LakeshoreGreys

Welcome! I'm in Manitowoc, WI.

Our Molly developed an egg-sized lump seemingly out of nowhere on her forearm, between her foot and her ankle. We noticed it last Monday, our vet took a needle biopsy Tuesday, and results were small tissue sarcoma. Met with an oncologist this Monday, who gave us all of the treatment options. We're leaning toward an amputation. Does anyone have experience with this that would be willing to share their story?

Since our appointment was so late yesterday, they won't send out till today. So likely Friday or Monday.

Sample sent in, but vet thinks soft tissue sarcoma or mast cell tumor.

No limp, thankfully. Appreciate the good thoughts.

We already had an appointment set up for our cat, so if the vet can't get us in earlier, I'll take her in at 5 tomorrow.

Just found a lump on Molly's forearm, above her wrist. So scared it might be cancer. Will call vet in a.m. She is almost 7 years old. I am in tears.

Cancer.

My guard dog, Mama's big boy. You jumped into my lap and into our hearts two and a half years ago after your owner could no longer care for you. We were not looking to add to our family when I saw your picture, but something in your eyes spoke to me. A little chubby and a lot of happy, your personality was huge. You had many traits, many of them shared with previous hounds of ours that had already taken their trip to the bridge. You were the perfect combination of them all, and you had your own personality quirks to add as well. Always an enthusiastic greeting for those you knew and loved, and a different, scarier bark and growl for unfamiliar vehicles (and, of course, the school bus and garbage truck). You made me feel safe when Papa was out of town on business. I am only sorry for not having more years to spend with you, and for the last three months. Had we known in August what we know now, we would never have left you suffer as long as you did. Godspeed, our Comanche, our Chi Chi, our Cheech. Say hello to the others for us.

Well, here we are almost 3 months later. He was improving on the pred, though he got scary skinny. We tapered down gradually, from 50 to 5. About a month ago, he got really puffy right by his eye. Bad tooth abscess. Full dental a with that tooth removed. We've been fighting an infection ever since then...very stinky and so bad it burst through to the surface 2 weeks ago. Seemed to be healing nicely finally last week, but this week it's back with a vengeance. He has been cultured several times with med changes but nothing can knock it out. Biopsy was done on the tooth and removed tissue and though cancer was not apparent, the pathologist said she wouldn't rule it out. Meanwhile, Comanche is uncomfortable. His face is constantly oozing and he is rubbing it on everything. Appetite is way down...today no interest at all in breakfast. Even with various enticers, it is hard to get him to take his meds. Vet said we should expect culture to come back today or tomorrow. If there is not something that says, xXxX will knock it out, she mentioned a biopsy.She's thinking cancer. And we don't think we want to put him through another biopsy. If it turns out to be cancer, there is not much we can do for him anyway. So this morning I woke up to him on the bed with me. This is where we'll stay today...as long as he wants. I just want him to be comfortable.

Just an update...he's been on prednisone for a week now, and is doing better. Had him in for a recheck and she wants to stay the course with the prednisone for a while. Still a very painful response when she presses on his muscle around his eye area, and it is more sunken looking. However, sometimes he will let out a bark or two, and his jaw chatters like crazy at mealtime. The tramadol seems to take the edge off the pain for him.

She said she took a good look. He wasn't sedated or anything like that, though. I begged her to take a thorough look when we had planned to do the biopsy, and she said she had been planning on it!

On the 19th, his CBC came back normal. Turns out she did not run the antibody test right away. She was planning to do a biopsy instead for a more definitive answer and prognosis. When we brought him in on Thursday for the biopsy, she changed her mind because he does not have a lot of muscle there and she would have had to cut way up to his eye to get a decent sample. So instead, she took another sample and send that in for the 2m antibody test. That came back with a number less than 1-100, and with the muscle atrophy he appears to have, she's thinking it's end stage masticatory myositis. Since we had him on Dermaxx, we have to wait a week to start prednisone (just like you said, tbhounds!)- so he'll start that this coming Saturday. In the mean time, he is on Tramadol - 2 50mg pills every 6 hours - but that does not seem to be working nearly as well as the Dermaxx did. With the Dermaxx, he was almost back to his old self and even tried barking. With the Tramadol, he barely moves, and yesterday he let out a yelp trying to eat a piece of hot dog - 3 hours after getting his dose. Are there any alternatives to Tramadol that work better (and are not NSAIDS)?

Thanks, Bradymom! tbhounds, Not sure, can you tell me more? She said she was sending the blood test into San Francisco or San Diego or something, I think. Maybe St. Louis?

She's leaning toward masticatory myositis. She's running a CBC and sending it out, and also is doing a urinalysis and protein/creatinine ratio. She said that she always thinks the worst, but that until tomorrow when the blood tests come back, we should not worry. That she's not worried yet, so we shouldn't be either. We do have a baby dosage of Dermaxx to relieve some of his pain.