We've had a little surgical emergency in our household (and it's a long story--but here are the highlights). Maggie the dog had been suffering from a hurt back leg for the last 2-3 months. We'd taken her to the vet in Orem at the beginning of all of that, but at the time, it appeared it may just be related to jumping off the couch or bed or something, so got an anti-inflammant and then got caught up in moving and everything as Maggie continued to limp around a bit. We took her to a new vet in Draper about 2 weeks ago, expecting to hear something about surgery to repair a ligament or something like that since it hadn't seemed to heal. Instead, the vet kept her for the day to do some X-rays (resulting in a without-warning-$600-bill--our other vet would always provide a quote before services--so it seemed very unprofessional and dishonest at the time--but we were reeling from the diagnosis--so how do you argue?) and delivered a callus cancer diagnosis of bone cancer (that he was 99% sure of even though she didn't have the accompanying tumors in her lungs) first to me and then to Lisa, who he talked to literally for all of 45 seconds and told us to google osteocarcinoma in dogs if we wanted more information. He told us that she probably only had 30-45 days to live, so we took her home very sad and gave her the prescribed round of antiobiotics and pain pills, hoping that perhaps his unsure 1% might turn out to be true, but willing to accept the likelihood of no recovery and putting her down sometime soon.
From the X-rays, it was pretty clear that her knee joint was damaged and something had been eating away at it. Usually bone cancer in dogs is quickly accompanied by spread to the lungs, but Maggie's lungs are totally clear of any tumors (which the Draper vet pointed out--but discounted as an anomaly) so while of course we thought the doctor was probably right (he should know, right?), after 10 days, Maggie seemed actually a little better (running around the backyard, sucking on her stuffed animal, chasing the water hose), though still doing most everything on 3 legs and definitely didn't seem like a dog dying within a month. The vet wasn't really all that helpful in terms of information--like what were the options; is there a way to clearly diagnose (rather than guess?), etc. When I took her back to the vet 10 days after his initial diagnosis to have her checked again and get more pain pills, the idiot vet delivered the same news "I'm sorry to tell you this, but your dog has cancer" as if it were the first time he'd seen me or Maggie, and gave me pain pills and a lecture about "knowing when it's time" and "not being selfish." All very strange; and not helpful.The interaction with the Draper vet just didn't jive and was really unsatisfying in terms of information, so Lisa called the vet in Orem that same day to just find out what is the usual course of action. Since they had been treating both dogs for the last 10 years, they immediately asked if we could bring Maggie on Friday afternoon and if we could contact the Draper vet to get the most recent X-rays. We managed to get the X-rays (though only after some grumbling from the vet that he was offended about us 2nd guessing his diagnosis) and took Maggie to Orem. Dr. Weber and Dr. Pew both took a look at everything on file and determined that 1) bone cancer was probably 3rd on the list of possibilities, 2) a fungus was #1 possibility (and the vet wanted to rule out any fungus that might have been affecting our health as well) with an infection #2, and 3) in any scenario, the best option for Maggie was to remove the leg because the joint was causing a lot of pain and was too damaged to repair and removing the leg would allow the doctors to make a more accurate diagnosis, plus at this point, she was essentially only using 3 legs. We also found out in all of this that 1) the Draper idiot vet took crappy X-rays for $600 (like as in the Orem vet felt that a new chest X-ray needed to be taken so she could actually see--which cost us $60 not $600); 2) surgery and related expenses to take care of the problem was only going to cost $400-$500 (after the Draper vet's bill, we though it would cost thousands) and 3) dogs recover and adapt quite well--not like humans who lose a limb. At that point, it was frustrating to have already spent $600 on no solution and a bad bedside manner, and yet it was sort of impossible not to spend less to properly address the problem.
So on June 30th, little Maggie became a tripod. She rested comfortably at the vet's office through the weekend and came home on Monday. The vet's office told us that she was her social and snuggly self shortly after recovering from the anaesthetic and charmed everyone there, even with just 3 legs. Since she's been home, she's done well though had to restitched on Monday because she was so active and licking her wound that she opened up about a 2-inch hole (gross!). We're trying to keep her from jumping and going up or down stairs, but you'd be surprised how well she manages them when her owners are too slow to grab her. Her only problem is the hardwood floors through the kitchen and living room area. She doesn't quite get the grip there like she does on carpet, so she slips from time to time. But honestly, sometimes when she's running, you wouldn't know she was only doing it with 3 legs. Maybe we'll have to enter her in the special doggy olypmics. Seriously, she's happy and normal and I think she'll be around for a while longer to snuggle and bring solace to her humans.
The biopsy results came back this past week, and it turns out she has a cancer, but not bone cancer. She has sicle cell sarcoma, a very slow-grower and has no other indications of cancer anywhere else in her body. The prognosis is that she will probably be with us another 3 years or so and will likely die of old age at that point rather than cancer. We're really glad that we followed our instincts and took her for second opinion. The leg had to go because of the pain it was causing, and now we know that had it not been removed, over a long period of time, it would have spread and been a very uncomfortable life and death.We can't wait for when she's well enough to take her on . . .er. . . walks (?). Maybe we can jerry-rig a little back wheel for her?
We do laugh that we now have two "special needs" dogs.
