Bevd

How awful I'm very sorry

Morning all. Thanks again for all your good wishes Darcy was all silly and waggy for a couple of minutes after her mad dash from one bed to another last night - a little spark of Darcy came through for those moments She didn't move during the night and first attempts to get her up resulted in her...going round in a circle and laying down again However, the second attempt resulted in a wee just outside our back door. She seems reluctant to walk around much out there so for the next outing, we'll go out of the front door onto our front garden and see if the's more pleased with that. Also, Aunty Nicki is visiting this afternoon at around 2pm so we'll get Darcy outside onto the front to see her and then Nicki can come in and spend some time here. I'm going to ask Nic if she'll stay here whilst Marc & I go out for half an hour to get some food and Darcy supplies (mainly because I've not been out of this house since Darcy came home and I really need to go somewhere, even if its just to a shop!).

Sending best wishes

Finally - I've had time to sit down and read this thread from the start. I've laughed and cried and laughed some more and then got terrified over the swollen foot issue and then got amazed by the video's of Winslow on two legs! Thank you to Glynis for sharing and to Diane for posting it for us

She made moves to get uppppppppppppppppppp So we shouted encouragement and Marc gave a few tugs on the T shirt and she got up and went to her bed in the corner

I'm very sorry Trish

Plan B was put into action regarding walking for toileting purposes this evening. We arranged for our friends across the road to come out onto their garden and we would take Darcy out of our front door and get her to walk across to them. We put all the other dogs out of the way so that we could have the living room door & babygate open at the same time as the front door and then started the task of getting Darcy to her feet. Marc had to lift her (but I suspect thats going to be the norm for some time). We got her out of the front door and she spied Aunty Janet & Uncle Iain (which may have had something to do with them calling her name in very happy voices) and off she shot to see them with her tail wagging. She did a wee on the pavement and a poo on the road (with me rushing back inside for the bag I'd forgotten to take with me) and she did a fair bit of walking around (and a fair bit of leaning against Uncle Iain and wagging her tail whilst gazing at him adoringly). We were out there for about 10 mins before we decided that enough was enough and we came back in. Darcy decided to lay on one of the other dog beds against the radiator so we've left her there for the time being and turned the heating off. PS I am a bit less fraught than earlier

Darcy is now wearing a t shirt. She doesn't like it because it says something about greyhounds, not deerhounds. LOL. I've used voice encouragement. I've used dried lungs. I've used sausages. I've used cheese. I've tried raising my voice a bit. I've tried tickling her. I've tried looking very serious. I've tried looking loving. I've tried everything I can think of to make her get up on her own. It's not worked. I think I have the worlds only dog who doesn't want to get up. But then again, before this happened, she was laying down asleep for 90% of the day and would only get up when she really needed to. I'm not entirely sure why I think she is going to have changed her whole persona just because someone chopped her leg off. So it's up to us to now force her, at least four times a day, to get up and go out. I am not having a great day today. Can you tell.

Can anyone who has been through this amputation thing give me any sort of ideas regarding timescales? In other words, what was your dog like on day 3 or 4 post amp? When did he/she start to get up on his/her own (even if he/she still needed help with moving) and when did they begin to actually walk without assistance? I'm sure all is going normally here but I have nothing to compare with so I really don't know. All I know is that we are on day 3 post amp and Darcy shows no signs what so ever of wanting to get up. She just wants to remain laying down in pretty much one position from one potty trip to the next (and yesterday we only managed two potty trips although we are aiming for three today). I have no clue how hard to push her and how much I should pander to her needs (or what I guess are her needs). Love from Flummoxed and Flailing Great Britain xx

Morning. We had a wet bed again this morning (dispite attempts to get her to go out during the night) but this morning she's been out for a poo (yayyy) and then came into the house at speed It was quite funny/scary really because she was leading Marc rather than the other way round She's still being supported but the fleecy sling was more slack today so she was doing more of it on her own. She had her breakfast (2 scrambled eggs and a tin of stuff) laced with Rimadyl and is now resting in a nice clean bed. This picture tickled me because it looks as if she was being vicious In reality, she was getting food out of her teeth when Marc called her name Sprout was watching from a respectful distance Bruising progress on day 3 post op

Good girl Lacey (apart from the butt byte fing)

I'm sorry - I missed this post (I think you posted as I was quoting Hannah) The village idiot thing made me laugh too Maybe Darcy is actually the village idiot because it doesn't make her scream when she lays on it Mind you, they always say where there's no sense there's no feeling Wew have decided that if it is osteo (which it can not be because so many people are thinking nice thoughts and doing nice things etc etc) then we will go with the chemo. Darcy sends a slight sleepy but well meaning lick to Bodie

Think your vets might be these people: http://www.petcancervet.co.uk/ There's a list of UK oncologists here: http://www.vetindex.co.uk/vetindex/onco_ref.htm but it doesn't include all the vet schools. And there's some info about chemo drugs here: http://www.caninecancer.com/chemo.html Darcy is being very brave! Yes. that's the vet referral place I spoke to I'll have a look at those other links - thank you Darcy has just been manhandled out to the garden where no toileting took place When she came back in, she managed to lay on the correct side for a change so as she stinks to high heaven (thanks to the wee in the bed situation) I gave her a sort of bed bath. She's licking her wound a bit (which is the downside of her laying on her 'good' side) and there's a fair bit more bruising coming out now. She had a good dinner tonight (one tin of that stuff and two chicken breasts) plus she had one or two small treats during Mokka's birthday 'party'). Piccy taken just now after the bed bath

OK - but do I need to wait for the lab results before I email him?

I've spoken to the man. (Hannah - it's a Mr Lowe in Karesborough - is that your vet??) I'll write my notes up here so that I can make some sort of sense out of my scribbles (and then I'll not loose them) The basic message is that nothing can happen until the lab results come back. If we assume that the tumour was an osteosarcoma (and the site of Darcy's tumour is a very common site for osteo), then after amputation but without further treatment, the average (and all these figures are statistics) life expectancy is anything from 3 weeks to 9 months. In 98% of cases, osteosarcoma has spread before you know the dog has got it. With chemotherapy (which would be four doses (three weekly intervals) of drugs called something like carboplacin and doxorubacin (must check spellings), statistics show that life expectancy can be trebbled (max) so it could offer anything up to two and a half to three years. If Darcy's tumour was a fibrosarcoma or a chondrosarcoma, these spread to other places in less than 20% of cases. Do you think if we all said really special words and promised to be good and do all nice things, the lab results will show that Darcy's tumour was one of those latter two...

I've phoned one of the oncology referral clinics and am waiting for the specialist to call me back to have a chat. My vet has said he is happy to refer me if we want referring - but the problem is that I don't *know* if we want referring. Hopefully, a chat with this man will help.

It must be the time of day for going out and having a poop Sending more good thoughts

Sending very best wishes

Eh up After much puffing, panting, pushing and shoving (and that was just from us), Darcy was hoisted up and trundled outside whereupon she did a poo (Sorry for sharing but you need to know these things). She had a potter around (supported walking as you can see, not walking by herself yet) and then during her little break before she came back in, she ate some pate off a spoon for being a good girl. Then she came back in and totally bypassed her bed and aimed for the living room door to go out with the other dogs who were waiting in the hall (where I had shoved them) for their walk I got that bit on video which I will add later today. She was eventually turned around and pointed towards her bed and she went in and lay down on the wrong side again She is now asleep. Below is a close up pic of the wound today so skip past if you want to avoid it

I'm going to stress here what I stressed on my entry forms (2 of). I have 11 dogs and have signed half on one ticket and half on the other. I do not expect whoever gets me to spend any more than the normal $20 limit. Whatever is in the box when it arrives will be gratefully shared by all my dogs so if you get me, please don't be stressed about it! (Gawd - I hope getting me doesn't ruin some nice persons Xmas)

Sending many good thoughts

Sending good thoughts from here too (And we're also in the Scambled Egg Gang at the moment!)

No garden visits took place during the night as she refused all attempts to get her to move. We are still at the same stalemate situation this morning Spoke to the vet to report that she's laying on her 'bad' side and he said that was normal and that it was fine. I said it makes my hair stand on end. (small snort) I also reported that she'd not been out and he wasn't overly concerned (although he understood that we were concerned!) I asked about blood tests or other tests to detect stinky cells and he said there are tests which can be done but they are not very specific (and therefore not very helpful). I also asked about chemo and he will refer us if we want referring but he explained that in animals, the dose is kept low so as not to make them feel ill - but because it's a low dose, it tends not to really offer much in the way of killing anything that's lurking. He said it could buy some time but not offer a cure. Given that a nd given that we don't actually know if there *is* anything lurking - and then given that it doesn't offer much other than maybe some weeks if something *is* lurking, I think we may well not go ahead with that. But then I may change my mind by this afternoon. I know that protocols may be different in different parts of the world but this is what happens here and for the moment, I'm still pondering and I will chat to the vet about it some more (and so some reading). Darcy has now had her Rimadyl (in sausage, even though its a paletable tablet because she wasn't for paleting it in any way without sausage assistance) followed by breakfast of a tin of recovery diet and two scambled eggs. A garden visit will follow once we've plucked up courage the tab has had time to work. I need to add this edit regarding chemo:- I realise that others here do have dogs on chemo and I'm not suggesting that it's not right for them or that it won't do good for them but that here, these are the feelings about what is on offer for our dogs. We all do what we think is in our own dogs best interests - and long may that continue.