Firstly - what a wonderful community to find!

I'm reeling currently. Three weeks ago Xena, our 8-year old French Bulldog, pulled up lame on her rear left leg mid-walk and was toe touching. At first we thought she had something in her paw but quickly ruled that out. My next thought was that she'd blown her cruciate as my previous dog had this happen in pretty much the same way. We carried her home and rested her the rest of the day in case she'd simply bruised a pad on something, but the next day no better so we phoned the vet. The vet's advice was to rest for a week and contact again if no better (during lockdown they've been limiting visits to the serious stuff).

A week later, 2 weeks ago, it was no better and a swelling had come up on her knee so the vet called her in and pretty much immediately said he thought it was a tumour and wanted to do a biopsy. She had a biopsy the next day and the results came back a week later as an chrondroblastic osteosarcoma - apparently the most aggressive type of bone cancer - and we were given the devastating news that if a tumour can be seen, there's 90% chance it's spread elsewhere and Xena has 4-6 months to live. We were given Metacam and Gabapentin to manage the pain and told that, at some point, the leg may become too painful and we'd have to decide between euthanasia and amputation, but 'by that stage' they'd not recommend amputation.

This Thursday gone, a week after her biopsy results, the tumour suddenly tripled in size and Xena couldn't use the leg at all. Back to the vet who said he'd never seen a tumour move so fast and he advised amputation the next day if the cancer hadn't spread. So on Friday we took her in and waited for a call - the arrangement was they would put her under and then x-ray her chest; if the cancer was in her lungs we wouldn't wake her, but if she was clear at this point he'd amputate. Thank god her chest is clear so far so the operation went ahead. We picked up our new tripawd Frenchie last night and are still in shock at the speed of all this - no time to think or decide on anything really and no time to prepare.

My house is hard floors downstairs so I spent yesterday pulling rugs out of the attic and making a 'highway' round the house so she doesn't slip but had no idea what else I should be doing.

She came through the amputation, though she lost a lot of blood and it was touch and go whether they'd have to transfuse. I'm a bit concerned about the pain relief - she had an opioid shot last night when they released her, but have released her with the Metacam and Gabapentin she went in with...but have said not to use the Gabapentin. I'm worried by that because, it seems to me, that going from a position of being on both drugs for 2 weeks, then on opioids at the hospital and then drop straight down to Metacam alone is a big drop off in pain relief for a dog who's had an amputation less than 48 hours ago - should I just keep her on the regime she was on before she went in? Metacam and Gabapentin?

Last night was tough, we slept downstairs on couches to be near her and our other Frenchie, who's very bonded to her, was literally quivering with worry. At one point Xena shot upright making an unholy screaming noise and we panicked thinking it was pain - we shot over and stroked her and it seemed like she was dreaming; she settled down again after a bit and has slept through to this morning. Whilst the screaming went on our other Frenchie, Smurf, shot over to help and when we didn't let her close went and hid on a couch shaking...she's not been eating since Xena went in to hospital on Friday morning.

I'm really thankful this forum is exists and I'll be hoovering up all the advice and stories here because both me and my partner's heads are spinning right now - 3 weeks ago we had a normal, healthy dog and today we have a tripawd with a life expectancy of 4-6 months tops

Xena