What we wish we would have known…..
I started this blog in hopes of helping owners who are trying to make a decision about amputating your beloved dog’s leg due to osteosarcoma. Goli, our incredible (don’t we all think our dogs are amazing!) rescued shepherd mix is a little more than one week post amputation and there are many things I wish we would have known before we made the decision to amputate and do metranomic chemotherapy. Don’t get me wrong, given our situation, we would still choose amputation, but there were so many things that we did not know, (and were not told), that knowing beforehand would have helped a lot. (I did read the book, “When Your Dog Has Cancer” and searched and searched the Internet before hand, but there was so much I didn’t KNOW TO ASK!).
- The first big thing we found out, as we were paying and receiving post amputation discharge instructions, was that our Vet expected our big heavy undercoated Anatolian Shepherd outside dog to be kept indoors and monitored for 14 days. Again, don’t get me wrong, had we known before, we would still have amputated, but we would have known to arrange for one of us to be able to take vacation time at least for the first week (my husband and I obviously both work). It’s cold and rainy around here, and sweet Goli (my precious G–man) was so hot and uncomfortable in our heated house (he was panting so hard and so anxious, I couldn’t tell at first whether he was just hurting, frightened, or hot, or some combination of the three). Turning off the furnace and opening windows helped and his breathing slowed down some. Of course the rest of us (including our short-haired beagle) were freezing, but walking around in coats and sweaters and using down lap throws to be able to sit on the couch is doable.
- The next BIG thing was the post amputation pain and balancing on 3 legs. On this subject we were actually misled. We were at first told at the Vet’s that, “Dogs are so happy to be free of the bone pain once they recover from the anesthesia, that they come hopping out to go home wagging their tail.” When I incredulously asked, “You mean he will be completely pain free and can balance and walk on three legs immediately?,” I was told, “Yes, of course, he will have been given pain meds before the anesthesia is reversed, and he will easily walk on 3 legs – he has already been balancing on just 3 legs because of the limping and not using the affected leg.”
- So, here is an actual story. As is typical, Goli was fine one day and limping the next. After 2 months of anti inflammatories and pain meds, x-rays showed the bone lesions, and we received the gut-wrenching diagnosis. (We chose not to do a bone biopsy before surgery to confirm because of the pain that causes, and the treatment for the only other things that cause holes in bone like Goli’s is also amputation. We would get the biopsy from the amputated leg. We were told that there was a less than 5% risk of it being anything but cancer.) Though G–man limped when he was walking, he still ran after cats and cars, but he never whimpered or cried out – that is until after the amputation.
We chose to have the amputation done at our vet’s office rather than the oncology vet’s office because it was half the price, and we knew our vet. What we did not know was that our vet did not staff his office to be able to keep dogs overnight, and so, if they could not be sent home immediately after they woke up, they have to be transferred to an emergency veterinarian facility. Make sure you ask about the surgical facility’s capacity for overnight stays. Emergency veterinarians are very, very expensive. Goli was in terrible pain post surgically despite a Fentanyl patch and IV pain meds, and he thus, could not/would not walk. We had to transport him to an emergency facility; he screamed as he was moved to and from our car, and cried non-stop the whole trip. He stayed there a day and a half but was not pain free despite IV pain medication because of the surgery for 5 days more – again despite a Fentanyl path, anti inflammatories, and twice the normal dose of pain meds. The oncology vet finally suggested we use Gabapentin (for the possibility of phantom limb pain) along with the pain meds and 2 days later we achieved pain control (though now he was so lethargic he did not move anymore – but that’s a story for another day….. When we asked our Vet why we were not told the surgery could be so painful, he said, “All dogs are different.” AND, getting no sleep for 4 days because your dog is crying essentially non-stop is very stressful on everyone, needless to say. But, I digress….. Given the $90 Fentanyl patch and other medications that were not included in the original estimate and the emergency vet stay, surgery from our vet ended up costing the same as the oncologist’s surgical fee would have been (and the oncologist vet’s fees included a 2-day post-op stay!)
- The final thing I want to add to this first post is about balancing and walking on 3 legs at first. We were told to use a towel sling under his body to help him out of the car, get down stairs, etc., but not to use it very long or he would get dependent on the sling. Goli never needed a sling. Though he hopped from one solid object to another to lean against at first, he never fell, nor did he slip on our tile kitchen floor. We do have a wheel chair ramp at our house which kept him from having to navigate stairs at first, and we used a garden wagon, for a while, as a step down so he didn’t have so far to jump from the car to the ground (we have a high 4-wheel drive utility vehicle). We also elevated his feeding and water bowl because bending over to ground level to eat or drink caused muscle spasms in the amputated shoulder. Now that we have achieved pain control, he easily jumps into and out of the car without tipping over. Apparently he has become an excellent tripawder without much trouble at all! And, oh yes, the tail has started to wag every once in a while again…..