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Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat

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Member Since:
17 March 2012
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17 March 2012 - 3:26 pm
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I'm new here. My 8 yr old chocolate lab was diagnosed with osteosarcoma on Dec 23. For a host of reasons, we chose to have her primary tumors (in ulna and radius) killed by radiation at Colorado State Vet School. Then, she had three rounds of carboplatin. She's also taking tramella, a wild mushroom mix, that's said to slow the spread of osa.

 

Yesterday, she had her followup xrays prior to chemotherapy, and she had five lung mets, each about the size of a kidney bean (she had none back in December). We were given a number of options but chose to do a round of doxorubicin. She's had no side effects from carboplatin, aside from low WBC counts, and it appears that she's doing great with the doxo. She tolerates chemo without a hitch, as far as we can tell.

 

Here is my question for all of you. Is five lung mets a lot of mets? Based on scanning posts here, I get the impression that it is. Our oncologist would not make guesses about the prognosis... so I'm searching the internet to try to get an idea of what to expect.

 

Just so you know, my dog seems to feel great. She's full of energy, joy, and love. Her irradiated leg does not hurt her even the slightest bit, and she has no lung symptoms. Believe me, although we are reeling from the news of the lung mets, we are rejoicing that our dog still feels so good.

 

Thanks!

K, an 8 year old chocolate lab, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma of the radius and ulna on 12/23/11. She had stereotactic radiation to kill the bone tumors, and 3 rounds of carboplatin. On 3/16/12, lung mets were found. We tried several different kinds of chemotherapy to slow the lung mets but none worked. Finally, mets appeared at other sites, including her spine. She earned her angel wings on July 15, 2012. K changed my life, and I'll never forget her. Our/my journey is chronicled at romp-roll-rockies.blogspot.com.

On The Road


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17 March 2012 - 3:53 pm
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Welcome! Sorry to hear about your pup, your future forum posts will not require moderation.

Every dog is different, but it's not necessarily the number of mets that matter as much as their size and location. Please keep in mind, we are not vets, and only speaking from our experience with Jerry. But the good news is, dogs can live a decent quality of life with much less lung capacity than humans. Jerry lived a happy life on three legs for nearly nine months after we discovered his met. It wasn't until they consumed one full lung and nearly a third of the other until he began his downward spiral.

If you haven't already don so, please be sure to review these posts about lung metastases for more information:

metronomic therapy for canine osteosarcoma metastasis jerrys experience

Time for a Reality Check

Canine Osteosarcoma: Lung Metastasis Treatments

what is the prognosis with metastasis to lungs

 

Hope this helps! If you're going to CSU, Bear is in good hands. Is that her name?

Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet

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17 March 2012
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17 March 2012 - 4:14 pm
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Thank you so much. I've been silently reading here at Tripawds since the day of my dog's diagnosis, but since she wasn't a "tripawd", I wasn't sure how well we really fit in. I can see now that we've come to the right place.

 

I'm off to read the things that you suggested.

K, an 8 year old chocolate lab, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma of the radius and ulna on 12/23/11. She had stereotactic radiation to kill the bone tumors, and 3 rounds of carboplatin. On 3/16/12, lung mets were found. We tried several different kinds of chemotherapy to slow the lung mets but none worked. Finally, mets appeared at other sites, including her spine. She earned her angel wings on July 15, 2012. K changed my life, and I'll never forget her. Our/my journey is chronicled at romp-roll-rockies.blogspot.com.

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17 March 2012 - 4:17 pm
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Just one more thing... I've been chronicling our journey at my long-term blog: romp-roll-rockies.blogspot.com. The day of diagnosis was Dec 23, titled "Falling off a cliff".

K, an 8 year old chocolate lab, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma of the radius and ulna on 12/23/11. She had stereotactic radiation to kill the bone tumors, and 3 rounds of carboplatin. On 3/16/12, lung mets were found. We tried several different kinds of chemotherapy to slow the lung mets but none worked. Finally, mets appeared at other sites, including her spine. She earned her angel wings on July 15, 2012. K changed my life, and I'll never forget her. Our/my journey is chronicled at romp-roll-rockies.blogspot.com.

5
17 March 2012 - 6:31 pm
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Hello and Welcome to Tripawds!! I don't know much about lung mets because my Dog never had any but I am sure glad that you are here! You definitely came to the right place! Even though your Dog is not a Tripawd everyone here would love to help you because we just love all Dogs!! And of course you already know that many members are dealing with cancer. So sorry you have to be one of them. But I am really glad to hear that your Dog is doing so well so far. That's good news that  your Dog tolerated the chemo well and  the best thing is that her leg isn't bothering her either!! Hoping so much that the progression of her lung mets can be slowed so you have loads more time with her. What is her name by the way? Looking forward to hearing more about your Lab!! Good Luck!!

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18 March 2012 - 4:49 pm
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Hi Angel,

 

Thanks so much for your welcome. I've found so many useful things on Tripawds. I'm learning by the minute.

 

Actually, one thing that I can contribute is that a few vet schools are now able to do "stereotactic radiation" to kill osteosarcoma bone tumors as an alternative to amputation. That's what my dog, K, had done. Her xrays show that it has worked beautifully. The tumors are gone. I chose this treatment because we live in a very rough mountainous place that had about 6' of snow on the ground when K was diagnosed (we have no sidewalks so every "walk" is actually a "hike" on the mountain). Moreover, K is a very fearful dog, so I couldn't imagine her simply bounding out into all that snow without one of her front legs (even though I'd read so many great stories here of dogs who adapted beautifully).

 

Based on all the reading that Jerry suggested, it sounds as if lung mets don't necessarily mean a very short survival time. I plan to call our oncologist tomorrow to get more info about the locations of the lung mets and to find out her gut feeling about how aggressive K's cancer is. I'm the kind of person who wants to know the details, even if they're bad news. But, after digesting that bad news, I can put it aside and seize each day with my beloved K.

 

After all my reading here, I can see that K is somewhat unique in that she has almost no discernible bad effects from chemo. That's why we chose to do a round of doxo right after they found the lung mets. Indeed, the chemo hasn't slowed her down the slightest bit. That fact leaves more options open to us than others might have.

 

Thanks again!

K, an 8 year old chocolate lab, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma of the radius and ulna on 12/23/11. She had stereotactic radiation to kill the bone tumors, and 3 rounds of carboplatin. On 3/16/12, lung mets were found. We tried several different kinds of chemotherapy to slow the lung mets but none worked. Finally, mets appeared at other sites, including her spine. She earned her angel wings on July 15, 2012. K changed my life, and I'll never forget her. Our/my journey is chronicled at romp-roll-rockies.blogspot.com.

Washington
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1 February 2011
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18 March 2012 - 7:34 pm
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In reading your post, I was curious about the cost of the stereotactic radiation treatment.  Is it comparable in cost to targeted radiation treatments? 

the Woo

~ ~ Rio ~ ~
Forever in my heart...

April 2000 – January 20, 2012
Diagnosed with Mast Cell Cancer in June 2007. Left rear leg amputated Feb. 8, 2011.
Mets discovered Aug. 31, 2011. Read more of Rio's story here.

krun15
8
18 March 2012 - 9:03 pm
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Hi and welcome to Tripawds,
We don't discriminate here- cancer sucks no matter how many legs you have.
Posting your story may help someone down the line, amputation is a big deal and not right for every dog, it's good to know there is progress being made in alternative treatments.
I can't help with the lung mets, my pug Maggie had different kinds of cancer, but I have seen dogs here have good life quality her after that diagnosis.
I hope the info you find here is helpful. Support from others who have been there is invaluable, I hope you stay around and keep us updated on K.
And if you have a chance and are up for it you might post more details about your experience with rad treatments, as I said earlier it might help someone else.

Karen and the pugapalooza

San Diego, CA
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18 March 2012 - 10:37 pm
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It is my understanding from talks with Abby's onc that the main thing about mets is the location and size. Our Abby had 2 mets for a very long time and was fine with them. My onc told me her body had no idea they were there. They were in what I called "the back 40" - sort of the lower part of her lung - so weren't as dangerous as the one that finally took her from us. She ultimately had a 3rd met that was near her airways and it got big and affected her ability to breathe well. (I'm not sure how big it was at the end. The last time we looked at it a few months before she passed it was like golf-ball size.

All in, we had a year with Abby with lung mets - although for about 6 months of that time it was just one small met. Hopefully your pup will still have a lot of good quality time left!

You might want to talk to your vet/onc about Palladia. It did not agree w/ our Abby's GI system, but there is another on tripawds whose pencil-eraser-sized lung mets disappeared on Palladia! (I saw the before and after xrays w/ my own eyes as we went to the same onc.)

All the best to you and K!
Jackie, Angel Abby's mom

Abby: Aug 1, 2009 – Jan 10, 2012. Our beautiful rescue pup lived LARGE with osteosarcoma for 15 months – half her way-too-short life. I think our "halflistic" approach (mixing traditional meds + supplements) helped her thrive. (PM me for details. I'm happy to help.) She had lung mets for over a year. They took her from us in the end, but they cannot take her spirit! She will live forever in our hearts. She loved the beach and giving kisses and going to In-N-Out for a Flying Dutchman. Tripawds blog, and a more detailed blog here. Please also check out my novel, What the Dog Ate. Now also in paperback! Purchase it at Amazon via Tripawds and help support Tripawds!

Member Since:
17 March 2012
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19 March 2012 - 8:04 am
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Thanks to all of you. I'll answer your questions here.

 

K's stereotactic radiation involved 3 days of having multiple (about 10, I think) laser-like rays of radiation pointed at her tumors. Each treatment took less than an hour of radiation. K was under anaesthesia each time because she had to be completely still for it. She seemed to feel fine afterwards. She lost the fur all around the tumors, and got a radiation burn about 3 wks later. Now, about 2.5 months later, the area of the burn is still without fur but the fur is coming back all around it. The new fur is a different color (silver) than the rest of her body... but I don't care. It looks kind of cool.

 

The xrays show that the bone tumors are gone (it took about a month post-radiation for the lump to totally disappear from K's leg). There's scar tissue so the bone isn't as strong as before cancer. One of the issues that the vets consider before recommending stereotactic radiation is whether the tumor location and size will cause the bones to be too prone to fracture after the radiation. That's the biggest risk after the radiation. There's a less than 10% chance of regrowth of the primary tumors. It's still a new procedure and that risk is decreasing all the time as they perfect the technique.

 

I will talk with my vet again about Palladia. She steered us away from it because K has had multiple bouts of pancreatitis in her life, and the vet was concerned about the side effects bringing on another bout of pancreas problems. But, it could be that it's worth the risk.

 

They quoted us a very high cost ($7K) for stereotactic radiation but then the total was only about half of that ($3.5K). We never asked why the total was so much less than the quote. In the end, radiation didn't cost that much more than amputation. We're lucky because we have really good pet health insurance that's covering 80% of all of K's treatment.

K, an 8 year old chocolate lab, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma of the radius and ulna on 12/23/11. She had stereotactic radiation to kill the bone tumors, and 3 rounds of carboplatin. On 3/16/12, lung mets were found. We tried several different kinds of chemotherapy to slow the lung mets but none worked. Finally, mets appeared at other sites, including her spine. She earned her angel wings on July 15, 2012. K changed my life, and I'll never forget her. Our/my journey is chronicled at romp-roll-rockies.blogspot.com.

krun15
11
19 March 2012 - 9:14 am
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Thanks for the info.

Interesting about the silver fur- I met a black pug a few weeks ago that had rad treatments for a mast cell tumor on its hind leg.  When the fur came back it was white!

If you are considering palladia you might read a blog called Rosie's Road.  It is about a lab dealing with mast cell cancer not OSA, but who used palladia for a long time. The drug was originally released for use on mast cell tumors.  I think they eventually had to stop using it because of high blood pressure.  It might help to read some of their experiences with the drug.

 

Karen and the pugapalooza

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19 March 2012 - 10:04 am
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Thanks Karen. I'm going to check out that blog about an experience with palladia.

 

Also, based on Abby's mom's comment, I'm going to ask our oncologist today about the location of the mets. K still seems fine, now 3 days post-doxo chemotherapy so that's good news. Let's just hope it's working on those mets...

 

This is a wonderful forum. I appreciate all the input. I hope that I can help someone else who is a "newbie" like me someday. But, most of all, I wish that there would never be another newbie because cancer would be obliterated from Earth.

K, an 8 year old chocolate lab, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma of the radius and ulna on 12/23/11. She had stereotactic radiation to kill the bone tumors, and 3 rounds of carboplatin. On 3/16/12, lung mets were found. We tried several different kinds of chemotherapy to slow the lung mets but none worked. Finally, mets appeared at other sites, including her spine. She earned her angel wings on July 15, 2012. K changed my life, and I'll never forget her. Our/my journey is chronicled at romp-roll-rockies.blogspot.com.

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