Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Hi lovelies! It's Christine again, I am Tori's Mum. As much as I love Tripawds, it's been such a blessing, I confess that I don't go on the forums much anymore unless I'm specifically looking for something. It's just that I am already an over-thinker, so reading about doggos that are further on the journey is just too much info for me at the moment. After Tori's last round of chemo and her first scan showing no sign of osteo, we've been gloriously basking in life without thinking about the C word every five minutes.
It's been nice while it lasted, but we have reached our next hurdle. I appreciate every situation is different so it's risky to compare dogs, but we can't get into the specialist until Tuesday afternoon, so it would help me just to gauge what possible scenarios we might face, so I can mentally prepare myself a bit more.
So Tori has been going great guns, and life is good. She is one happy girl. Which makes us happy!
About 3 weeks ago, she got two small hard lumps, one on her neck and one on her leg. They started off the size of a pea, but that one of her neck is almost golf ball sized now. We got her to our vets last week and we just got the results back that it's a sarcoma. They can't say it was osteo yet but they said it would be really unusual for to have 2 different sarcomas. But when they took the biopsy, they could get needles into it (so not bony) and they don't seem tender at all, so that was leaning them away from osteo.
To be honest I was just thinking they were going to be cysts (as she has boxer in her and is white, so she is always prone to lumps and bumps). I thought surely cancer wouldn't go from not visible on a scan to almost golf size in less than a month?
So now that my denial bubble has been somewhat popped, I just wondered if someone could explain the likely journey for most of our puppers from no cancer to lung mets - how quickly does it progress, do they have medical options to slow thing down, does the pain kick in straight away or near the end? I just don't want her to be a zombie or feeling horrible to extend her life.
Apologies if this is triggering for those who have lost your babies, and also those earlier on in the journey. I just realised I knew what to expect when we were smashing the cancer, and the pointy end being lung mets, but I'm not sure about what's in the middle. Obviously we will know more next week, but I was just hoping for some anecdotes so I can get a vibe for what's the best case and worst case scenario.
Fingers crossed it is another sarcoma (although I'm not sure if that makes the news any better).
Thanks so much, you are a godsend. I will send more pics when I am not so sad. We are going away for a long weekend to dog friendly accommodation by the water, so I'm going to leave my worries at home and just enjoy those precious moments with her. At least she is still happy and I can't see any pain - the CBD oil is all I'm giving her at the moment - she's just more tired than usual (but it's hot here so hard to tell what the driver is).
Christine
Christine, it's good to hear from you, and we understand why you need to stay away. That is totally not uncommon and understandable. I'm just sorry that the news you shared today isn't the greatest.
It's really hard to say what things may look like after this because as you know, all situations are different, and cancer tends to do what it wants. This may or may not end up with lung mets, hard to say until you know what the pathology says. We have seen dogs develop two types of cancers over time, but each situation plays out differently. I would hate to tell you to expect one thing and then it takes a turn some other direction.
What I do know is that with lung mets, it's not painful, just tiring. The lungs don't get enough air and it gets harder to do things they love doing. There may be a cough, or there may not. There may be coughing up of blood clots, or there may not. See what I mean? It's hard to say.
Try your best to stay present as you are doing. Enjoy this long weekend together. When you get the results from the vet, you will have a plan and you will find more relief from that than just spinning your wheels and guessing. Please let us know what you find out OK?
Many hugs to you and sweet Tori.
I'm going to leave my worries at home and just enjoy those precious moments with her. At least she is still happy
Good plan!!!!
Your homework for the week end is to have a worry free week end just like Tori is doing. You are strong enough and love Tori enough to not let worrying about that piece of crap disease interfere with your blissful time together. You'll continue to make treasured memories and find peace and joy is being more dog
Right now you don't know what you're dealing with and it may not be a worse case scenario, okay? Heck, not ever sure what a "worse case scenario " looks like with ever so inconclusive right now. have a worry free week end just like Tori is doing.
Jerry gave ,excellent insight as usual. When you get more information you'll develop a plan and some treatment options.
In the mean, we're cheering for Tori and sending pawsitive energy, okay?
(((((((Hugs))))))
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
Happy Hannah had a glorious additional bonus time of over one yr & two months after amp for osteo! She made me laugh everyday! Joined April's Angels after send off meal of steak, ice cream, M&Ms & deer poop!
Thanks Jerry & Benny for your wise replies.
Sadly it turned out to be bad news, they were quite shocked how quickly they grew given she was given all the clear in scans six weeks prior.
We were told it was the end of the road, and it was pretty evident by how quickly they were growing. We gave her steroids for ten days which thankfully perked her up long enough for us to spoil her rotten, then said goodbye to her yesterday.
We're obviously devastated that she didn't get more time, and there is a Tori sized void in our hearts and home, but no regrets. Just grateful that we had her in our lives, and so grateful to Tripawds for their input, support and expertise.
Thank you.
Oh no! Christine I am so sorry to see this sad news. Cancer can just act so fast sometimes. My heart hurts knowing that you guys had to say goodbye so quickly. As hard as it was to put your own grief aside, you did right by her. She didn't suffer, and she went out knowing she was loved and cherished. This is what we all want for our pets, for ourselves. Her peaceful transition was the most difficult and highest honor you could give her. Never forget that.
If you want to post a tribute to her in Coping with Loss we will be there to honor her memory. We would love to celebrate your life together. She was such a big part of your life, and you guys had a lot of happy times that cancer can never take them away.
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