Puppy Power

Our great dane’s battle with Osteosarcoma (a bone cancer), and what we’re doing to help her.

On January 29th, 2018 we took our Great Dane, Faith, to our local emergency vet to check out a large bump on her left leg that had been there for about a week. She’s had allergic reactions before, so at first we tried some Benadryl to see if it would go away. No such luck.

So we brought Faith in and had an x-ray done. The vet came back and showed us the x-ray. If you look up “Osteosarcoma” on the Internet, the x-ray we were shown was the classic textbook image of Osteosarcoma. There was just no denying it. It was then a matter of how bad the cancer was, was it anywhere else in her body, and what were our options.

On February 3rd, 2018 we took Faith to another vet to get a second opinion anyway, as well as to get some referrals for our options. This was serious stuff so we wanted to be thorough. Immediately the vet confirmed the initial diagnosis and recommended a couple specialists to us.

February 5th, 2018 we took Faith to the specialist for a bone biopsy. Once again, the specialist immediately saw from the x-ray Osteosarcoma. At this point he was more concerned about getting it taken care of rather than performing the bone biopsy. We agreed.

We needed to be smart with the resources and time that we had. A bone biopsy would just damage the leg further and confirmed something that was obvious to three different vets from three different practices with three different specialties, not to mention it was so obvious even we knew what we were looking at. Still, they collected blood and urine to have tested. We also setup an appointment for a CT Scan to see if there were any signs of cancer anywhere else in Faith.

Which brings us to February 8, 2018 (Happy Anniversary, Susan. – Tony). We brought Faith in for her CT Scan. And the scan was good! No SIGNS of cancer anywhere else in Faith. The vet said she was an excellent candidate for amputation! We said go for it. And so he did.

A few hours later we received another phone call to tell us the surgery went well and we could possibly pick up our baby girl either Friday or Saturday.

Susan setup a GoFundMe campaign to hopefully help with the costs of all this. We’re trying our best. I’m not one to reach out for help, but whatever it takes. We take on a pet…take them into our care… It’s our responsibility to do what we can for them…to watch over them…to do what’s right for them. They depend on us and look to us for shelter, love, care, and protection. We do the best we can for them and that’s all we can do.

So now I’m just laying here in bed at 1:11 AM (February 9th, 2018). Wide awake. Tired as hell. Just waiting. Waiting for the next steps. Waiting for the next decisions. Waiting for the next outcome.

Tony

For more information about Osteosarcoma in dogs, click here.

Our baby girl after surgery (February 9th, 2018).

Faith!