Month: October 2015

Hello Tripawd Folks,

We are happy to bring an update on Maggie, 5 weeks out from surgery and feeling great!  She’s still working on stairs and building up stamina for ‘real’ walks,  but all in all life is grand!   Maggie has conned us into going for 8 walks a day, by refusing to use the steps to the back yard and convincing us that walking out the front door with a leash on = WALKIES!! (not just a quick potty, like we pretend it’s going to be).   The startled little yelps that I mentioned in the Forum seem to have tapered off for now, thankfully, only heard it once since Saturday.

I still have my moments of looking at her and thinking “what have we done!?” – not because she’s not recovering fantastically, but just because it’s something I never would have imagined happening.  Of course I never imagined having to deal with canine cancer, so it’s a little reminder that you gotta do what you gotta do, and roll with it.  Something I’d recommend for anyone new to this site, starting out on amputation recovery, is to jot down a couple of successes and setbacks each day for the first couple of weeks.  I did that just to keep track of what was going on (did I get her out to pee at 4AM today, or was that yesterday?) but it proved to be SO valuable when I would worry about her recovery, to see that she DID make progress every day even if other things were challenging.  Now that we’re past the “panic over every little thing” stage, it’s amazing just to go back and read what those first several days were like and how far she has come.  AMAZING!  Watching her walk and run so confidently now, it’s hard to remember that a month ago her little legs were shaking with every step.

So I thought this would be a good time to enjoy Maggie doing some of her favorite things this week:

Snuggling up on the couch.  She’ll always use a pillow if there’s one handy.

Scruffing around in the dirt. She is trying to figure out “digging” with one paw…it’s a herky-jerky affair but pretty darn cute. Easier when she lays down to dig. 🙂

Sniffing around the trees for signs of squirrel…she’s also back to jumping up on the trees occasionally (scares me but I’ll get used to it).

Happy walks, even if they’re just down the block and back.

Doggin’ around in the back yard.  What leg? I’m not missing a leg!

Begging at the table.  Must have been chicken nuggets for the kiddo that night. (Why yes, that is a rug being held down with duct tape in the background.  All hail duct tape.)

 

And getting underfoot in the kitchen – this is when I knew she was feeling back to normal!

 

Here’s hoping the next week brings even more progress – for her and for all of your pups!!

Maggie has been very wary of steps on three legs. She bit it on our carpeted stairs 2 weeks ago, the first time she tried them. Not so good for her confidence, and she hasn’t gone near them since.  Tonight as my son and his friend were upstairs watching tv, I heard Maggie hopping around near the bottom of the stairs.  She wanted up, where the action was.

I put on her harness – she doesn’t really like it but it gives me a little confidence to be able to keep a hand on her just in case – and after some coaxing she bounded up the stairs almost as smoothly as before.  She was as surprised as I was!  The look on her face when she got up on our bed was priceless!!

I have no idea how we’re gonna get down those steep turn-of-the-century  stairs later, but who cares?

Ok she’s not actually smiling here but she was super happy! Yayyyyy doggie in bed!!!!

And I shouldn’t be sitting here, I should be taking Maggie out for a walk!

She is doing well, starting to build up more strength every day but we can tell her creaky old back legs are stiff and sore sometimes.  On those days she lays down with a thud.  But she’s come so far in a month, and I’m so proud of her!

 

The past week has been a lot of little victories and some veterinary mental strain.  Maggie is three – almost four – weeks into her recovery and doing pretty well for an old gal.  Some of our milestones  this week were:

* getting her staples out (she did great although she does.not.like.doctors.)

* perfecting a way into and out of the car – I have old desk drawer that I put upside-down in front of the car door for her to use as a step – it’s a big enough surface that she’ll actually hop onto it and it makes for a much less dramatic jump,

* walks, glorious walks!!  Maggie went to the park twice this week and she is the picture of pure joy the entire time.  Ears perk up, tail’s a-waggin’ and you can tell she forgets all her troubles (so do I).  Even just a few minutes of seeing her so happy and alive makes up for days of worrying…

* the full-body shake – this is one of those little things that I watched her “get back” and is so cute.  Maggie always used to shake from her head to her tail, especially when she’s excited.  On one front leg she wasn’t steady enough to do this and I had noticed her in the first 2 weeks starting to tilt her head and then stopping.  Little by little this week she starting giving her head a little shake and then doing it with more confidence, and by today she could do her whole wiggly body shake and I swear she was extra happy about that.

* tried out the Ruffwear harness a few times, and she’s getting used to it.  I’m hopeful that she’ll get comfortable with us helping her up the stairs at night and then perhaps some day I can sleep in my own bed again rather than camping out downstairs next to the doggy bed.  I think everyone on this forum has done this!  🙂

* To the Ends of the Earth! … or at least the block! – Maggie had more spring in her step tonight and we walked to the corner of our block and back…that had seemed like 100 miles away just 2 weeks ago.  She wanted to keep going but I turned her around and good thing, ’cause she pooped out half-way back, but we made it home after a nice rest in a neighbor’s front yard.

We also got Maggie’s final histopathology report back and it’s really a mixed bag.  The tumor on her leg was an undifferentiated sarcoma, grade 3 – apparently being undifferentiated gives it a higher grade than one they can trace to specific cell types (the initial biopsy said liposarcoma, which generally has a better prognosis).  We knew it was locally aggressive and invasive, but the report shows that there was no sign it had invaded deep into the bone.  First oncologist recommended 5 rounds of chemo, our regular vet said since it didn’t reach the bone marrow she thought there’s less threat of spreading elsewhere, and we’re waiting to talk to a fantastic oncologist at a teaching hospital whose opinion I will give strong consideration.  When we thought we were dealing with a liposarcoma with low (20-25%) chance of spreading, we had told ourselves – “just surgery, no chemo, take our chances” but the new diagnosis threw all the super-hard chemo considerations into the mix.  Maggie falls into the category of significant stress from doctor visits and even 5 rounds of chemo for uncertain results (20-30% effective against sarcomas? something like that) seems like a fair amount of stress and a total crap shoot.

So with all that cruddy chemo stuff to worry about, I am just going to focus on Maggie’s happy smile and positive milestones this week.   Here we are at the park.  All smiles.  I can never get a picture of her up and hopping, I’m just not that coordinated.

Here are two quick pics of how we did t-shirts for our front-amp Maggie.

Cut up the side and cut strips along the side.  Leave the “top” (unused sleeve) a little longer and you can grab it to offer support in the first few days when re-learning balance.  When it’s on (one front leg in the sleeve hole, head thru the head hole) I tied up the strips for a custom fit.