Month: February 2016

We entered this Tripawd community and started our journey just a few short weeks ago.  Sadie girl had her front left leg amputated on Jan 21 after she was diagnosed with histiocytic sarcoma.  Pathology reports showed that her specific type of cancer stayed localized a large majority of the time.  We did additional tests, including blood work and x-rays, just to make sure that the cancer had indeed not spread … and all tests came back clear.  Unfortunately, those tests didn’t catch the true story.

Sadie did great in the days immediately following her surgery.  About 10 days in she had several days of not feeling well … and quickly got worse, to the point where she wouldn’t eat or even stand.  After a couple of vet trips during those days with no answers (we originally just though it was stress) … we finally dug deeper.  Sadie was in kidney failure and further tests uncovered that the @#$* cancer had hid from those original tests … but was now completely taking over her kidneys, liver and spleen, along with all the surrounding tissue.

On Monday, February 8, I was forced to say goodbye to my best friend.

Although our story didn’t end as we’d hoped, I sincerely want to thank everyone in this community for the advice and support that we received during the last few weeks.  This really is an amazing community.

Please give your 3-legged babies a big hug for me tonight.  I wish you all the best!

Love,

Crystal and Sadie

We’re on Day 13 post-op and this past weekend Sadie was almost back to her normal personality.  She was moving really well, following us everywhere, curious and happy as can be.  Then Sunday night came and she just seemed completely out of it.  She stopped following us and, really, stopped being concerned at all if we were moving about the house.  She just seemed lethargic and didn’t have much of an appetite.  She also seemed very clumsy again on our potty trips outside (which I had to drag her on because she had no interest in getting up), relying way more on the sling to hold her weight than she had been the last day or so.  I figured maybe she was just overly tired or possible had some muscle soreness just from the use of all new muscles, so I tried not to worry.  But Monday brought more of that same thing so I made the call for a check up with our vet …. and, of course, when we were at the office Tuesday afternoon Sadie acted just fine.  She hopped all around the room and inhaled the treats and samples of canned food like she hadn’t eaten in weeks.  Doc took her for a little trip outside to see how she was moving and was happy with the mobility that she was showing at this point in the recovery.  All her vitals were good … so vet just thought it was possible muscle soreness on top of the effects from the pain meds.  We decided to try and lay off the meds for now (only using them if needed) and see if that helped perk her up.  Doc also went ahead and removed her staples while we were there (we had an appt in 2 days anyway).  I left the office pretty confident that we were getting somewhere and that Sadie was just fine.

BUT …. not 30 minutes after being back home, she was back to just being motionless.  She did scarf down her dinner (I added a little of that AMAZING canned goodness from the vet’s office) … but the canned stuff didn’t sit well with her and it showed later that evening on our potty break.  At bedtime, I thought I’d see if we could manage getting up the stairs with some help … but she wouldn’t budge to even attempt the steps.  I finally just carried her up … which is something she would have NEVER allowed before.  And this morning she was still no different.

I’m trying my best to be patient, but I think I just really looked forward to that magic 2 week mark where I’ve read they typically perk right back up … and we just not even near that.  And the fact that she seemed to be doing so well just a few short days ago then took a turn backwards is a bit concerning.  The fact that she really didn’t use her bad leg much before her surgery had me hopeful that she’d adapt to 3 legs much quicker.  I had grand hopes of being able to go for short walks by our 1 month mark … but that doesn’t seem even near possible at this point.  Perhaps her senior age on top of her lack of fitness (she was a bit out of shape to begin with) means she just needs a lot more time to adjust.  Trying my best to stay positive here.  Almost 2 weeks into this process and I can honestly say that, for the first time, I’m wondering if I indeed made the right decision.