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Its five (5) weeks since I succumbed to Amputation, which is what I was told was the “Standard of Care” for appendicular Canine Osteosarcoma (OSA) by several Veterinary Oncologists, & quite honestly I regret it every day. His OSA was located in the distal femur and I perhaps took too much time in researching the disease, however, I was contacting several university veterinary hospital oncology practices, searching for a facility that could do “limb-sparing surgery” in lieu of the amputation but to no avail. I then took him to a Radiation Oncologist located about 300 miles from here, only to hear that Stereodactic Radiation was not a viable alternative at the stage at which the disease had progressed, leaving me no alternatives. Quite honestly, had I known that there was Cyber Knife therapy available in CA I would have just chartered a NetJets jet and flown him out there. If this seems a bit extreme, perhaps I should have noted that Zeus had been my Service Dog (I was injured in the Vietnam War) and from the day that I took him (& Bentley, his son) home we had not been apart for even one (1) night, in fact <4hrs. at a time was our rule, and "Bentley" had been with him since the day he was weaned, Bentley is a "Fluffy Mastiff" and not eligible for the show ring and went from "pick of the litter" to last remaining pup which was someone else's biggest mistake because he turned out to be a great dog and is just a charmer had never been separated from him. I have raised Mastiffs for ~52 years now, but only one time before this have I had two (2) of them at one time, but these guys are made for each other. Alas, but I digress. Zeus just mopes around the house, he no longer roams on the 23 acres with Bentley as he had done before I had allowed this to happen to him. He has lost ~26% of his 244# body weight, and his doc has recommended that I not allow him to gain any weight as it will be too rough on his remaining leg.
Zeus is trying to adapt, and I will be doing my best to help him, but there are no Rehab. centers around here that are equipped to work with "such a large dog", so I am planning to modify a shop crane that I have in my garage to take some of the weight off of his leg by supporting him when attached to his harness to lessen the fatigue and strain on his "Tripawds", and considering buying one of those "Endless Wave" pools to use for hydrotherapy. I am just not sure what else that I can do for him to make his life better at this point. I read what is said about the life of a dog post-amputation, but I just cannot seem to be getting there with Zeus. I have even had to buy one of those Buick Enclaves, with a lower height of the rear floor, for him to ride in as it has been so difficult for him to even load into my Excursion and even with the Buick I need to back up to a slope so that he can get in at an angle relatively close to being perpendicular to the driveway.
Was I wrong to not have continued to look for a surgical oncologist who would at least attempt to utilize a "limb-sparing technique"? I joined the site in the hopes that I might be able to get some advice as to how others with large dogs helped them to cope with the loss of an appendage, and hopefully I can get some sage advice that will temper the regret that I have for not finding a better treatment modality for my boy.