Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
Tripawds is your home to learn how to care for a three legged dog or cat, with answers about dog leg amputation, and cat amputation recovery from many years of member experiences.
Join The Tripawds Community
Learn how to help three legged dogs and cats in the forums below. Browse and search as a guest or register for free and get full member benefits:
Instant post approval.
Private messages to members.
Subscribe to favorite topics.
Live Chat and much more!
Register
Log In
Members
Add Topic
Offline
Hi -
I am hoping people can share their experiences (good/bad, successful/not successful) with doing SRT radiation after surgery for osteosarcoma.
My dog became a tripawd in July and pathology confirmed osteosarcoma in the upper right femur. Unfortunately, pathology also indicated “incomplete margins in the subcutaneous tissue”. Carboplatin chemotherapy has already been started (two doses down), and chest xrays at the time of the second dose were clear. The oncologist is recommending SRT radiation to clean up the incomplete margins inbetween the 3rd and 4th dose of carboplatin.
I can’t seem to find any stories where anyone else did amputation and radiation - seems to commonly be one or the other. But it does seem like maybe people with rib or jaw osteosarcoma have surgery and then radiation, so maybe this is a similar situation to those dogs? Either way, just wondering if anyone out there did both surgery and radiation and what the outcome was.
Thanks for reading.
Hi there, welcome. Your future posts won't need approval so post away.
I'm sorry about your dog! How is he doing overall?
Honestly I can't recall a member who combined amputation with radiation therapy follow-up. Usually what happens is SRT is done to prevent amputation and provide pain relief, then amputation follows when SRT is no longer helpful or there is a fracture. But I did find a few search results where folks mentioned "amputation and radiation" so there may be some examples in there:
https://tripawd.....;include=3
Did you ask your oncologist to provide the info you're seeking? That's what I would do next, as well as to share some examples and maybe even references to patients the vet has treated successfully with this combo. Usually when an onco suggests a more unconventional way of doing things, it's because they've seen some level of success with it in their patients who had similar diagnosis. Much like the way each chef has their own recipe for a traditional dish, oncologists have their own takes on conventional therapies in some cases.
Their reasons for getting cleaner subq margins are something I haven't heard of, but I'm not a vet so that doesn't mean much. I'd love to know more about margins and osteosarcoma. Since the tumor was in the femur and I would have thought that removing the entire leg takes care of margins. As you said, it's the micro-mets that are the concern.
Yes most dogs will have mets even after surgery, and the point of the chemo is to make them behave and keep them from growing. That is the goal of any chemo treatment for animals, since their bodies couldn't tolerate the chemo dosages needed when trying to eradicate the cancer entirely as docs do for humans.
Also see this post for your discussion:
Questions to Ask Your Vet Oncologist
Hope that makes sense!
Thank you, Jerry, for taking the time to respond. I am glad I’m not the only one who isn’t familiar with this approach. Currently, I am waiting on the radiation oncologist to return from sabbatical on 9/5 in order to have a consult and ask questions. I’m just trying to gather information in the meantime to be prepared for that conversation. Between googling and searching forums/social media groups, and I have a few veterinarian friends that I have also asked, no one else seems to be familiar with this situation.
Currently, my boy’s QOL is amazing. Super fast recovery from surgery, very minimal side effects from chemo (his NADIR showed a pretty big drop in platelets but no outward signs or change in behavior/attitude). He is happy and playful…. it makes the radiation decision that much harder, because I don’t want to cause him any pain or stress or impact his QOL.
Oh good I'm glad you have an appointment to discuss the treatment. I'm super curious to know more too! Please keep us posted.
YAY that your dog is doing so well! What is his name?
Always remember that any kind of follow-up treatment is optional, and there are no right or wrong choices. Quality of life is always the #1 priority from everyone on a dog's team, so if any treatment impacts that, it can be modified or eliminated completely if necessary. We will support you no matter what you decide.
1 Guest(s)
