shannone

Hi! Phoebe is FINALLY doing well. Her incision is closed completely now, and we even got the sutures out after a little over a month. The licking solution we finally landed on was kid boxer shorts, with a suitical recovery suit over that pinned closed on her surgical side AND we got her a muzzle (which worked MUCH better than the huge cone, she was much more comfortable in it) XD She has a bit of a bed sore that we're treating with some antimicrobial scrub pads, but other than that, she's been great. It's as though she's always been on 3 legs, she doesn't really need help with anything except going up the one tile stair that leads to the bedroom at night. She can do it. She just gets nervous and slippy. It's a little strange to remember that although we just went through this whole ordeal, she isn't "cured". We're just going to enjoy the time we have left with her, however long it is. We'll plan on getting another set of radiographs next month to keep a check on if any lesions have formed in her lungs. But generally she just acts like her normal self! How's Brin?

We're hangin in there over here. We took her in Monday, and then asked them to keep her until we could be sure the incision was going to stay closed. Well. The doc tried a different style of suture that was supposed to spread the tension out a little better, she found a few more blood vessels that were actively bleeding that she was able to tie off, and also she got a little blood transfusion to help combat the amount of blood that had been leaking from her incision. Honestly it seemed to me that her bleeding was never really under control from the get go. The clinic said she perked up SO MUCH after the transfusion, and when I visited her on Tuesday she was just walking around her little kennel like it was nothing. For the entire previous 2 weeks we had had her home after her first and second surgery, she was pretty lethargic, and was only interested in eating on and off and only if we hand fed it to her in her bed. WELL, along with her feeling better came her being MUCH MORE naughty about getting to her incision, so even with a no-bite tube she was able to pull a drain tube out on Thursday (the day we were planning on bringing her home), so we had to leave her again, and they put the larger E-collar back on her, but overnight she was STILL able to lick her incision and opened it up AGAIN in two places, so they put MORE sutures in, and we had to bring her home yesterday (Friday) because our clinic is closed on the weekends. She's always been fine about leaving her incision alone when we're home with her, so she must have just been bored and annoyed at the clinic by herself. She's been a different dog than she was when we brought her in. She can get up on her own, we've gone outside and gone potty a bunch (we had relied on pee pads for basically the entire previous week), she is back to eating both meals and standing up at her food stand, and she can lay down by herself. Her incision is lightly bandaged for the weekend, and we bring her in on monday to have the doc look at how it's done after her 12000 resuture surgeries. She also put some "relief cuts" in her skin above the incision to help again relieve the tension and promote healing in the area. It seems the amount of drainage we're seeing now is more typical of what we should expect, so I'm cautiously optimistic, but I haven't seen what the incision looks like now, so we'll see how it goes on Monday. However, I am very encouraged that her demeanor and appetite seem much more normal. So happy to hear about Brin's successes!! Roaching is my metric for how happy Phoebe is too! She also has recently been able to get a few good full body shakes in without losing her balance, so I think that's boosting her confidence too!

the numbers I'm getting have been from reading the experiences of others going through the same thing. It seems that some people get months with both amputation and chemo/radiation, and some get longer with just amputation and everything in between. the biopsy came back on her bone, and confirmed the cancer, but also the doc said it hadn't progressed to her lymph nodes, or her chest, so we may have some more time. We have had some pretty serious post op complications from her surgery, so I've been spending all of my time, energy (and sanity frankly), worrying about that. she developed an infection about a week post op, and they wanted to do another surgery to clear that out, and then today her 2nd incision opened up AGAIN, so we're taking her back into the clinic tomorrow morning so the doc can look at it. I'm just sick about this whole thing, and am questioning and second guessing every decision we've made about this. I know greyhound skin can be tricky to close, but this will be the second repair surgery now (i'm guessing, she hasn't seen the doc yet). Maybe we should insist on them hospitalizing her for a bit so we can really make sure the incision stays closed, and maybe keep her on antibiotics and fluids and there can be more qualified eyes on her at all times? I just feel so ill-equipped to deal with this. this has been really rough. I hope Brin is doing well!

Phoebe update: We did a lot of thinking and researching and talking to her doctor as well as the rescue we adopted her through and decided we are not going to pursue chemo/radiation. We can't really afford to wipe out all of our savings, especially if it may not cure her. We decided we would do the amputation, however, since she had the cancer plus the CCL injury, her doctor thought she would be much more comfortable if we took it off. We did chest x-rays at the same time, and the doc said they looked clear (for now). She also said the bone was paper thin by the time it was removed, and it crumbled in her hand when she examined it, so I feel good about our decision. We are currently 3 days post amputation, and she is doing okay. She has a LOT of swelling and bruising, and she hates wearing the cone, of course. She has already managed to chew the tip of the drain tube off despite it (greyhound faces are just too long for cones!) The doctor recommended getting chest x-rays every couple of months to track the disease progression, and then just keeping an eye on her behavior at home and as long as she's happy, we'll cherish all of the time we have left with her. From what I've read from others who have been through the rear leg amputation, we may have another 6 months, 8 months, a year or maybe more. Glad to hear you've started on your treatment path as well! It's so sucky when we can tell our dogs aren't themselves, so Brin feeling better is such good news.

Hi, I'd love to be in on this discussion. I am also in southern Arizona, and we just got our diagnosis of an osteosarcoma last night with our 9-year-old gal, Phoebe. She actually also has a CCL tear in the same knee (rear right), which is how we found the sarcoma. We're just starting to look into what we want to do. Amputating that leg might make her a little more comfortable because honestly, she's already only using 3 of them because of the CCL injury. The doc we saw put her on Carprofen and Gabapentin for pain and inflammation, and she seems pretty comfortable, but she definitely doesn't go up the step to the bedroom anymore, or get on the couch or anything. She mostly switches between her two living room beds. We haven't gotten our chest xrays yet, though that's what the doc recommends, as well as an oncology consult. I didn't even think about the possibility that the availability would be limited, but that's just another in a long list of Things I Wish I Didn't Know about this. I guess I'm here both to offer support and be lifted by it. I'm so overwhelmed, and feel like I'll never stop crying. This is the worst.