I hope I'm doing this correctly, never written on a site like this before.  Peach is our 13yo Rat Terrier and a sweet special girl.  In June/July os 2010, I found her upper, front right leg was swollen and took her to our local vet.  She had not pain, no limp and we believed it to be an abscess, treated with antibiotics and didn't really worry about it again.  Nearly a year later to the month, same leg swollen but this time with a limp.  Being a terrier and being that we own a multitude of animals (5 dogs, 4 horses, mini horse, mini donkey, 2 cats, rabbit, chinchilla and fish) we thought her limp was from chasing the chipmunks and squirrels around.  After a couple days, off to the vet and another round of antibiotics. That was on a Monday, she went for dental cleaning that Thursday and even the vet team there didn't even notice her limping.  However, by Sunday, she was not using the leg at all.

Our local vet is awesome and when we called her, she said to bring her in and we would drain the abscess.  Well, the needle didn't produce any fluid and on Monday we took her in for a biopsy.  Our vet said what she took out looked really ugly and the staging/grading proved it a week later...Grade III mast cell.  We made an appointment with the closest oncology vet (1.5 hours away in Denver) for two weeks later.  In that time, the biopsy site healed very well.  But the day before the oncology appointment, the site opened up and became infected.

At the oncology appt., it became very obvious quickly that the leg would need to be amputated since no antibiotics were helping with the infection and really couldn't given the cancer.  After full work-up, US, x-rays and tests of liver and bladder spots and accessible thyroids everything was spotless....CLEAN!!!  So, amputation scheduled for 5 days later.

Recovery went very well.  However, there was a little cancer found in the gland under the scapula, very small amount.  We decided to give chemo because it was short (6 doses over 6 months).  A week after the first dose, Peach could barely stand.  Rushed her down to Denver and they put her in ICU with a white count of 690.  She recovered quickly with meds and came home a day before the docs expected!  White count back up to 7000 in 4 days.  

Now, in the past 2-3 weeks the lower area where her incision site was has swollen and turned red and blistery looking.  Not painful and she sleeps on that side most all the time.  But of course, we fear the worst.  Called the oncologist, who agreed it would probably be mast cell returning but found it unusual since we are still within the window of treatment for the first dose of chemo (she wasn't due for another dose until this week.)  So, if the chemo, which we believed was merely preventative anyway, was going to work, it should have been doing so.  Only another needle biopsy could determine cancer for sure.

When I took Peach to our local vet yesterday we discussed our options.  We decided that poking Peach again was just not worth it since confirming cancer wouldn't change our course of action.  We've altered her prednisone dose, her antihistamine dose and added a 4th generation antibiotic for good measure, just in the off chance that it's bacterial.  We are hoping that the area, which looks about the size of a bottle cap, slightly larger, is scar tissue and pressure sores.  She's not in pain and no puss or running.  Shes continuing to eat, drink, go to the bathroom and do her regular thing.  

Of course chemo was stopped because to lower the dose would decrease the efficacy and would prove to be a pointless endeavor.  I saw some pics on this site of amputations with similar looking bumps, so we can only hope.  Any info or advice is so appreciated.  Thanks!