Chance’s story – from diagnosis to present

Chance is not a tripawd, though I wish he was. An odd desire, and one I certainly would have never imagined when the vet first suspected osteosarcoma in late March/early April. I’m sharing his story, months later, to chronicle our experience with canine cancer…

Late March, Chance, our 9 year old Rottie/Shepherd began limping slightly, so we visited our vet and she x-rayed his leg. It was determined that the limp was the result of inflamed arthritis in his wrist, but she also saw a spot on his left front shoulder that concerned her, so she had the x-ray read by a radiologist. We started Chance on an anti-inflammatory and after 24 hours, the limp disappeared and he was back to running and playing at full speed. Two days later, the vet called back to say the radiologist felt the spot was cancer, most likely osteosarcoma. The vet told us that amputation was really the only option for removing the tumor. Like most who receive that advice, we were shocked. It seemed like such a drastic measure, to take our dog’s perfectly good leg, especially after he had begun running again without a limp. Chance was 9 1/2 at the time, and we were also uncertain how he would recover from what seemed like such a major surgery at his age.  The vet prescribed pain pills (tramadol) for us to use as needed and said we could continue to monitor the tumor’s growth and to let her know if we noticed any other concerns. We saw her in June for a check-up before heading out of town and at that point, while we had begun administering the tramadol on occasion, his limp was not a daily occurrence and seemed to only happen when we had really wet weather (again probably due more to the arthritis than the tumor). He enjoyed the road trip to Texas with us, but during our trip, his limp became more common, so upon arriving home the 2nd week of July, we scheduled another x-ray with the vet and learned the tumor had grown, but that amputation was still an option.  After doing a great deal of research on tripawds.com, we decided to move forward with the surgery. Chance was back in the vet office the next week for blood workup and a chest x-ray, all in preparation for his surgery which would occur 3 days later…unfortunately, the chest x-ray was not clear. He had several mets present, and due to his age and the decreased lung capacity from the mets, the vet no longer felt Chance was a good candidate for amputation. It was not the news I wanted to hear. We opted not to do chemo, but instead began a meds regiment designed to control his pain and relieve any swelling.

Over the last two months, Chance has stopped using his left front leg entirely – it hangs limply by his side and he ‘hops’ on his other three legs.  Any concerns I’d had when contemplating amputation and wondering how he would have handled being a three legged dog were for naught. I purchased the Ruff wear harness anyway to help him get in and out of my SUV, and for quite a while, he still enjoyed riding in the car.

He has begun panting quite a bit lately, and yesterday we had another check-up.  He is still eating regularly and his weight has remained consistent.  More mets are now present and we have upped the dosage of his pain meds again.  We take it a day at a time now, and I’m always watching for signs that he doesn’t want to keep fighting – I’m not giving up until he does, and for now, the light is still in his eyes, and that tail still wags.  He still follows me up and down our stairs, though slower, he still meets me at the door about 70% of the time, and he waits with me to meet my daughter’s bus about 50% of the time.

I know the time is coming when I will have to let him go – I have read so many of the tripawd forums to hear how others made that choice, and I am hoping I will know when its time to say goodbye, when he no longer wants to fight.

Chance just celebrated his 10th birthday.  He has been my baby for just over 9 years, though I’ve known him since he was 8 weeks old. I fell in love the moment I saw that feisty black and tan ball of energy in November of 2000. He was one of 8 pups up for adoption with the rescue organization I volunteered with at the time.  My husband and I had gotten married just eight months earlier and he was as enamored with the pups as I was, but we lived in an apartment and could not have a large dog. While most of Chance’s siblings were adopted quickly, Chance contracted Parvo. He overcame it, but was not available for adoption again until he was about 6 months old. He had an amazing foster family during his recovery, and about 2 months after he was up for adoption, we had a house and were able to make him ours!! Chance has been my constant support throughout my husband’s army career – he has made three moves with us and been with me for all of my husband’s trainings and deployments.  Unfortunately, Chance’s diagnosis has come during a deployment…my husband will be home in less than a month.   We are both hoping and praying that Chance will continue to fight until we can all be together again.