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Haley

gooeydog

By gooeydog
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gooeydog Newbie

gooeydog

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On Sunday, I noticed a bump on Haley's ankle area on her front leg, and showed it to my mom. She took her in to the vets today to have it checked, and returned with bad news. They took x-rays, etc, and said it may be bone cancer. She goes back in Tuesday for a biopsy to be taken. If if is, the general treatment is to amputate the leg (I think they generally give chemo or radiation treatment as well), which can give months to years of life depending on if/how fast the cancer spreads. Of course, with Haley only having 3 legs as it is (if the leg with the bump gets taken off, both front legs will be missing), there are a lot of questions in our minds as to the right thing to do already. We're trying to explore every possibility, so if anyone has anything that might be of use, it would be appreciated.

gooeydog Newbie

gooeydog

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My mom says that before we decide on anything, first we have to wait til tuesday and they take the biopsy, as well as check to see if there's anything anywhere else (seems bone cancer is generally fast to progress and spread, and one of the first places is the lungs). If she does have it, and it has spread, there isn't really too much we can do (outside of possibly some homeopathic stuff which I'm only starting to look into) except keep her pain minimized for a while (this type of cancer is also very painful, though amputation alleviates that, which is why it's one of the primary steps taken for many dogs). If it hasn't spread, then we can start worrying about how to treat it. After more research, there are options other than amputation, though I don't know how commonly done they are. If we do end up going the amputation route (and yes, the quality of life question has come up, I'm trying to find out more as to how dogs in this situation do), they do make carts for front end amputees. One is to remove just the area of bone around the tumor, then place a bone graft and let it heal, following up with chemo (which is usually done after amputation as well). There's always the chance that the tumor will reoccur, but at least some time is bought, and from what I've read, dogs recover from it pretty quickly (1-2 weeks before they can bear weight, 6-8 weeks until normal use). This would at least let her keep the leg she has, though we'd probably have to get a cart anyway for afterwards and possibly even after for some activities to minimize the stress put on the leg. The last option is to just do chemo with pain relief, and hope that slows the progression somewhat. In reading, I'm seeing stories about dogs living for years after surgery and chemo, but I don't know if that's the norm. I've only talked to my mom about it a bit so far, but I'm going to suggest we contact a specialist as well, at least to see what they think. Thanks for all the well wishes, I hope they help!

gooeydog Newbie

gooeydog

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I know what you mean Gigi, I banned her from my room and bed last week after she peed on the bed, I was feeling horrible about it after I realized there was something wrong with her (though I doubt it had anything to do with her peeing there). Needless to say, she made her way back into the bed last night, and I couldn't bring myself to boot her out :wink:

Here's today's update I posted on another board (too lazy to retype):
I was reading on a bone cancer email group last night, and it was pretty depressing to see the survival lengths of some dogs that have been diagnosed. There are some that have done really well though, so though I don't want to get my hopes up too high, I'd like to think that if any dog has the spirit to deal with this, Haley does. We went to a pet expo today, and saw more than a few dogs in carts there (most rear wheeled, but a few were both rear and front support, though there were no front only carts), talked to several owners, and they all said their dogs do well, so it might be worth a try. In addition, on the way home I remembered reading online several months ago about pet prosthetics, and we're looking more into that. I know I'm thinking too far ahead, but if things turn out that something can be done, I want to be sure we have as much info as possible about our options. Haley is still her goofy self, she's managed to swindle me into letting her sleep in my bed again, and we got several goodies for the dogs at the expo today which she's enjoyed this evening (we may go again tomorrow and take her, now that we've seen what it's like there).

And Divine, we're not really sure, but she came to the vet clinic at 6 mos old with an open infected break on her leg, we assumed hit by car or something like that. Her vet did suggest the other day that it may have been cancer then, as they never did a biopsy on the injury. In reading, it seems unlikely that she would have been without symptoms this long (4 yrs) with a simple amputation (there's also evidence that suggests the extra strain put on her remaining front leg may have contributed to this by breaking down the bones in her joint area) though I don't think we'll ever know for sure.

Horsefeathers! Newbie

Horsefeathers!

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Geez, I'm really sorry to hear that about Haley. I'm positive that whatever decisions you make will be based on love and compassion.

The cart thing sounds doable in theory (but again, only you will be able to decide if she has decent quality of life). We had initially considered donating Rocco's cart to anyone who might need it (he was paralyzed in his rear and the cart was "front driven"), but since we now have Peaches and she only has that one rear leg, we've decided to hang on to it just in case anything ever happens to that one good rear leg. We've seen her take some ugly spills when getting excited running and trying to change directions too quickly, and I'm always so afraid she's going to injure herself. Your situation with Haley is really food for thought. I'd never even considered anything like bone cancer.

I hope you guys get some best case scenario type of news. I'm just so sorry to hear you're faced with this. Good luck to you and best wishes for Haley.

gooeydog Newbie

gooeydog

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Today's update, Haley had the biopsy taken today, and her chest was x-rayed to see if there was any sign of cancer in her lungs (this is generally the first place it shows up if it spreads from the leg). Her chest is clear, but we won't get the results back from the biopsy until at probably at least Friday. Haley's home, she was the first one into surgery, and since my mom works there, they let her bring her home as soon as she was awake enough to let go. She's lapping up the comfyness of Goo's big bed and a blanket, can't say she isn't milking this for all it's worth ;) We caught her corn nibbling the wrap over her stitches already, so it should be fun keeping her out of trouble. She got off the bed earlier (she's still not really "awake", so she just takes a few steps, then lays back down) when the other dogs barked, and when I picked her up to put her back on, she gave a big sigh, like "this is how it should be..." :lol: . So, continue the good thoughts for us, and we'll hope for the best possible news when the results come back.

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