Our journey begins.
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I am beginning this blog 6 days before Duke is scheduled for his amputation and 7 days after our first visit to the canine oncologist. Needless to say, I am scared. Although, we have had only had Duke in our lives 6 years, less time then our own son, I can not imagine life without him.
It is a hard choice to have an animals leg amputated, and I am still not sure what I am doing is right. I know we want him around, but the questions that keep popping in our minds is: are we being selfish? Will this procedure be too painful? will he be able to cope on 3 legs? Will he be thankful for the extra time given for the amount of pain?
Duke was diagnosed with a high grade nerve sheath tumor. This means, even with amputation and chemo, the cancer will come back. It is a rare form of cancer in pets.
6 weeks ago we had the tumor surgically removed. It was a heart wrenching time. The surgery was 5 hours, then he spent another 4 hours howling from the drugs and the pain. We both spent several sleepless nights on the floor together.I think this is what is bothering me about the amputation. The pain.
The tumor has come back ten fold. Our vet gave us one option: amputation. We went to a specialist to get a specific diagnosis. His response was amputation followed by chemo. Although even with this treatment plan, the cancer will never go in remission, it will only be prolonging the inevitable. 6months to a year. This brings me back to my question: are we being selfish??
Duke is currently resting queitly at my feet. He is so full of life! Runs, jumps, barks, eats, plays, chases balls!! How can he be sick!?
Well, we will just take it one day at a time. Spending time with him and spoiling him silly along the way. I will keep blogging throughout this journey.
Thanks.
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August 7th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Hi there,
I’m new to this as well. We just celebrated the 2 week mark for Caira Sue’s amputation.
We also struggled with our decision, and still have moments where we worry. We wanted to make sure what we were doing was for her and not for us.
Like Duke, Caira is young and healthy-7 yr old. She is so incredibly active! We took her to the beach and let her tell us. She had already adapted to walking on 3 legs due to the pain.
It’s not all roses and lollipops after surgery, but it is amazing! She was scared at first-which was hard for us, because she has never been scared of anything in her life! My husband and I took turns sleeping on the floor with her, and the nights were the hardest for her for about 4 days. I am a RN, and I remember paraplegics telling me they dream they are running-then wake up in shock. That’s what seemed to happen to her.
Every day is better. After a week we took her to the park. If I can ever figure out how to upload pix and video I will show you! It was beautiful. You have to remember to treat their spirit. The whole reason we did this was so she could play ball a little longer.
Our girl does not have the same cancer, but I hear all the worries you have. We are 2 weeks post-amp and although the beginning was rocky, I would say we are very pleased now. She is happier and more mobile than she has been in 2 months. We didn’t realize how much the pain was holding her back.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. It’s all so very fresh in my mind.
Take care!
M
August 7th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
Bless you for taking such good care of Duke. If he is otherwise healthy, he will most likely do just great on three legs! Once through recovery, he’ll be running, jumping, swimming, and surprising you. You’d be selfish not to go forward with a procedure that will stop the pain and extend Duke’s quality of life.
They gave Jerry a four-month prognosis after his amputation, and he lived nearly two years. We wish you the best of luck for Duke and look forward to sharing in his journey.
August 8th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Thank you so much Cairasue! Your story is an inspiration and gives me great hope! I think I am most scared of the unknown. What to expect when he comes home and how to get him through the first 2 weeks. Do you have any tips that stick out in your mind? Did she eat nomally, or did you bribe her with specialty food? Was she able to get out for bathroom breaks, or did you have to carry her? I plan to order a harness, but know I cant use it until the incision is healed, have you used anything?
Another concern is my 8 year old son. I showed him a picture of a tripawd black lab on the internet and it scared him intensely. How was the reaction of others toward Caira?
Thank you again for the support, and you and Caira are in my prayers for further success!
August 8th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
We didn’t need a sling at all. As money is an issue for us, we were going to just use a towel as a sling anyway. You read about how quick they adapt-and it’s true! I know it’s different for front and back leg amputations, but her’s is a front leg.
Supplies: A lot of what you already have from the first surgery I”m sure–easy things to sleep on and good food to put pills into. We purchased some foam mattress pads from Target (great time, since there’s all this going back to school stuff on sale). We put one in the living room and one in the bedroom between our bed and the door. We covered them with comforters. Sometimes with the medicine on board she’d get a little confused and we had to convince her to lay down, but once she did, she would sigh and relax.
We have a heating pad that we used several times a day. She developed small seromas, but we controlled them with heat. When the heating pad was on we laid with her and gave her lots of love.
My belief is that I’m treating her spirit as much as the disease, I won’t let anyone be negative around her! I know that part of her initial fear is of being kicked out of the “pack” for being ill or injured. I made it my goal to make sure she didn’t feel like we were going to kick her out. Also, as soon as she tried something and failed on first attempt and yipped, we shook it off and tried again or moved on. We just spend lots of time encouraging her. The few times my husband was having a hard time coping he went into the other room, and then came back to love on her threefold.
Food-I only did research on what I should be feeding a cancer dog-there appears to be a lot of ideas out there. Because I’m giving her chemo-I didn’t go with a raw diet, but am doing a low grain-high protein. These appear to be much stinkier kibble and I think she likes it better! Also, for her pills I put them in high quality turkey. Really, she hasn’t had issues with eating. We had to elevate her bowls at first (difficult to dip down low), and she was funny about water-she would only drink the water outside-so we just made more trips out there. As soon as she started healing she started acting funny about her food being elevated, and we have since put them back on the floor. Now she’s fine with food and water.
I think 8 years old is an interesting age. It may be easier if he’s seen dogs who are walking around and playing ball with 3 legs-are you near any dog parks? Everytime I go I see some, but I live in a big area. Usually people with tripods are open to talk about their dogs, and it would be great if your son could ask them all his burning questions. Show your son some of Jerry’s videos-he will see that dogs are very active on only 3 legs. Maybe he’ll even see that Duke will be “cooler” as he will get lots of attention everywhere he goes! I have taken Caira to the petstore (hesitantly) and found everyone to ooo and aaaa all over her. She’s a star! It helps that I picked her out some really cool t-shirts from goodwill-maybe your son could help with that! We don’t go on the town in a e-collar-only t-shirts to cover the incision.
On day 3 I had Caira out in the front yard for 10 minutes and just sat on the steps and tossed the ball so she could catch without moving. It wasn’t running, but it sure made her happy in her recovery. So I guess the key is to just remember to make something pleasurable every day. Make sure he has safe and easy places to sleep. Make sure he feels like he won’t be abandoned by the pack.
I’m sorry, I’m a very wordy writer! Keep updating! I love to see how Duke is doing!
mary
August 8th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
I dont know much about 8 year old boys, not having any myself, but I think if you can get him to look at as many videos and pictures online of happy healthy tripawds playing it will do alot to ease his mind. Here is one for starters that has a tripawd interacting with family (including an 8ish boy!) and friends–I love this video! http://tripawds.com/forums/shout-outs/this-will-make-you-smile-three-leg-dog-by-cove-store-pickers/#p12919. Also start with the videos page on tripawds and you can link to Jerry’s You Tube page, where there are lots of tripawd videos. Try and get him to sit with you and just poke around on Tripawds and see what you can discover together. Let your son know that once Duke gets through the first little bit, which could be rough, he will be able to play and romp on 3 legs just as well as he could on 4. Dogs really do have a spare leg. And it doesn’t matter to them one bit if they lose one.
I can’t find the post but awhile ago Jim and Rene posted a video of my Codie Rae running at the dog park. There was a family who’s dog was about to have an amputation and their 10 year old son was really worried about it. He saw Codie Rae’s video and realized that his best friend would still be able to run and play–he was so happy!
Show your son this one: http://tripawdsrock.shutterfly.com/wyattraydawg/22
It shows Codie Rae who is three years post-amputation and Wyatt Ray Dawg, who was 3 weeks post-amputation at the time, playing together. You can see that Wyatt is still learning how to get around on three legs but he is having tons of fun and you can see that Codie Rae has totally mastered the art of being a tripawd. So this video shows you what you can expect early on and then what to expect once your Duke has gotten used to life as a tripawd.
Oh, and I totally second Marys observation that tripawds are way cooler than 4-legged dogs! Codie Rae gets so much attention–people often don’t even realize she is a tripawd at first and then once they do they are astounded! That is really fun and we get a real kick out of it!
Hope this helps!
Martha (aka Codie Rae’s mom)