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Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat

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Willow's journey begins....
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Member Since:
9 June 2020
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9 June 2020 - 6:16 am
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My beautiful 7 year old Rottweiler Willow has just been diagnosed with Osteo Sarcoma in her right hind leg.  Apparently after a bone biopsy she is at stage 1. 

To back track - approximately 7 weeks ago Willow was running free and happily at the local park when she ruptured her cruciate ligament.  I made an appointment at the local vet and then went to see a specialist surgeon vet that Willow has seen before with an issue relating to her hock.  The vet diagnosed the cruciate and went on to proceed with post op X-rays.  Following this the vet saw some shadowing on the bone and proceeded to do a CT Scan which confirmed the shadowing on the bone and suspected Osteo Sarcoma.  There was also a suspected 1cm tumor on the lung.

Following this devastating news I took Willow to see an oncologist vet who proceeded to try and do a biopsy of the lung tumor and unfortunately couldn't take a sample due to the positioning of the tumor which is blocked by a rib.  Further ultrasounds were completed with no other  tumors found.  Bloods were taken and all came back fine.  The advice given by the oncologist vet was to get the CT scans expertly read.  I went ahead with this and the results came back inconclusive on the shadowing on the bone and also inconclusive on the lung mass however saw there was a bronchial lymph node enlarged.

After all of this I went back to the specialist surgeon 2 weeks ago who repeated the CT scan.  They tried to do the lung biopsy to no avail however successfully completed the bone biopsy.  The CT scan showed no more tumors and no growth of the lung tumor and the lymph nodes were no longer enlarged.

Following all of this I went back to the oncologist vet who advised treatment options.  This being amputation and chemotherapy.

I am writing this in hope to be given some advice both the pros and cons of doing such an operation.  Is there anyone that has been in a similar situation to me that can share there story and advice.  I am concerned of jumping into such drastic measures if the outcome at the end of all of this isn't good.

Many thanks

Willow's mum Alana 

Melbourne, Australia

On The Road


Member Since:
24 September 2009
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9 June 2020 - 11:54 am
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Hi Alana, welcome. You are the second Aussie to join us in 24 hours! Be sure to say hi to Grace's people in Queensland. Your future posts won't need to wait for approval so post away. I'm so sorry you found yourself here and hope that we can help you with this tough situation.

So it sounds to me like Willow is getting some terrific vet care, that's awesome! She is a lucky dog to have such fantastic diagnostics and vets helping to figure out what's going on. I have to admit I'm a bit confused about the lung tumor situation. Normally, lung mets are what happens when osteosarcoma spreads, but you mentioned the vets tried to do a lung met biopsy? Is that because they suspect the lung tumor may be a primary tumor? Or another type of cancer in addition to the osteosarcoma?

If the lung met is secondary to the osteosarcoma, that does change the treatment plan and generally leads to a poorer prognosis, I'm so sorry to say. But, also keep in mind some dogs who have had lung mets at the time of amputation have lived longer than vets initially projected. Zeuswas one Tripawd who did. 

Regarding the pros and cons of amputation surgery, I can tell you with certainty that most people feel they would do it again if they had to. I know we would. Yes, it's scary to think of our dogs as Tripawds, but the benefit of getting more pain free time together and having a good quality of life, outweighs the short recovery time drawbacks, and the change to a "new normal" of activity level for the dog. Watch our Tripawds News blog for our latest quality of life survey results, being published in the next couple of weeks. 

The thing about amputation is that if you do nothing else, it alleviates the pain that osteosarcoma causes. Most dogs bounce back within a few weeks, some taking longer than others, but overall they do get their sparkle back and life goes on for the dog. It's the humans who have a harder time with the concept and the lifestyle shift. Cancer sucks but it also shows us the resilient nature of our dogs, they are so much stronger than we ever believe until we go through something like this.

I encourage you to check out Jerry's Required Reading List to get many of your questions answered, in addition to feedback you'll get from members here. Stay tuned, I know they'll have thoughts they want to share with you! Thanks again for joining, I hope you find this helpful.

Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet

Member Since:
10 April 2020
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12 June 2020 - 2:18 pm
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    Hi Alana, I just went through this with my Rottwieler Ziva. Only she had her right front leg removed due to Osteosarcoma.

Its been about eight weeks now and you would think she was born with only three legs. Her pain is gone and she is enjoying being a dog again.  There's a post here on Ziva with pictures and videos so you can see how fast she bounced back. 

   We are currently doing holistic medications now from Dr Wolf ( petsynergy.com) to build her immune system and we are looking into the chemo treatments now. But all in all my girl is very happy, pain free, and hopefully cancer free for a long time. 

    Good luck and I hope this info helps. 

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