Thought I'd update here, and I think I'll post again on other topics:

We had to euthanize Toby today, 37 days after suspected osteosarcoma diagnosis. It was the right decision for him, and I'm very thankful for the time we had to kiss him, love him, and that we could have our other two dogs with him on the table as he passed away quickly and peacefully.

The oncologist found an anal sac tumor, so he had anal sac carcinoma, an aggressively-spreading cancer. It also spread to his spleen. The long-term issue was going to be slowing the growth of the tumors and watching to see a new bone tumor. He also had some very hard, swollen lymph nodes around his neck impacting his breathing slightly. Overall, he was doing pretty well, two weeks after amputation. He had stopped wagging his tail part way through recovery, and stopping the gabepetin and tramadol helped, as if it was sedating him too much after his pain leveled off.

The next week, his eye became pink and squinty, and thought to be a part of the cancer. He seemed to feel a bit worse. The oncologist thought the Palladia and Meloxicam would help slow his tumors' growth, and help his lymph nodes. He seemed to tolerate the chemo well at first, but then lost some of his appetite and became increasingly lethargic and weak. We took him in on Monday for his lethargy, and his breathing also worsened, with wheeziness/squeakiness. His blood work was the same and his lung x-rays showed only a little inflammation. His belly seemed bigger, as if the spleen was growing more. We got fluids and anti-nausea meds, and he was about the same Tuesday, with stretching his neck to breathe a few times during the day, though that would subside, and then he was able to sleep. Today, Wednesday, he lost his appetite completely, and his breathing was even more labored and loud with coughing, and he was sleeping a lot, though he wasn't as weak as Monday.

We took him in on emergency, hoping there was something they could do for his breathing and appetite (thought I wasn't optimistic). His breathing calmed while we waited, but was extremely labored when he stood for his weight and temperature (sucking in his belly). They put him on 95% oxygen, and found fluid in his belly, suspected burst spleen bleeding, that was causing the breathing trouble. We knew that was bad, but it came back a little blood and a lot of liquid. It was more little difficult to make a decision at that point than when we thought it was all blood, because there was some suggestion that it was possibly treatable. That would be multiple diagnostic tests to determine which meds to treat heart failure or liver issues and multiple days of hospitalization. But the cancer was hitting him so hard so fast, and if that were the cause of the other fluid, there wasn't any immediate treatment that would improve his condition for him to ever come home. His breathing was worsening so badly, and the vet thought any stimulation could worsen his breathing to the point of a sudden and traumatic death.

I was thinking this day was coming sooner rather than later, but it came on even faster. We felt a little rushed and torn, but after spending time with him, we could see he needed us to step in now. He looked ready, and he was so sweet as always.

If we had found out about the anal sac cancer and the spleen at the same time as the bone tumor, I wouldn't have wanted to do the amputation. But that means we would have had to do this a month ago (and that would have been a very difficult decision then), and most importantly, we didn't know, and it came on so fast. I wish it didn't happen to him, but it did. I'm glad for the time we had, not only the 12 years of our wonderful boy, and the mostly good 37 days, but also for the good moments where he felt calm and comfortably, and let us all say goodbye. My family and I are going to miss him so much.