Well, that was a real bummer. Took Carly to OSU for her second chemo treatment, but bloodwork failed to pass the stipulations. Her white blood cell count was very low at 700, and they will not do the chemo treatment unless it is 2,000+ because it will make her really sick. We don’t want that! So, with Thanksgiving coming up it got pushed back a little farther than normal. So we go back next Monday. They put her on an antibiotic for 5 days to boost her cell count back up. Just makes me worry because with her immune system so low, I’m afraid that that gives the cancer an upper hand. She has been so full of energy, and in such a good mood, getting around great, but, with her diet change to help her lose weight, she gained 1 kb.  So that stinks because she acts like she is constantly starving! But, as you can see from the picture, she still loves looking out her window, and she was looking for my husband because she heard the truck, and she always wants to go for a ride. So, guess this was one of those little bumps in the road people talk about. I just hope it’s a little one.

Well, so far, Carly has not had any side effects with the chemo treatment other than maybe some lethargy. Appetite is as good as ever! Yeah! I’m trying to find a better dog food for her though. She was on Pedigree Healthy Joints before, and I noticed the first ingredient is Corn, which is not good for cancer.  But, we had her on Blue Diamond a while ago, and it irritated her stomach and we had to take her off of it. I was wondering what you all suggested. Maybe a happy medium. She also loves her chicken, brown rice and broccoli as well as steel cut oats for breakfast.  Thank you all in advance for suggestions!

Well, we had our first chemo appointment today. It was a long day because they ran more blood work and also did X-ray’s of her lungs again to make sure they were following the right path of treatment. So…blood work came back great! Lungs were clear of metastases! Yeah Carly!! I know that this still does not mean it’s not there, but to me, I take this as a very good sign that it has not progressed a lot.  I know that the road ahead is going to be tough, but Carly has shown so much strength and spunkiness in the last couple days especially that I am also more confident that we can beat this thing. She had a couple good drinks, chicken and rice dinner and is resting now, tuckered out from a long day, as the hospital is an hour away.  And we are waiting on our salads to arrive so that we can also head to bed.  The vet gave her an anti-nausea shot while giving chemo and we have some anti nausea and anti-diarrhea meds in case she needs them, but I hope she don’t!  Thank you all for your kind words and responses to my other post about the chemo medication. Time to cuddle with my pup!

This is where they shaved her to get the biopsy.

Well, once we got the x-rays back from the vet, and confirmed diagnosis from OSU, we decided to tackle this sooner rather than later and get our pup feeling better. We had been told that the pain from bone cancer will continue to get worse, and the medication will not help. It’s not like any other pain, and is excruciating for both animals and humans. We fought with ourselves in regards to going through with the amputation, but after a lot of research, and talking it over with my husband, that was the best option to end Carly’s pain the quickest. And from the time we dropped her off at the OSU Vet, until the time we got the call that she was recovering and everything went well seemed like an eternity.  We were referred to Ohio State University Veterinarian Hospital, and we knew that she would get the best care there. They had us drop her off the night before the surgery, because they do surgery’s really early. But, we got a call about 1 p.m. saying they had had an emergency and got behind, and it was not until 2:30 that Carly went in to surgery.  We got a little anxious when we had not heard anything by 4:00 pm, so I called. They said the doctor was finishing up, and he would call when she was in recovery. So, an hour later, they finally called us back. Said Carly did great, and was slowly waking up, and had even been up a little bit.  We were relieved, but missed our pup dearly. They said they would call in the morning and let us know how she did through the night in their ICU. I had no idea they even had animal ICU!

So,  I’m going to start a blog about my pups journey with becoming a tripawd and how our family is adjusting as well.  Carly Mia is a 154# 6 year old female Bull Mastiff who has recently been diagnosed with Osteosarcoma.  I was there when she was born, and I’ve fed her and cuddled her since then! She has always been a laid back dog, being a Bullmastiff and all, they have 10-15 minute spurts of energy and then they are done. She has always had such a good spirit and when we noticed her limping on her front right leg, and saw she had a hard lump there, we immediately became concerned, thinking she hurt herself getting up into or down out of our bed. So my husband took her to the vet. They examined her, and said she probably just sprained her ankle there, so he gave her an antibiotic and sent them home. Carly seemed to get better, but it was only temporary. October 2, we took her back to the vet, where the vet examined her again, and this time, took an x-ray of the site. What he came in and told us was nothing I had ever expected…..he showed us the x-ray where it showed a tumor in that leg, and said that he was leaning towards the cancer diagnosis. I lost it. She sure didn’t act like a dog with cancer! So, he sent the X-ray to another specialist to have a look, and said he would give us a call when he got their results back. That was the longest weekend of my life. We finally heard back from him on Monday, saying yes, the doctor agreed that it was in fact osteosarcoma, so we scheduled an appointment with the vet hospital where we would begin our treatment of this nasty disease. We had no idea what we were in for….but we did know we wanted our pup to be pain free and happy again!  She had surgery- amputation of her front right leg October 12th,  2015. It’s still very early in her recovery but she is doing great adjusting.  We are still trying to control her pain and get the doses right,  and having some side effects to them.  She is on Tramadol 1 twice a day,  Trileptal 6 twice a day,  Rimadyl 3 twice a day and also  an antibiotic twice a day.  I think she has some signs of phantom limb pain and have a call into the doctor about putting her back on the Gabapentin as I’ve read on here it helps greatly.  She seems to have restlessness,  some shaking and panting as well.  But it’s not every day either… So it’s tough to know what is causing the symptoms.  Well,  this is the start!  Thankful to have the support of so many others here!