To amputate or not…a long but honest portrayal

My name is Christina, and for 5 1/2 years I’ve been the mum and guardian to a wonderful Bernese Mountain Dog named Oliver. We’ve had giant breeds in our family from the time I was 7 years old (Newfoundlands, Leonbergers, my Berner and just recently a St.Bernard/Great Pyrenees cross), and in all that time of having dogs I’ve realized that while I love all of the dogs I’ve shared my life with, there are some with whom you develop an extra-special bond – the ones who are truly dogs of your heart. My Ollie is a dog of my heart – he’s seen me through some of the worst times of my life, been beside me while I cried out the grief of losing my parents and celebrated with me the joys of life that come after the sorrow. So imagine my shock when I took him to the vet with what I thought was a sprained wrist, and came back with a “we think it might be CANCER.” CANCER – that’s how I’ve always heard that word, in big, bold letters. That terrible word that changes your world with a single utterance. What did I do wrong? How could this be? I’d already lost both my parents and a close uncle to this terrible disease, wasn’t that enough?  I’ll admit it – I went into full-on “why me” pity party mode. I cried and raged and showed my fist to the world. And then I Googled…and wasn’t that a mistake. Though maybe not, because it also led me to this website, and to Dr. Dressler’s website, and a small glimmer of hope started to surface. Perhaps this would be different. Perhaps I could learn to simply focus on one day at a time and be grateful for each additional hour. But first things first. First I needed to know the beast that we were fighting – and that meant a biopsy. Waiting for the results  was the worst. I’m a planner – and the absolute worst thing for a planner is “the unknown”. So I took all of my nervous energy and came up with a plan that worked for my fur baby and our family (and our finances, because let’s be honest, not many of us can afford unlimited treatment options for our pets). It’s just a starting point, and I know we’ll tweak things along the way, but knowing that I had a plan calmed the worst of my fears and let me focus on the journey ahead. Some resources that greatly helped me are: bonecancerdogs.org, the tripawds.com website, and Dr. Dressler’s book “The Dog Cancer Survival Guide” (available on Amazon). So I had my plan*, and I had my resources, which meant that when I got the call from my vet confirming that it was osteosarcoma I was able to be calm, and rational, and discuss that plan with my vet. She agreed that the first step was an amputation, so that was scheduled for the following week.

Amputation isn’t an option for all dogs, and it’s a very personal decision you need to make for your dog as his guardian. For me it was a fairly easy decision given Ollie’s age, his athletic condition, overall health, and zest for life. Even limping along, it was clear that this was a dog so full of life that to do nothing was incomprehensible. Luckily, his chest x-ray came back clear which gave us even more reason to go ahead with the surgery.

Fast forward a week, and we were dropping Ollie off for a surgery that would change his life forever – and boy was this mum nervous! Waiting for that call that he was out of surgery and recovering well felt like some of the longest hours of my life, but at 2:40 I finally got the call and was told that he’d be ready to be picked up that evening. I’m not going to lie – watching my little man hobble down the hall supported by a sling was heartbreaking. I immediately thought to myself “what have I done to my dog, what kind of life is this going to be for him?” But I pulled myself together and remembered the breathing exercise in the survival guide and focused on telling him what a good boy he was and pretending all was fine. We had brought along a t-shirt for him to stop us from staring at his surgical site, so we quickly put that on him and loaded him into the car. He was clearly cruising on some really good drugs, and was still a bit groggy from the anesthetic, so we had an uneventful ride home, and then the harrowing ordeal of trying to get him into the house. We finally managed it (not without some sweat and tears, though thankfully no blood) and settled him down with us in the living room – a support sling under him ready to help him up. Then it was time for the humans to have some wine and toast “kicking cancer’s butt”…in Ollie’s honour of course!

*For those of you who are wondering, the treatment plan we’ve chose for our situation is an amputation, followed by hydrotherapy to rebuild and maintain muscle mass, and an immune-boosting treatment plan that will include natural pharmaceuticals but will most likely not include traditional chemotherapy or radiation, and is to be discussed with our holistic vet after Ollie has recovered from surgery. Many of the natural immune-boosters also have anti-coagulant effects so I highly recommend speaking with your vet or alternative medicine practitioner before giving your pet any supplements (especially pre- or post-surgery). Growing up we always visited naturopaths, chiropracters and even traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, and we’ve seen the difference a co-ordinated “traditional” and “holistic” approach made for our human and animal family members, so this is feels right for me and my dog. Everyone has their own viewpoints and their own approaches, so I am by no means advocating this as a “right way”, but wanted to share what is so far working for us.