We, at Doggedly Determined, had a scare this past year with Dublin our CEO (Canine Executive Officer). He had been limping on and off and the limping had become increasingly painful for him to the point where he would not put any weight on his left front leg.
We took him to our local veterinary hospital which has been the trusted family vet for more than 20 years. They took X-rays and found what they thought was symbolic of bone cancer in his leg. Not sure, they referred us to a specialty clinic near Boston.
The cancer specialist did all kinds of blood tests and additional radiographs of his leg and found what they believed to be osteosarcoma, an aggressive form of canine bone cancer. They told us that he probably had 3-6 months to live. I cried myself to sleep for days. He was only 7 – how could this happen where his life would be taken so early? I asked our family vet this question. She told me that she thought it was fate, that dogs like Dublin needed someone like me to take care of him because people like us would go to the end of the earth to get their dogs the care that they deserved.
Additional radiographs of Dublin’s lungs and lymph nodes are taken to see if the cancer had spread. It had not.
At this point, the specialists recommended a biopsy to make a definitive determination as to what type of cancer was eating away at Dublin’s distal radius (his front leg bone). The specialist set an appointment to consult with a surgeon. The surgeon informed us that because they only get a very small sample in a biopsy procedure, it does not always provide an accurate assessment of the cancer because the surgeon may get a spot of the bone and tissue that is clean. This would not mean that the cancer is not present, just that they missed the areas where the cancer was living in his body. He said that based on the radiographs compared to every similar case he had seen, Dublin had an aggressive form of bone cancer. He said that our best bet of saving Dublin’s life was to amputate his leg immediately.
Saving Dublin’s life was the ultimate priority, but we still were troubled by the conflict between how fast this cancer is supposed to spread, and how many months he had be sporadically limping on his leg (about 12 months, off and on). If it was cancer, why hadn’t it spread sooner?
If we amputated and then had a biopsy that came back negative, we knew that we would never be able to live with ourselves knowing that we took away the one thing that gives Dublin so much happiness in his life – galloping like a deer through the woods at the dog park on all fours, wind blowing through his fur and chasing squirrels with a look of simple joy on his face that most of us humans would envy.
With this in mind, and knowing that if there really was cancer in his system that a matter of days was not going to make a difference in terms of what we could do for him, we opted to have the biopsy. Surprisingly, the biopsy was negative. The specialists were confounded. We were told that, as they had mentioned to us, it was most probable that they just missed the cancer. At this point, they recommended an MRI since the results were so inconclusive.
An MRI costs between $1,000 - $1,500 dollars but we were told that it would provide us with a definitive diagnosis. Wanting to find an answer and preserve Dublin’s standard of living for as long as possible, we opted for the MRI despite the cost.
Unfortunately for us, we were not informed that there was in fact a possibility that an MRI can also be inconclusive. After another invasive test and putting Dublin under another round of anesthesia, we were devastated to find out that the MRI was in fact, inconclusive. The doctors then recommended a second, larger biopsy.
The original “small” biopsy had left Dublin with an inch long incision and a good deal of pain. Between the x-rays, MRI, and first biopsy, we thought there should be enough information to make a definitive diagnosis.
We opted for a second opinion. The second opinion yielded a starting departure from the early ones. Dublin didn’t have cancer at all, but had suffered some type of trauma to the bone at a young age and was experiencing some degeneration in the joint. Anti-inflammatories reduced the swelling. We took other steps to get him back to health, which we’ll cover in a separate “Dog Tail.”
After a seven month roller coaster ride of questions with no answers and an original diagnosis of only 3-6 months to live, we are pleased to say that today Dublin, CEO is alive and well with all four limbs. We can’t imagine what would have happened had we agreed to amputate his leg, only to find out he didn’t have cancer.
The lesson from our tale is if you have a diagnosis of localized bone cancer (to one location in the body) and no evidence of it having spread, make sure you get a biopsy and investigate the situation further because it may be something as simple as long-standing inflammation and trauma, for which a good diet, supplements and weight loss are all that is needed in order to keep your best friend free to continue to run on all four paws.
Like our vet said, it was our fate to have a dog that needed someone to go to the ends of the earth to care for him. Someone who is… doggedly determined. Thus, we give you-doggedlydetermined.com.
