Here is our newly evolving story.  Rusty our 95lb. Golden just turned 8 and developed a limp in his right rear leg just before Thanksgiving.  We took him to the vet the day before Thanksgiving and they noticed some mottling on the xray right above his knee.  Started him on Rimadyl and Tramadol.  He did better on that, much less of a limp, almost unnoticeable.  We decided to get the chest xrays done to see if there had been any mets before deciding on our next step.  I didn't want to put him through the bone biopsy if there were all ready mets.  Chest xrays came out clear as a bell, with the obvious there may be something there that we cannot see.  All of his leg and hip xrays looked great, no arthritis no other issues except this one area on his leg.  Bloodwork came back perfect as well.  So, decided to go to the VCA that our vet referred us to and get the bone biopsy done.  Met with the surgeaon on Thursday, he looked at all the xrays and notes from our regular vet, and decided tha bone was too deteriorated to chance the bone biopsy.  Hubby made the call and Rusty got his leg amputated on Thursday. 

Surgery went well with no complications.  They sent the bone off for evaluation and we should hear back at the end of the week.  Rusty stayed at the hospital until Saturday afternoon.  He was unlatching his cage and kept going out and visiting the nurses and doctors while he was there!!  His appetite has been picking up, still not near normal.  He has been pretty lethargic and yesterday was panting heavily on and off, I'm assuming from the Tramadol.  He is now taking Tramadol every 8-12 hours, Rimadyl and an antibiotic.  He had the Fentanyl patch, but they took it off before he came home because he was getting weird on it. 

We are using a sling to get him in an out of the house and around the house as needed.  He seems to be dragging his other leg at this point, but when he wants to will bunny hop along fairly well, but it is short lived.  I am assuming he needs to build up strength in that rear leg to carry his big body.  He appears more alert, and we even got a few tail wags out of him today, especially when company came over.  Our 1 year old lab mix has been wonderful with him and seems to be playing mother hen.  Any time he gets up to adjust position, she is right there all concerned.  She even layed next to him last night and put her head on his back.  She has never done this before!  They usually play pretty rough together, so this is a big change for both of them.  I am hoping that each day he will gain a little more stregth and become more himself.  The way he is laying around makes my heart break.  I worry that we did the wrong thing, and put him through more pain.  I just keep telling myself that everything except that one part on his bone looked great and we are giving him a chance to be happy with us for hopefully a decent period of time.  I think we are going to feel really guilty if we only get a few more weeks or a few more montha and put him through all of this for nothing.  I think our emotions are all over the place.  I hope this is normal.  I keep trying to tell myself that the surgery is over, we made the decision and now we need to move on and help him recover the best possible.