Well, this is the last day our golden retriever, Ray, will be on four legs.
He was diagnosed with a nerve sheath tumor in his right front leg about two weeks ago and amputation surgery is scheduled for tomorrow morning. (You can see in the photo where the biopsies were taken from his elbow.)
Unfortunately, tumor excision and radiation were not much of an option in this case. These tumors are notoriously hard to get out due to their tendency to wrap around muscles and nerves, and if they aren’t completely, 100% removed, they are nearly guaranteed to come back. The good news in all of this is that, once his leg is removed, the cancer should be gone too. Dogs who have limbs amputated due to bone cancer are not usually so lucky, as that type of cancer is particularly aggressive and can both return and metastisize to the organs. Nerve sheath tumors tend to stay localized. We have confirmed through x-rays that his chest is clear and the other bone structures (hips, left leg) do not show any type of cancer.
He’s been sleeping a lot the past couple of days and is running a bit of a temperature. I’m glad he doesn’t know what’s going to happen to him tomorrow. But relief from the constant pain in his leg will hopefully, eventually bring things back to relative normalcy. We have been assured numerous times that most dogs, after a period of healing and adjustment, do just great on three legs.
Ray has been such a joy to my husband and me, especially since the loss of our 16-year-old mutt in March, because of his loving, happy demeanor. It’s our turn to be there for him now.