little group! I think one of the first things I learned along this journey I never wanted to take was how important it is to understand the long term survival is not something you focus on. Your focus becomes one great day at a time. What can you do today that will make more tomorrows. What choice can you make today that will give quality time for you and your patient.
It takes a while to get into that mindset. It isn't until you are able to get past all the decisions you must make that you can begin to settle into living and loving each day. You may not think you will get there now, but you will. There are peaceful days ahead. Be ready to enjoy them.
Shanna & Spirit Trouble ~ Trouble gained her wings 3/16/2011, a 27 1/2 month cancer survivor, tail wagging. RIP sweetheart, you are my heart and soul. Run free at Rainbow Bridge.
The November Five - Spirits Max, Cherry, Tika, Trouble & Nova. 11/2008 - 3/2013 An era ends as Queen Nova crossed the Bridge.
You will be amazed how your mindset will change as you progress on your journey with Montana. You will find yourself focusing on one thing.....how can I give my girl the best life everyday.
We have a 4 year old also, she is 3 months post-op and will have her last chemo tomorrow. We made the decision to give her the best chance possible, but each of has to decide what that means.
We are sending you good thoughts, keep us informed.
Loving my girl one day at a time, Gineej & Paris
Grateful for every moment we had with Paris…..no regrets!
Honoring her life by opening our hearts & home to Addy!
Thankyou to everyone for all your help and feedback…
Your comments and feedback have helped us alot..Yes you are all correct we need to focus on helping her now to get rid of her pain and give her the quality of life back that she is used to which is pain free.
We have just been reading up on the biopsy procedure as we were hoping that she didn't have to go through this one as i have heard that it is very painful.Could anyone give me feedback on this please..
We have currently been using some Fentenal patches for pain releif but she was crying and working herself up to a state that we were beside ourselves thinking that she was in so much pain that even the patches weren't helping her until we got onto this site and one of the video's of a lab the lady was explaining about the patches that she was using making her dog cry and beside herself and when the lady stopped using the patches her dog calmed done, so after listening to this we took the patches off to try and see if this helped Montana (Tanie is what we call her for short) and sure enough she is actually laying on her bed not crying for the first time in 5 days only a slight cry earlier today but she has finally settled and is sleeping peacefully at the moment.
Tomorrow is the day we have to let our vet know what our decision is and go from there. Scary… but we know we need to move fast as we don't have time to waste.
Thanks everyone for your help and support.
I will give you opinion about biopsy because we went that route. If I had it do over again I would not do it. It is painful & can cause a risk of fracture. For us it delayed the amputation process while we waited for the lab to debate the results only to come up with inconclusive!!
This is only my opinion, maybe you should post on ask a vet and get a reply from Pam & Tazzie.
Take care and I'll be thinking of you while you make a very tough decision.
Gineej & Paris
Grateful for every moment we had with Paris…..no regrets!
Honoring her life by opening our hearts & home to Addy!
I'm sorry to hear about your Malamute, and agree with the others who say it's not about how long a life she has left, it's about quality. For sure! That said, I am on a bone cancer dog yahoogroup and there are dogs who - with and without chemo - have beaten the odds and lived years, still going strong, after amputation.
I have had two osteo dogs, and never, ever will biospy again. The first dog, they took a bone biospy, he was in horrible pain after that, then two days later I was told the cancer was in his spine, so I put him to sleep. The second time was more recent and I agreed to a needle biopsy (my dog's tumor was atypical, it was in his elbow and the xrays were ambiguous) and the results came back false negative for cancer. The oncologist later told me this was not uncommon: what it meant was my dog endured god-awful pain for a further 3 1/2 weeks while everyone thought it was an orthopedic issue. THEN the cancer was confirmed and we amputated. By then the Fentanyl was a waste of money, I don't think it was doing much at all.
I can also tell you that if Cooper passed today (seven weeks post-amp and he is an 8 year old Rottweiler) I would consider it worthwhile. He was up and walking on the first day, and has been pain-free, if a little tired, for weeks. He plays, swims, walks, runs, goes to the beach, etc.
Just sharing my own experiences, best of luck tomorrow. Are you seeing an oncologist?
Oooh, it's so great to hear she's OK after taking off the patches. Don't know what it is about those things, but they often seem to make things worse. I never used any, and never had to experience those awful kinds of reactions that so many dogs do. And yep, they are realllly expensive too.
pain management is such a different thing for every dog. Good for you for paying attention to Montana's signals and using your instinct to care for her.
I didn't have a biopsy either, it was pretty cut and dry as far as what kind of cancerI had. Biopsies can be useful when the diagnosis is in question, and that's when they help to determine the best protocol for treating the cancer. But otherwise, yeah, they are super painful.
So good luck tomorrow. Whatever you decide, just keep in mind that there are no 'right' answers. Do what's in your heart and what you know is in Montana's best interest, and things will work out.
Keep us posted OK?
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
I would skip the biopsy. Most of the time the diagnosis can be made based on location (distal radius), breed of dog, and radiographs. If the tumor is in an odd location (elbow or hip) or if you live in an area where fungal disease is endemic (Valley Fever in the Southwest) then a biopsy may be warranted.
Treatment involves amputation no matter what type of cancer is found, but the biopsy is often done post-op to determine the need for chemo.
Pam and Tazzie
To Trac and Montana:
I am so sorry to hear about your news. You may have come across some of our posts. I also have a malamute, who is just 4 1/2 years old and is diagnosed with osteosarcoma.
Today is Tikaani's 4 month anniversary of her amputation. She is happy, healthy, sassy and pretty much the same as she always once sans a leg. (Her amp is of a rear leg)
Although our vet said he could do the amputation, he did recommend a surgeon to us that did such a fantastic job. She went through 4 rounds of chemotherapy soon after and we now have her on Metronomic protocol.
You are at the right place to seek advice and support. I am trying to get all my pics and movies together for all to see. The computer has not been agreeable to that so it's taken me longer.
I will post when I do and you can see how well she's doing.
I do agree with everybody else, I would not do the initial biospy only the post amputation biopsy, it was an unnecessary addition to what Tika had to go through, and since the initial came back with a false positive for chondrosarcoma, it also raised my husband's and I's hopes up just to have the trashed.
Good luck, keep us posted.
-Kim and Tika-bear
Kim and Spirit Tika http://www.tika.....ogspot.com
I would also suggest skipping the biopsy. Bonnie started limping a little and we took her in for an xray. We saw on the xray that it was 99% osteo, BUT she had stopped limping. My surgeon just could not amputate when she was not limping so we did a biopsy. That was so painful that she was limping for sure after that and it confirmed the osteo. I was ready to amputate, thanks to reading everything here, before the biopsy. I would not put my dog through that again. It also delayed the amputation and gave the bad guys more time to spread.
chris-bonnie
Tikaani said:
I am so sorry to hear about your news. ... You are at the right place to seek advice and support.
Thanks for your support….I will look forward to viewing Tika's Progress…
Tracey & Montana
We spoke to ourvet last night and finally gave our decision on what we were going to do for Montana. She is booked in next Thursday for the amputation of her front right leg...I know that this is the best decision we can make for her to relieve her of pain and to give her the best quality of life for the time she is with us.Even though this was an aganising decision that has given us many nights of no sleep wondering and hoping that we would make the right decision for her but as scared as we still are i can honestly say that i finally feel that what we are doing is the best thing that we can do for her..(This is due to this site and the help from everyone who has replyed to me with your stories)Thankyou very much....... As we can see that all of the dogs do so well and get around and live life to the fullest...
No we are not getting the biopsy done which is such a relief..It was just another added thing that we would have had to put her through.
We took Montana out for the day today to a place that she loves in the mountains so that she could go for a swim and enjoy the day. She had a great day!!!!
As Montana also has pancreatitis which she was diagnosed with when she was about 2.(This is where her body can't break down the fat that her body absorbs which means that she can't eat anything like meat,bones,chicken etc etc) Basically all she can eat is vegetables and a light biscuit which is Eukanuba.
We had some bloods done last night and they came back that her pancreatitis was all good (which was great as this time last week it was pretty high) all her cells were ok as well but her kidney was a bit iffy so we had to give them a urine sample today to get it tested..
Looking forward to spending the weekend with Montana and spoiling her....(You could't ask for a better mate).
Thanks to Bob and Cherry for the link to your journel i have been reading a bit every night...Thanks...
Thanks once again to everyone for your help!!!!!!!
I purchased one of the Rough wear harnesses today incase we need it for later...
Montana,Tracey & Stuart
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