Stories/info About Dogs Post-Amp

[RedFawnMom]

I'm looking for info/stories about greys who have undergone amputations after being diagnosed with osteo or other form of sarcoma. Aside from the post about Charlie, does anyone else have any info about this? DH and I need to start seriously thinking about what we'd do if Lucy's diagnosis does turn out to be sarcoma, and he is very uneasy with the thought of amputation, understandably. I know that most greyhounds bounce back to their old selves relatively quickly and I'd like to share some info with him so we can talk about it and have an idea of what we could expect if we did have to make that decision. Thanks.

[inugrey]

I'm taking care of a friend's grey who was diagnosed in August. She chose to amp the back leg and go through chemo. The chemo is finished and she is hopping around happy as can be playing with toys and walking faster than some of the other dogs in the house.

 

That said her amp surgery and recovery were not easy. The amp was textbook according to the vet but in her recovery more of her muscle became infected so she had to go back in to have some butt muscle removed. There is now no real padding around her pelvis. I helped out during the recovery and it was gruesome dealing with the drainage hoses and bandage changes. I think there were at least two weeks where she was not left alone at all and there was very little sleep in the house. Once she turned the corner on the surgery recovery things have been going fine.

 

that it isn't osteo

[RobinM]

We opted for amp with Polli. She had a limp on and off for a year. Dispite several x-rays it was not picked up. Then, one day when she was on "limp mode" she tripped on the steps, let out a SCREAM which was so unlike her and we found she had fractured the leg. We had a choice. Amputation or PTS.

 

She rallyed the amp and chemo pretty well. It took a good 3 weeks to come out of the other side. She was frazzled after the amp and had a lot of anxiety. Valium helped with that. There were times I wondered what the he77 I did to her. But in the end, I was glad I did. I also had the extraordinary support of GTer who kept me grounded.

 

We had 5 wonderful months with a very happy girl who lead her pack around the block for walk time and ran in the field with 3 legs. She was a sight to behold.

 

We miss her every day.

[Charlies_Dad]

Jess,

 

Jane (aka Joejoesmom) also went the amp route at OSU as she lives so close and has a good relationship with Dr. Coutu and his staff. From last I heard, he is doing very well and sounds like a similar personality as Charlie. She does not post many pics but I am guessing you could ask her. Also there is Darcy (Deerhound) in the UK who I believe is 36mths post amp or close to it. You can search on Darcy in the subject and you should see postings and pics.

 

And of course there is Winslow who passed on this fall due to heart issues. You can certainly find his journey as his Mom provided weekly updates if I recall correctly. He was everybody's hero. http://forum.greytalk.com/index.php/topic/169522-winslows-diary/page__hl__winslow

Edited December 24, 2010 by Charlies_Dad

[queenwinniesmom]

Back in 2004 when Winnie was diagnosed with osteo in her right hind leg, I knew very little---about osteo, about amputation, about the recovery or how long she would have. I know that some of the hardest times were when we agonized over which way to turn, and my heart aches for everyone who faces that same terrible diagnosis and those heartwrenching decisions. While it would have been a lot easier had I had the support of Greytalk back then (I had not joined yet), I just trusted my heart and decided to do the amputation. And it turned out that it was absolutely the right thing to do, for Winnie and for us. But each dog is so different, and everyone's situation is unique. We felt that Winnie was strong and stubborn enough to adapt to life as a tripod, even though it was a huge adjustment, mostly because we live on the second and third floors of our house. Getting her to do those steps every day was the biggest challenge in an otherwise remarkably unproblematic surgery and recovery. And though we chose not to do chemo, Winnie had 3 1/2 wonderful years after her amp, till we lost her to kidney failure one week shy of her 12th birthday. I realized then and now that we were incredibly lucky, though I like to think that I did some things right. And I have to give most of the credit to Winnie. Every day, she did what she had to do with no drama, though in her quirky stubbornness, refusing to ever do some things again, she trained us more than we ever trained her. Luckily for us, she WANTED to come up those outside steps (most likely because she would get steak). She DIDN'T want to go up the inside steps to the third floor. She didn't want to walk on any bare floors, though she wanted to walk for blocks around our neighborhood and every time she went to Dewey. She wanted to run with her sisters, and trying not to hold my breath and worry about her, I let her, because it gave her so much joy.

 

I really hope that your precious girl doesn't get a diagnosis of osteo. It is truly a devastating thing to go through. But you will get some excellent support here, and some great knowledge. Jen Komatsu (bigorangedog) has dealt with osteo way too many times, but the way she dealt with it, and the things she learned, and how she's been able to help so many others is a real inspiration. There are a lot of heroes here.

Edited December 25, 2010 by queenwinniesmom

[MaryJane]

When my first greyhound dog was diagnosed with osteo, I went ahead and had the amputation. I never regretted my decision either then or now. After a few weeks my dog was his normal self and running around the yard. He started chemo and that was tough on him for two days or so and then he'd have a good week or two before the next treatment.

 

Honestly, before the diagnosis I never thought that I would amputate a dog's leg. When his diagnosis came in I saw the specialists here at Angel in Boston and we discussed the pros and cons and survival rates but I already knew in my heart that I was going to move ahead with the procedure.

 

My dog was so full of life and he just wasn't ready to go yet. And, he had the type of personality that could tolerate all the procedures that he would have to endure. He was a strong boy and I felt that I needed to give him the chance to survive.

 

While there were some tough times, none of them were so bad that you couldn't get through it and the bad times were not going to last that long. The leg eventually heals and your dog learns how to walk again and then how to run (which is really scary the first time they do it). The bad effects of the chemo last a day or two and then your dog will start feeling better. Also, once the leg is gone, that pain from the cancer is also gone and that type of pain cannot be well controlled through pain-killers while the pain of amputation is more easily controllable.

 

Good luck in whatever path you choose to pursue.

[NeylasMom]

Well, I haven't experienced it firsthand, but as you know I just lost Neyla to osteo. I wasn't particularly keen on the idea of amputation prior to Neyla being diagnosed because of the recovery portion of it. If things go well, it's not an incredibly long period of time, but it can be very difficult for the dog. However, I hadn't ruled it out as an option in the future, it just wasn't an option for Neyla for many reasons.

 

I remember at the time reading a comment from I think Jen, Bigorangedog (who also has a really good blog on what to expect with amp, I'm sure someone else can link you to it or if you find her posts, it's in her siggie) that having gone through the difficulty that is managing osteo pain palliatively, she would always choose amp in the future if it were an option. Now that I have gone through the palliative route, I completely understand her point and think I would consider it more strongly IF AND ONLY IF I felt that we had caught the cancer very early like I believe we did Neyla's and the dog were young and didn't have other limiting factors. That if is a big one for me because the hope would be that the cancer had not already metastatisized. Otherwise, you're going through that whole recovery for typically something like 3-6 months.

 

I truly hope it's not osteo for your girl, but if it is, it does seem like you've caught it very early, and she's very young so I do think it's worth considering, but it's a very personal choice. The alternative imo is committing to let your dog go sooner rather than later if you choose the palliative route because when the osteo progresses, it seems to do so exponentially toward the end, which can make staying ahead of the pain difficult. Having said that, there are many new options for palliative care like the bisphophonate treatment that we did, which made an impressive difference and I believe gave us 3 more good weeks (and would have given us longer if we had been able to continue them).

 

I'm sort of rambling, you'll have to excuse me. If you haven't yet, reading through the osteo thread might be another good way of finding out what it's like for either option. But I really really hope you don't in the end need any of this advice.

 

Oh, I could also mention, if money is no option, there is an alternative that is rarely if ever mentioned - it's a special targeted radiation treatment that saves the leg and has generally few to no side effects (you can have skin wounds and it does require anesthesia, but generally that's it). But, as far as I know they're only doing it in Florida and Colorado and the treatment with all of the pre-testing required I was told will run you about $10K.

[RedFawnMom]

Well, I haven't experienced it firsthand, but as you know I just lost Neyla to osteo. I wasn't particularly keen on the idea of amputation prior to Neyla being diagnosed because of the recovery portion of it. If things go well, it's not an incredibly long period of time, but it can be very difficult for the dog. However, I hadn't ruled it out as an option in the future, it just wasn't an option for Neyla for many reasons.

 

I remember at the time reading a comment from I think Jen, Bigorangedog (who also has a really good blog on what to expect with amp, I'm sure someone else can link you to it or if you find her posts, it's in her siggie) that having gone through the difficulty that is managing osteo pain palliatively, she would always choose amp in the future if it were an option. Now that I have gone through the palliative route, I completely understand her point and think I would consider it more strongly IF AND ONLY IF I felt that we had caught the cancer very early like I believe we did Neyla's and the dog were young and didn't have other limiting factors. That if is a big one for me because the hope would be that the cancer had not already metastatisized. Otherwise, you're going through that whole recovery for typically something like 3-6 months.

 

I truly hope it's not osteo for your girl, but if it is, it does seem like you've caught it very early, and she's very young so I do think it's worth considering, but it's a very personal choice. The alternative imo is committing to let your dog go sooner rather than later if you choose the palliative route because when the osteo progresses, it seems to do so exponentially toward the end, which can make staying ahead of the pain difficult. Having said that, there are many new options for palliative care like the bisphophonate treatment that we did, which made an impressive difference and I believe gave us 3 more good weeks (and would have given us longer if we had been able to continue them).

 

I'm sort of rambling, you'll have to excuse me. If you haven't yet, reading through the osteo thread might be another good way of finding out what it's like for either option. But I really really hope you don't in the end need any of this advice.

 

Oh, I could also mention, if money is no option, there is an alternative that is rarely if ever mentioned - it's a special targeted radiation treatment that saves the leg and has generally few to no side effects (you can have skin wounds and it does require anesthesia, but generally that's it). But, as far as I know they're only doing it in Florida and Colorado and the treatment with all of the pre-testing required I was told will run you about $10K.

 

Thank you...you have been such a wonderful source of info and support over the past couple of weeks. I shed more than a couple of tears when I heard it was time for your sweet girl to cross the bridge. Thank you for staying on the board, I know that talking about this so soon after losing Neyla must be difficult. Lucy and I both send big virtual hugs.

 

I sincerely hope it's not osteo, but Dr. Couto's thoughts on the new radiographs were not encouraging. He thinks it is too irregularly shaped to be a cyst. I won't give up hoping for something benign until we get a biopsy, but I've sort of moved on mentally to just hoping it's a different form of sarcoma, something that would make the decision easier. And what you said is exactly the thing we are struggling with - how much "extra" time makes amp worth the recovery? I couldn't put her through it for six extra months...but then again, we've only had her two years, so six months is 1/4 of the time we've had.

 

I am going to look for Jen's blog, thank you for mentioning it, that is exactly what I was looking for.

[joejoesmom]

Jess,

 

Jane (aka Joejoesmom) also went the amp route at OSU as she lives so close and has a good relationship with Dr. Coutu and his staff. From last I heard, he is doing very well and sounds like a similar personality as Charlie. She does not post many pics but I am guessing you could ask her. Also there is Darcy (Deerhound) in the UK who I believe is 36mths post amp or close to it. You can search on Darcy in the subject and you should see postings and pics.

 

And of course there is Winslow who passed on this fall due to heart issues. You can certainly find his journey as his Mom provided weekly updates if I recall correctly. He was everybody's hero. http://forum.greytal...ge__hl__winslow

 

I would be happy to email you a picture. It seems to take forever to put a picture on photobucket and then link to it here (I have some weird computer glitches that I deal with -- long story).

 

Joe had his right front leg amputated at the end of July. He had some complications that had him in the hospital for a week. The first two weeks at home were fairly difficult for me. He had a UTI and would not always be able to get out of bed in time. It seemed he never even made it to the door. It took a week to clear this up so I was cleaning him, his bed, and the carpets every hour. I would also worry that he would pee on the tile and then slip in it (he did pee on the tile but always was good about not getting his paws in it). It took almost 3 weeks after his amp that I saw glimmers of my old Joe. At about 5 weeks he had just about returned to the happy, goofy boy I knew. He came through his chemo like a champ. He almost always ate well. He had a few bouts of diarrhea but medicine cleared that up.

 

He continues on oral chemo and will be taking it for at least another 3 1/2 months. He has been his normal self for months now. He loves to sleep, eat, sleep, play with his stuffy, sleep, get some pets, sleep, chase a squirrel, sleep, eat, sleep and cuddle, and sleep some more. He just loves to go out and meet his public. He gets excited whenever I pick up a leash as this means he will get to go in the car. He knows that at the end of the car ride he will have bunches of people just waiting to do whatever he wants. "Scratch me under my chin, rub my ears, that's just right".

 

I do not regret my decision at all. The first couple of weeks were difficult, and I sometimes wondered if I did the right thing. But it only took a few weeks to see Joe become happy again. He just loves his life and lives every moment to it's fullest. When he sleeps, he sleeps soundly. When he plays, he does it with joyous abandon. It fills my heart with a mix of happiness and awe to see him enjoy the moment so fully.

 

He does everything he used to do, although he does seem to tire out more quickly. He handles walking on slick floors as well as he ever did. He does have some trouble getting up from a lying position if the floor is real slippery. He never did really do stairs, and now he is a bit hesitant if he is faced with more than a few. Since I live in a single story house, I decided it wasn't worth it to retrain him to climb stairs. He can run almost as fast as he did before, but due to his lumbar stenosis I do have to limit his running somewhat. The amputation didn't cause the stenosis, but it does seem that it aggravates it a bit. If he does too much, I give him a tramadol. But this is unique to him, not all amputees. It is just that he has the double whammy of a bad back and bone cancer. All at the tender age of 7.

 

Most importantly to me, it gives me more quality time with him. It has reminded me how important it is to me (and to him) to spend as much time as I can with him. I do my best every day to give him 1/2 hour of one-on-one time. We usually spend a few minutes a day playing with the stuffy but most of the time we just lay together and cuddle. This time is so precious.

 

One last note: Dr. Couto says that the mean time of survival (with amp and chemo) is now 14 months for a greyhound under his care. A friend of mine has a grey that is now three years post amp and chemo. I'm hoping that Joe will break that record, but if not, I have had lots of precious together time that I wouldn't trade for anything.

 

Jane

finewhipador-drool@yahoo.com

[NeylasMom]

 

One last note: Dr. Couto says that the mean time of survival (with amp and chemo) is now 14 months for a greyhound under his care.

 

One thing for the OP or anyone else thinking about this regarding mean survival times that ties into my big "if" from my earlier post - the issue with these mean survival times is that it takes all of the dogs who go through amp into consideration and that includes dogs whose cancer had not metastasized at the time of amp, or not sufficiently enough that the chemo couldn't get it. These are the dogs who are getting sometimes 3 or more years after amp, dogs like Winslow (and I hope Joe, Charlie, & Winston). But, I think it can be a bit misleading to always hear survival time talked about in these mean terms. My impression from what I've read here - and this is very unofficial of course - has been that most dogs I see go through it here who are not one of those long term survivors, tend to get 3-6 months.

 

I may be way off base, honestly I'd be happy to see people post otherwise, but for me it would be a major consideration.

 

To the OP, I'm sorry to hear Dr. C. is thinking it's more likely it's cancer for Lucy. Still holding out hope that's not the case. I know this may be an awkward time to mention it, but if you do get a biopsy, I have the information for a study that is researching cancer in dogs, and specifically would like samples from greyhounds with osteo. They will send you a kit for your vet to collect samples at the time of the biopsy (tissue and blood) and a prepaid mailer to send it back so all you have to do is contact them to get the kit and sign a consent form, your vet can take care of the rest. I'm going to start a thread on it, but just haven't had a chance with everything that's been going on. Anyway, I really wanted to do this with Neyla, but was told that the sample needed to be taken within 20-30 min of death and it just wasn't possible given where the vet's office was in relation to my house so we weren't able to. I know you have so much on your plate, but if you are interested in looking into this, let me know and I can PM you the info when I'm back at home. I know it may not be for everyone, but for me it would have been another way for Neyla to give back if we could have done it. Instead, I will make a donation to OSU when I've recovered financially, but I would like to at least spread the word about this study. I hope you don't find it insensitive that I'm mentioning it to you.

[MP_the4pack]

My Diamond was 12 when I did the amp on her front leg. If for nothing else, to relieve the pain. She did great for 6 months until the OS came back in another leg. Her lungs were always clear.

 

While I wish I had more time, the 6 months she had post op was Terrific! It only took her about 2 weeks to recover from the surgery, and she was very happy and pain free.

 

I'd do it again.

 

By the way, I did drive from NJ to OSU to have it done.

Edited December 26, 2010 by MP_the4pack

[RedFawnMom]

 

By the way, I did drive from NJ to OSU to have it done.

 

How long were you there? Did she stay at OSU for a while?

[joejoesmom]

By the way, I did drive from NJ to OSU to have it done.

 

How long were you there? Did she stay at OSU for a while?

 

Mary Pat and Diamond stayed with me. We have a number of local greyhound owners who will put people and their hounds up in their home so you can avoid the cost of hotels. We have a couple of people who don't work during the day who can stay with you while you are waiting at OSU and provide moral support.

 

The average stay for the dog is 4 to 5 days post surgery. The typical scenario is:

 

Day 1: Bring the dog into OSU in the morning -- tests are done and you meet all the doctors.

Day 2: Surgery, Recovery room and move to ICU.

Day 3: ICU, the dog will continue to be very doped up. You may visit if it is in the best interest of the dog. You can bring some yummy home cooked food.

Days 4 and 5 are usually a repeat of day 3, with the drugs being slowly decreased. Rarely the dog can be released on Day 5 (3 days after the surgery)

Day 6: Sometimes the dog is moved to a step-down unit. Sometimes the dog can be released

Day 7: This is the 5th full day after surgery. Most dogs are released.

 

You can stay here for the entire time or you can return home to work for the intervening days. Someone local can make food to your specifications and deliver it to OSU. Often a local person can visit your dog. If necessary, sometimes a local person can be found to take your dog for a day or two after release until you can get here.

 

OSU has 3 levels of ICU care. There is an ICU vet physically present 24/7. There is a 24/7 emergency department. There are orthopedic surgeons and oncologists on-call 24/7. Your vet student will call you with updates twice a day, but you can always talk to your vets.

 

The cost for amputation is typically $3500 to $4500. This does not include any tests performed the first day or the consult fees for the first day. That can run $100 to $400.

If your dog is released just 3 days post-op the cost can be as low as $3000. This price includes surgery, surgeon, ICU, meds, etc. Essentially it includes all hospital charges except for the first day and any take home medications.

 

If it is cancer and you do decide to amputate: Be sure that you do it at a facility that has a vet on staff 24/7. Most deaths after amputation occur when there is not 24/7 monitoring by a full veterinarian. This is very major surgery and greyhounds have some specific idiosyncrasies. Make sure the surgeon and ICU are willing to follow the greyhound protocol devised by OSU. This involves procuring aminocaproic acid (not commonly stocked) for during and 5 days post surgery. The hounds temperature should be carefully monitored and precautions should be in place to handle any increase in temp during the surgery. Greyhounds are very sensitive and typically recover better if they are kept quite doped up for 1 to 3 days after surgery. OSU uses a combination of fentanyl, ketamine, and lidocaine (through IV). They will introduce other drugs to combat anxiety if necessary. By the time the dog is ready to come home, he has been weaned off the IV meds for a while and has successfully had pain control on oral medications (typically Deramaxx (an NSAID) and tramadol).

 

I hope all this helps. I really, really hope that it is not osteo.

 

Jane

[RedFawnMom]

Thank you all...I will post more replies in a couple of days, I am just reading through everyone's info and posting questions that pop into my head. Now we are dealing with vomiting and diarrhea so my focus is there at the moment. Just wanted to let you all know this is really helpful and I didn't mean to ignore any replies by just posting follow-ups to one or two posts.

[Guest bigorangedog]

Hi there - Thanks to those that have mentioned the blog. You'll find a link to it in my signature line here. There's the "What to Expect" section, but if you look back through the posts in the main part of the blog you'll also find some "real-time" posts as we were going through our amps in November '09 and Feb '10 with Whitey and Apollo.

 

As Neyla's mom said, I've done this both ways. I've had 5 with bone cancer in the past 2 years. Tanner was the first, with osteo in his hip bone. Because I knew nothing about osteo then, and because it was an odd location, we misdiagnosed it until it was too late to do much of anything about it. Tanner wanted nothing more in the world than to please me and be next to me, and he pushed himself to the very very end. On the night before we let him go, he was standing up eating ice cream that I was hand-feeding to him, and he fell down. I'm convinced that he broke his hip when he fell, but he tried so hard to go on. We had the vet come the next morning.

 

With Annie, it was in her proximal humerus (shoulder) and because she was so skittish and would shake for an hour after we even cut her nails, we knew she could not emotionally handle the amp. What we had with her was a slow decline of about 3 months, increasing pain meds and trying new pain meds and doing alternative medicine, etc. But what it came down to was watching Annie slowly become weaker and weaker until we could no longer keep her out of pain. That was hellish.

 

Crisco actually had hemangiosarcoma, which began as a lump in his armpit but metastasized to his spine. Spinal cancer is extremely painful, and we had to let him go after just one week. He was my best friend, and my heart and soul, and I miss him every day. That one just about did me in.

 

Then Whitey. We adopted him at age 11, and he was diagnosed with osteo of the proximal humerus 2 weeks later. It looked early on the xrays, so we took the leap and did the amputation. For a week post-amp, Whitey simply refused to walk. His brain was not adjusting to missing the leg, and he kept trying to put weight on it and falling down. My DH carried him everywhere. But then he got it. And I mean, he really got it. He was hell on wheels after about a month, and I have some photos on the blog of him digging one-armed trenches in the yard. We only got 6 months with little White before it metastasized to his distal ulna and vertebrae, but man, they were 6 amazing months. He was not in any pain until the last week before he died.

 

Apollo was our last one. We adopted him at age 9, and received his diagnosis about 6 months later. It seemed really early with him as well, and Whitey was still going strong. Apollo was very gentle and timid, so it was an awful decision, but we went ahead with the amp. Apollo walked out of the hospital under his own power the night after the amp. He was NOT going to stay there another day! He adjusted so quickly to having 3 legs, and there is video on the blog of him tearing around the yard. He was amazing. In the end, he hurt his back. It's very difficult to heal an injury like that when you have the impact of hopping on 3 legs. And he did not tolerate pain meds well. So that is actually what took him from us 6 months later. Xrays revealed that it was, in fact, in his lungs at that time. But he had shown no symptoms yet and I have no doubt could have gone on for months longer if not for his back.

 

Even though we only got 6 months with each boy, they were 6 fantastic months, each day a gift. I have no regrets about either decision. If there are any regrets, they are about not giving Annie the chance. I question that all the time. Physically, she was absolutely strong enough to be a tripawd. But I'll never know. My vet made the same decision for her own shy greyboy with osteo, and she too always wonders 'what if.'

 

The worst of it is that you can never know. You might be one of the lucky ones who gets 3 years. You might get 6 beautiful months like we did. You might see metastasis after a few weeks. One sweet, sweet boy from GT named Smiley never made it home from the hospital after his amp -- he broke his other leg. You never know. I think it's Nancy (queenwinniesmom) who always says that cancer is a crapshoot. That's what makes the decision so agonizing each time. All you can do is try to look into your pups heart and listen to what they would want. With Whitey, I knew for absolutely sure that he was not done living. With Apollo, the decision was harder, but I took the chance because I thought he could do it, and he did awesome.

 

Sorry, I'm rambling here. Check out the blog. There's also a section on our experiences with chemo. Feel free to write with any questions.

 

Jen

[Guest RICHandJUDE]

Last year I lost a red greyhound male to osteo. He went fast. Last December we adopted another 6 year old red greyhound. Believe it or not, his racing name was Santa. In September of this year, he started to limp. He was put on Rimadyl for a week. After a week he was still limping so he was x-rayed. His femur broke as they were x-raying him. We had to make a decision. We opted for amputation and chemo. That was on September 24. On September 27, our vet amputated his left back leg all the way up. Within a couple days, he was up and walking around. We really have had no problems with him. He never wimpered, cried, nor got sick. His apetite never left him. He runs around the back yard with his two canine sisters. He has never gotten ill from his chemo. The only problem we are having is keeping his nutrophil and white blood cells up because of the chemo. He will have another chest/lung x-ray next week. Under the same circumstances. I would not hesitate to go the same route again. Hopefully you get good news so you won't have to make 'the decision'.

 

GOOD LUCK!

[Guest Capslock]

Hi,

I lost my second greyhound, Clyde, to Osteo. It was a rear leg - we did the amputation, and though the surgery went fine, it took a long time for the wound to totally close - like a month. We had a rough first couple weeks, then he was good the next two weeks even with the wound dripping a bit. Then he had nine glorious, running, jumping, dog-park-going months. He could jump in and out of the truck with ease, and chased a tennis ball like his life depended on it. Finally, the tumors returned to his lungs, we had a bad couple weeks right at the end. But it was nine months of his old self. Clyde wasn't bothered by much, wasn't skittish or nervous, was still strong as an ox at age 9, and his easy-going nature made him ideal for amputation. Best of luck to you - remember you know your dog best!

[Charlies_Dad]

Overall, I would the amp & chemo route has been very good to us so far. Has it been easy, no, not emotionally nor financially. The latter doesn't matter because we were in a position to pay for everything however it is costly no doubt. The emotion side of things obviously is during the amp and post amp as it is a major surgery and the first sight of your pup on three legs with bruising can be shocking plus they are usually out of it on pain meds. We took Charlie home after 5 days at the hospital because we felt they could handle any possible emergencies that came up or if his pain got too bad. Once we picked him up, we were so happy and he was able to walk on three legs without a problem. By the end of the first day at home, he was roaching and his appetite was fine albeit he is a chow hound. He has not looked back and continues to do well however like I say, emotionally it can be draining as you know you are fighting a battle however one has to look at the time it can provide a pup. The average I have always read has been 12 mths which for a pup that will live to age 12-14, that is like 7 years for us approximately. This average is based on Dr. Coutu and other vets who see many, many Greyhounds, not just what is on GT so I believe their numbers are accurate however it is the average so it does mean many will pass earlier. Is it worth it? Well as Jen (BigOrangeDog) stated, her Whitely got a wonderful 6 mths and I know our Charlie has had a wonderful 5 and hopefully many more so yes it is because I cannot handle a pup in pain. There are the few lucky ones that get multiple years for their pup and those are the very lucky few but they are out there. I believe it's something like 15% or so live to 2 yrs or beyond.

 

No matter what one chooses, you know your pup best and neither path is one that you want to walk. Unfortunately part of loving these pups is making these hard decisions that can haunt you especially if you second guess yourself. Remember there is no cure so there is no right or wrong decision.

[Sambuca]

Oh Jess, I hope it's not a sarcoma of any kind. My father died of fibrosarcoma, which is in the muscle. They did surgery and about a year later it had metastasized into his bone and lung and really all over. It seems most sarcomas when metastasized usually show up in the lungs first (I know that's the case with Osteo and Fibro). I've also been told that once cancer is in the bone, it's just a horrible thing, because it's hard to differentiate cancer from (I think) bone marrow or it could be the sinew, so they can't really tell if it's spread. The whole situation is horrible.

[Guest ChasesMum]

we chose amp for George because he was only 4 and we thought we had caught it early (doc cleared 2 sets of xrays 2 weeks apart and even the oncologist wasn't 100% it was osteo). ((It was front left I believe (oy my memory fails me!) but it was right in the shoulder joint. VERY painful for him. He went from no pain no limp to being maxed out on codeine and a fantanyl pain patch with minimal relief within 2 weeks.))

 

He was sent home that same day, hours after his amp, on insufficient pain meds. I would NEVER allow this again. We lived about 15 blocks from the evet but couldnt make it because it took 2 of us to get him there (one to drive, one to stop him from trying to stand up) and we had a toddler sleeping at home. In retrospect I would have tossed her in the carseat and taken him in, but the reality is he should never have been discharged but transferred to the evet for overnight. but I digress...

 

Regardless, after we got the pain meds maxed out in the morning (I demanded to know what the max dose of Tramadol was and dammit he was going on it!) he was MUCH improved, and took everything else like a champ. a month of healing and a minor infection later and he was bounding around the yard with Chase like nothing ever happened. He was a much happier and joyful dog than we had ever seen in the year we had him, and we had a really great 4 months with him. We didnt do chemo for a number of reasons, one being 4.5 yrs ago in Canada we werent in the loop with OSU nearly as much and costs were out of our reach...but we did what we could for him with what we had and I don't regret the surgery.

 

But its a major cocmmittment especially right away, and they can't be left alone for a bit. For us, it was a couple weeks for sure before we felt comfortable leaving him at all.

Edited December 28, 2010 by ChasesMum