oh the guilt...

Right before we left for our cruise last December, Lucky started limping regularly. So, when we returned, I took him to the vet. Steve requested I get x-rays to make sure it wasn't cancer. The vet told me over and over x-rays were not necessary. He had arthritis, and we should treat it as arthritis. After we started giving him glucosamine and fish oil, he seemed to be doing better, but he still had the limp.

I took him to the vet (the same one) about three times over the course of the year. We finally decided we needed to get a second opinion. We went to a new vet, and she was wonderful with him. He loves her to death. She was able to x-ray the leg we thought had the arthritis, and she said it looked like a slight case of arthritis and everything else looked normal on the films. No cancer seemed to be present. She prescribed him an anti-inflammatory, which he has been taking over the past couple of months.

He has been doing awesome on the Metacam. He seems to have been reborn--lots of spring in his step, he's jumping and acting like his old self again. But now, I am afraid the Metacam has been hiding his pain, so we haven't seen him getting worse.

Started reading up on dog tumors last night, and how more often than not leg tumors are bone cancer :( It would explain his limping over the last year.

I have read vets often treat it as arthritis when in fact it ends up being cancer. They usually amputate the leg, and even after that and chemo-they only live for about a year.

Therefore, I have sent a message to the vet requesting an x-ray to just give us some piece of mind before the removal of the tumor occurs next week. I hope to hear from them soon.

Comments

  1. SandyJanuary 13, 2011 at 8:18 PM

    Janine, as a fellow dog parent I can feel your anxiety over LD. I will say prayers for him and for you!!! My golden retriever Jager turned 9 years old in December and although I know that she is just "middle age" I also know that larger dogs have a shorter life expectancy. Sometimes I get tears in my eyes just thinking about her being gone. I ask Vince continuously, "does she seem sick, do you think she is sleeping more that normal, etc". I even find myself feeling her chest to make sure she is breathing while she is asleep, for no reason other than my paranoia. Most people with children think I am silly, but they don't realize that to me, she IS my child. So yeah, I get it :)

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