Hi everyone. Our 3 year old Goldendoodle, Daphne, had her right hind leg amputated for suspected osteosarcoma on July 19th. While we are shocked and devastated by this development in our otherwise healthy baby, we have acted quickly in hopes of giving her the best quality of life and potentially more time with us!

Following surgery, she was sent home with Codeine (30mgs) and Gabapentin (300mgs), with last doses of each given on Sunday, July 28th. She's still taking Rimadyl (75mg) daily with food. She was 70-75lbs before surgery.  

Daph's recovery was going as well as I think we could hope for up until about 2-3 days ago when she became more hesitant to move, and started exhibiting signs of discomfort and pain. We're worried it's some kind of nerve or phantom limb pain. 

She started to present symptoms on Wed 7/31, but we just associated the new whining with "growing pains" of trying to lay in different positions or experimenting with sitting on her bum again. We also thought we may have just startled her while sleeping with the reaction being due to some residual anxiety. This happened once or twice throughout the day, then increased in severity and frequency overnight into Thurs 8/1. 

On Thurs 8/1, we called the surgeons office for some advice. Unfortunately, we were told the surgeon won't be back in the hospital until next week but that a message would be sent over in case she can get back to us beforehand. They recommended we check with the primary Vet, who is also out until next week. Talk about bad timing! We have been very happy with the service and support of both teams throughout the chaos of the last few weeks, so I'm not complaining about their time away. Just makes it harder for us to get some immediate answers for our sweet girl. It's killing us to see/hear her struggling so much!  Luckily, another vet in the primary's practice was able to get back to us same day and recommended we get her back on Gabapentin, 300mg every 12 hours.  We started this dosage immediately at 4pm yesterday and have continued per the vets recommendation. 

Overnight into today, Fri 8/2, episodes have become less frequent, but so has movement. She had probably her worst exhibition of pain around 4am, and practically screamed "bloody murder" when readjusting on her bed. This morning she hesitated to get up and when she did, whimpered for a few feet before laying back down. She's not very interested in her food today, that's a somewhat normal thing for her. She did eat a treat we offered so we aren't concerned about her appetite at this point. 

We called our primary vet practice again this morning. They recommended moving the Gabapentin up from every 12 hours to every 8, so we are implementing that today and will see how she responds. We asked if she should take anything additional, but they didn't have a recommendation. They said they could try to call the surgeon to see if a fentanyl patch is needed, but we don't want to put her through another round of narcotics if we can avoid it. Not to mention, the surgeon is about an hour away and we worry about taking her anywhere in this state if we don't have to. Said we could also try pet ER, or wait to see how she responds to the accelerated doses and potentially fit her in at the vet's office tomorrow if there is no change. So, that's where we are for now. 

A few other things to note: 

• The vet reviewed images of her incision and said it was healing well, with no signs of infection. 
• No vomiting. 
• Daph seems to be more tense overall and movements seem more frantic/panicked. 
• We've also noticed an intermittent and slight twitching around the amputation site. 
• Daph doesn't seem to be itchy or even interested in her wound site. She doesn't attempt to get at it or lick it. She does sometimes lick her front paw where IV was done, but that's not excessive and seems normal. 
• To this point, has had no obvious pain response when rubbing or massaging the amp site (which we have tried to implement to help the pain per some great posts on this site!) 
• She responded well to a cold compress in the 2-3 days right after surgery. Should we try those again? 
• What else can ew try to help calm any emotional or psycological stress she may have? we're keeping her in a quiet, clean environment with no stairs or obstacles and various supportive dog beds. 

Is this phantom pain ? If so, is it normal at this stage and how long can we expect it to last? 

We just hit the 2 week mark and can't help but feel discouraged by this set back, though we realize that every dog recovers differently and we find comfort in that. At the same time, want to ensure we're doing all we can to properly treat and heal her!  

Daph is scheduled for her follow-up/suture removal with the surgeon on Tuesday 8/6 and then to see a doctor in Internal Medicine & Oncology on Wednesday 8/7 to determine her next steps for treatment. We haven't gotten the specific results from the biopsy report since the surgeon is away and plans to call us to discuss them when she returns, but she did have them sent over to Internal Medicine & Oncology when they came back and we feel that the cancer has been confirmed at this point given that Internal Medicine & Oncology called on 7/31 to tell us they reviewed her charts/results and scheduled us for the aforementioned 8/7 appointment. We're hoping we can figure out how to keep her comfortable at least until next week, as we'd hate to take her anywhere while she's feeling this way. 

Apologies this got so long, but wanted to provide as much detail as possible. We're SO grateful to have found this community! The posts have been so helpful and comforting for us over the last few weeks. 

Thank you!