Today we got the last of her stitches out! Now we can let her run around, give her a much needed bath, and even got a flea pill to start killing fleas in about 2 hours – which she DEFINATELY needs! Poor thing is full of them – which of course helped our indoor kitty also become friends with the flea population. Needless to say, horse pills do not go well even with peanut butter.
She’s been doing really well. Today marks 5 days post chemo session 1. No side effects so far *fingers crossed*. She’s been tired, which we expected. She saw the vet that did her surgery today and everybody gave her some lovin’s. Reeses even got to visit a kitty that lives at the vet office. Good story to share with the folks asking about the missing leg, and were all smiles seeing how well she is doing hearing she had it removed almost 4 weeks ago.
We’re proud of our little trooper, and hope she kicks this thing! cautious optimism as always, but, we hope she enjoys the rest of her time with us.
Next week may be a trip to the beach for the first time in years! We’ll see if she can handle the walk. Something we started doing with her last week for the first time with 3 legs. Gets tired and has to sit often, but, she is very excited to be out and about.
Yesterday was our first round of chemo, and we got most of the stitches out. The “problem” area still is stitched to make sure it is completely healed before the stitches come out.
We finally were able to take the cone off! Granted, she got to a point that she was pretty much done with the kennel and cone…forced her way out of the kennel, which now has a pretty broken METAL door! Cone was broken in the meantime, which means for her – mission accomplished!
Today she’s laying in her kennel, door wide open. She’s pretty lathargic, and doesn’t seemto care much about anything. Of course, its most likely the chemo – at least we hope thats all it is. The cost was less than quoted, which is good. We asked they do not give the pain medicine unless she was actually in pain. One tech told my husband that the pain med will help the tumor shrink if she has any (huh? really? hmmm doubt that!). So that was a cost savings. They said she did well and really didn’t need it. Next treatment is in 3 weeks, and will be alternating a different drug back and forth.
She went on her first “hop” (walk) yesterday post amp since she can be more out and about. She was pretty pooped taking it, and they had to make several stops, so made the walk shorter than usual and came home. My husband said she was a trooper because she loves her walks and really did want to keep going, but the panting told him ok dad, i’m tuckered out!
Fur is starting to come back in ever so slowly! When she goes potty, we need to stay away from where she goes, and if we clean up after her at all for anything, we need to wear gloves as to not touch anything because of the chemo meds.
We hope the lethargy doesn’t last too long, no fun seeing our doggie do so out of it.
OK shes in her kennel, however, slight heart attack walking in the door after work today!
Typically come home, go to her kennel to say hello and get her outside to do her “duty”. But today…. no dog. OK.. maybe she got out. I check under the table …. no dog. I check in the spare room where she likes to hide now, no dog. I look outside. no dog.
So … I call hubby, he panics.
I open the closed office door. THere she is. sitting in front of the fan that was on. How did she get there you ask? We haven’t quite figured that one out! We think when he fed her this morning, the door was just closed but not locked. I see evidence of our masked crusaider being in several rooms today, however how she managed to shut the door is beyond us!
So…outside she went, and back in her “house”. A few treats to get her there since she reaaaallllyyy didn’t want to be.
Hopefully her movement today didn’t mess things up with the new stitching.
In terms of her future….xrays came back clear again for her lungs so thats a good sign. Operating Dr doesn’t know if they got all the tumor out, because of the extent they said they had to stop at a certain point. CT scan recommended, but its so so so expensive. They said that the cancer treatment isn’t good on tumors, and thats what radiation is for – however with out a CT, they aren’t sure what they are dealing with. This may be a point that we will have to forego and see how she does with the other treatment. The tumor also came back with osteosarcoma, which made them wonder how much of the chest bone may have been affected.
Reeses is at the specialist for a follow up. She isn’t healing.
They restitched her incision to see if they can get a better grasp and lesson the chance of it opening again. We wait again a week or so before treatment can start.
They also want a ct scan. It’s very costly. The operating vet stated they took out what he could, so specialist wants to see what she is dealing with. This might be where we pass, we just can’t afford a 1,500.00 scan with all the treatment costs.
We’ll have to mull this over. We want her to be happy, and do everything to have her well so it weighs heavy on us.
More kennel time, less movement and different pain meds incase she is in pain but not showing it. We will follow up with anything additional when she gets picked up.
Reeses did go to the emergancy vet last night around 11:30pm. They took a look over her leg, and did confirm pitted edima. He said its pretty common in amputees, but still should be checked by her specalist. They stitched up the growing hole, and stated there is a lot of tension in that area so wouldn’t be surprised if it happens again. Asked again to see her vet to check everything out with the overall fluid swelling and retention in the area. Fluid looks fine, and off they went.
Foot looks less swollen today. TOday was the first day she was in her kennel all day while we went to work. Boy was her bladder glad to see us when we got home! Took off her cone and let her hop around the yard till she was done. She was able to be-bob around the livingroom for a bit as well.
She’s finding places to hide (not easy for a Rottie!). Under the kitchen table, under a desk. She never did this before. Have her back in the kennel, however she’s “singing” in there now… i’m sure she’d like to come back out!
She’s going for a follow up with the specalist tomorrow to look over stitches, and hopefully get a Chemo start date. Still waiting for things to heal though, which is prolonging things.
Well, the bleeding/seroma has lessened considerabally, however the small hole seems to be getting larger and can see the stitches pulling. It also seems her front leg is swollen. She doesn’t seemed bothered by any of it, and infact is pretty ready to get out of her cone and net asap! (easy Reeses, you still have stuff going on!)
We are in debate between an hour drive to the emergancy vet, however we don’t want a 4th vet to see her who doesn’t know her case. I”m sure a cancer amputee is a cancer amputee, however we just fee more comfortable with her seeing one of her own 2 vets. Because she seems pretty ok, i think we’ll be seeing the cancer vet in the early morning.
Fingers crossed this is nothing major. When we read this is stressful, we were hoping we’d get by with things being easy. yeah right! Daily we worry if the cancer is spreading too quick for us to have to wait for the chemo to start. We know she needs to heal, and with the hole there we fear it’ll get pushed out and lessen the chances of her doing well.
The cancer itself wasn’t just in the leg, but a tumor also twards the chest on the same side. I’m a worry wart anyway so of course anything that doesn’t “seem” normal makes me sick to my stomach. Luckily hubby tends to be the calmer one between us!
We’ll keep everyone posted on what is said tomorrow. For now, she’ll remain in her kennel on day 6 with that silly cone on her head ot relax. Besides, dinner time of dog food with that cream of chicken soup on top is about to commense – mmm doesn’t that sound tasty!
Reeses is our 7 year old Rottweiler. She’s full blooded, however, pretty “small” considering her breed at 80 lbs.
In January she began to limp. We let it go a few days thinking she just jumped to hard somewhere in the yard or slept wrong on it in her kennel. The limp didn’t go away, so we saw our vet.
He thought it might be a stress fracture, though we weren’t sure how that could have happened considering she doesn’t really jump on things (besides the couch!) and we have no stairs. He asked that we give her Previcox for 2 weeks and see if it heals itself. if not, bring her back in and he’d do xrays.
2 weeks later the limp was even worse, so brought her back into her Vets office. He took an xray, and told my husband it looks like bone cancer. It was located almost to the shoulder of the front left leg. He said he would get a collegue of his to take a look at the xrays and give us a call within the week. That day came, and the conclusion was the same.
He asked that we get more xrays to ensure it wasn’t in the lungs. We also wanted to see about hipdisplasia since it is common in older dogs of her breed. Everything came back very clean, however, noted it might be a nasty infection now instead.
The amputation was first scheduled for Thursday, February 23rd, but instead was put under a 2nd time for a biopsy. We couldn’t bear the thought of doing the amputation if it was something we could fight with antibiotics.
Over that weekend the limp was even worse, and now the leg was 25% larger than her good leg. We immediately called our vet again and he suggested the amputation even though the biopsy results were n’t back yet. He set the appointment up with his collegue on Tuesday, February 28th.
The biopsy results did indeed come in time that morning, to confirm the osteosarcoma diognosis and dead cells within the biopsy. we were making a good decision.
Reeses on day 3 post amputation
Aww get this off i have an itch!
Day 5 post amputation
Fast forward to today, and we have a energetic Rottie who will not sit still!
Her incision had to go to her chest, where at first they thought was part of the bone – was actually a tumor growing seperately. We are now getting another biopsy on this per the onocologist we were referred to to make sure its the same cancer, and not another type at the same time.
We are confining her to her kennel since last week. Everytime she moves, she leeks fluids. She has also managed to form a nice little pencil eraser size hole from the stitches, of which the vet said she is fine and it’ll scar over eventuatlly. she has internal stitches as well, so isn’t a large concern.
Other parts of her incision look very nice. She looks silly with the red net and cone head! She will non-stop lick at it if we let her otherwise, and the net will help with the fluid buildup and seeping. We hope by day 7 we can have the net off again.
We have a hard time keeping her relaxed, she just wants to do her thing! She was up and at ’em pretty well on the first full day following her amputation. My Husband helped her outside with a leash, but she didn’t seem to need it. she’s been running in the yard a bit to do her business, and has been eating quite well. Of course, treats are an all time favorite!
Next Steps
Chemotherapy was highly suggested from the vet that did the surgery. We’ve already had a consultation the day after her amputation. They let us know she was looking fantastic, however, therapy is NOT a cheap thing. Without the chemo, they gave her 3 months. With therapy – they say a year or so.
We are not the richest people in the world, but are lucky enough to have paid our credit card bills off 2 years ago – so we will be putting everything on this for now, and pay as we can. We love our tripawd girl and will do all we can for her to be happy while she’s still with us.
To give you an idea, our chemo will be costing between $750 and $850 per session. She needs 6 sessions. She may also need additional xrays to ensure it hasn’t spread to her lungs as she goes through the process.
Stitches will be out in another 5-8 days, of which will also be her first chemotherapy session at the specialist. We hope for a speedy recovery for her, and no further issues with the cancer!
