March 2017 – Rufus

Three+ weeks since surgery

Adam and I went to discuss chemo last week with our vet and have decided it isn’t something we want to pursue. Rufus seems perfectly happy (as happy as he can be with a missing front leg anyway) and as everything is so slow moving in his case, we are optimistic that any spread of the disease will also be slow moving. Here he is this morning hanging out with Chewy. The snow has finally melted.

We took him out for a walk this morning, the link below is a video. He gets tired pretty quickly but that is a lot of weight to put on a single front leg. We’re starting slow and hopefully he’ll build up some stamina so we can go further.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6jkD93OpVx5dVNhdmN2UTlpNmc/view?usp=sharing

Lastly, here’s my favorite photo of him when he was just a boy!

Jill and Rufus.

Two Weeks Post-Surgery

Rufus has been doing great the past few weeks although he’s had a few bouts of depression, presumably because he wants to get out of the house (and yard) and get a bit of exercise. He had his second follow-up appointment yesterday, 12 days after his surgery, and the majority of his staples were removed. The vet said we could give him more exercise now, just no running quite yet.

We got the call this morning on the results from his removed leg. They found osteosarcoma “deep in the bone”. The recommended courses of action are either (a) do nothing, or (b) look into chemo. I haven’t discussed it yet with my husband but at the very least, we’ll go talk to one of the other vets in our veterinary office who is more knowledgeable on chemo. The vet who performed the surgery said the average life span is 3-6 months without chemo, maybe up to a year with, but of course that’s on a case-by-case basis.

Looking at this site, I’m a lot more optimistic. When Rufus first had issues and we researched osteosarcoma, we read that it was a super aggressive form of cancer. The fact that it was 6 weeks between his first appointment and his amputation and even then there were no signs of lysis in his leg bone makes me hopeful that it’s a very slow moving case. There was nothing obvious in his pre-surgery chest x-ray so again, this gives me hope.

It was Rufus’s birthday yesterday by the way, 5 years old. Here’s a photo when he was about 10 or 11 weeks old right after I’d got him:

Wish us all luck!

Jill, Adam, Rufus, and brother Chewy.

Three days post-surgery

Saturday, late afternoon, we got Rufus down the newly built ramp for the first time since he came home. It was a struggle keeping up with him as he moves so fast and the sling we’ve been using isn’t the most convenient when you have two people trying to help. He got down the ramp fine and peed for what felt like about half an hour then he lay down for a while. He tried getting into the deeper snow in our yard but we stopped him, we didn’t want to make things harder for him. He came back in and then zonked out for the night. Adam and I slept in our spare bedroom on the main floor so we could hear if he was having any issues, but not a peep all night.

Yesterday morning we got up and he had his daily Dentastix but he didn’t want to go outside. A friend came by early afternoon so we got Rufus to come outside with us, this time just using a collar and leash instead of the sling, and he made it down the ramp with no problems whatsoever. I can’t believe how well he’s doing considering the surgery was only on Thursday. He hopped around the yard, peed for another half hour, lay down for a while, tried “running” when our other dog decided to bark at a crow and chase after it (I didn’t grab his leash in time to stop him), then he came to sit by us while we enjoyed the first sunshine we’ve seen in quite a while. Here he is with Adam and our friend Ginger.

This morning we took him out and he managed to go poo for the first time although only a small one. I know that’s a major accomplishment for humans after surgery so however small is a good sign. I couldn’t upload the video on here as it was too big but here he is on Sunday hopping around the yard.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6jkD93OpVx5dFM3RVVQYUtaWkU/view?usp=sharing

Jill

Rufus – two days post-surgery

We picked Rufus up this morning after his surgery 2 days ago.

Yesterday morning when we visited and took him out to use the bathroom, he had to be helped along with a sling with Adam bearing most of the weight. We went to pick him up this morning thinking we’d have a big problem getting him into the truck. I borrowed a smaller (lower) truck from a friend and loaded up our ramp and Adam and I talked about how difficult it was going to be getting Rufus in and out. So much for those worries! The vet tech told us she’d taken him out earlier in the morning and when she went to his cage, he was standing there waiting to go out. She didn’t have to use the sling and she said he made it all the way to the grassy area before getting tired. He is a really long dog so he takes long strides (or hops) so it’s difficult trying to keep up with him and making him go slow. We backed the truck up to the vet’s side door, put the ramp up, and up went Rufus with us on each side making sure he didn’t topple off. We did the same at home; backed up to our lawn area, made him wait while we got the ramp ready, and down he came. He did face-plant but that’s been the only time up to now.

We weren’t sure how he’d do with our back steps (6 steps getting into the house) so Adam ended up building a 17′ ramp with a 90° turn which we carpeted first thing this morning for traction. Seeing how well Rufus is doing after just 2 days, that might have been a little overkill. He made it up the ramp and into the house no problem whatsoever and went and lay on his bed (photo above). Since then he’s been up a few times and has moved around the living room. I sat on the couch and of course he likes to be right there, so he hopped over and lay down by me. The only problem is the incision is not covered and he has a drain in and every time he gets up, it dribbles all over the floor. I’m having to follow him around with a wet rag when he does get up so I can clean up after him. Later I’ll go get some gauze pads to cover the drain at least. As you can see, he doesn’t seem too worried about the whole thing. One of his favourite positions … on his back with legs in the air. Chewy seems totally oblivious to the whole thing after an initial sniff.

Thanks for everybody’s good wishes … more to come!

Jill and Rufus.

Rufus’s Journey

Well, Rufus had his surgery yesterday so I thought I’d start a blog to document how things go.

About 6 weeks ago, we noticed him limping. Initially we thought it was his left front leg because we found a small nodule between his pads. That turned out to be nothing and it took a few more days for us to realize it was actually his right leg that was causing him pain. I checked his leg and sure enough, his knee was terribly swollen. With him being as hairy as he is, we hadn’t noticed before. Off to the vets we went and he had an x-ray. The potential cause was a huge shock to us. The vet had a radiologist look at Rufus’s x-rays and he said he was 90 to 95% sure it was osteosarcoma although our vet was skeptical because there were no signs of lysis (deterioration of the bone from the inside). He recommended a biopsy which we had done and those results came back negative for any cancer cells. We decided to wait it out and hope for the best and we’d be back in a month for a second x-ray.

Two weeks later and he started limping on his back leg! Of course that freaked us out so back to the vets we went for another x-ray, this time on his back leg. That ended up being a sprain or pulled muscle (lots of snow here in northern Idaho and he probably post-holed when it was icy) but we had them x-ray his right front leg again while he was up on the table. Those vet technicians somehow managed to hoist 190 lbs onto that table so we thought we should take advantage! The mass on his bone had grown a bit but still no signs of lysis.

We kept our original appointment so 2 weeks later, back we went again for his 3rd x-ray. He’d been going back and forth between hardly limping at all and then limping really badly and that last week was the worst we’d seen him. This appointment was on Tuesday, 3 days ago. The results showed the same thing, the mass was still growing but still no signs of lysis. The vet asked if we would consider amputation and he reassured us, after I asked if it was practical for a dog his size, that giant breeds can do fine with 3 legs. There could be the chance that results from the bony mass might show something other than cancer, but either way it was obviously causing Rufus a lot of pain and it wasn’t something that was going to reverse itself. We basically had two options; amputation or try to manage his pain for as long as we could. We’d been keeping Rufus in the house hoping him resting his leg would help, but the vet told us we should let him get out and walk (or run) so we took him for a short walk after his appointment.

We went home and tried not to think about it but the next day, presumably due to the short walk he got, Rufus was in even more pain. He was whining and could hardly put any weight on his leg so we decided the best thing we could do for him was to take the pain away via amputation. We booked him in for a Tuesday surgery but the vet called back to say he could get him in the next day (Thursday; yesterday). That really brought home the reality of the situation for both me and my husband. Rufus got a lot of attention that night.

Yesterday we took him in and asked that they x-ray his left front leg, just to make sure it seemed healthy enough to do the job of two legs. That x-ray came back fine, as did his chest x-ray, so the surgery went ahead. It’s a horrible time for pet parents waiting to hear that all went well. As with any surgery there’s a chance of things going wrong, so it was a huge relief when the vet called and told us it took a little longer than usual (“that’s the biggest leg I’ve ever removed!”) but it went well. We gave Rufus a few hours to wake up then went to visit him. The size of the incision was a shock and the colour of his skin was a shock (it took me a while to realize it was his actual skin and not a white bandage!) but Rufus was awake and sitting up now and then. He kept trying to stand up which we did not like one bit, but the vet technicians didn’t seem to be phased by it. They said he was on his second bag of IV fluids so he probably needed to pee.

The plan is for him to stay there another night and we will pick him up tomorrow. Today, after visiting him of course, I’ll be thrift store shopping for rubber-backed rugs. We are also looking at other vehicles that are more practical for loading up the dogs; right now I have a Dodge RAM truck and Rufus does not like to use the ramp our other dog uses. Any suggestions on that would be appreciated, taking into account the fact that we have 2 giant breeds.

That’s it for today. I’ll update as and when things progress. Think good thoughts for Rufus, his brother Chewy, and his parents Jill and Adam. Here he is with Chewy.