The beginning

Hello Tripawds community.

This is the story about our Australian cattle dog (aka heeler) named Austin. Austin is a sweet, happy girl. She loves to run and play ball. She is a people dog. Everyone that comes to the house is here to see her, at least in her mind.

The story begins about two years ago when Austin developed a ping-pong ball size tumor on her left hind leg. Our vet at that time (we were living in a different location) performed surgery to remove the tumor, but unfortunately the histology showed that not all of the tumor was successfully removed. The tumor was diagnosed as a hemangiopericytoma, so even though the tumor was likely to grow back, the chances of metastasis were very low. So, we waited and enjoyed our time with Austin.

Then late last summer, just after we had moved, as we feared would happen one day, the tumor reappeared. We went to one vet who recommended that we perform surgery again and follow up with multiple rounds of radiation (an expensive treatment plan that was out of our price range and lacked the guarantee of a cure), so we decided that we would just wait and enjoy the limited time we had with Austin.

Two weeks ago, after playing ball with Austin, we noticed that her tumor (now the size of a baseball) was starting to bleed, and we feared that this was the beginning of the end. But before we could get to another vet to discuss an end of life plan, the tumor broke through the skin, and we feared the worst.

On Friday afternoon (March 6, 2015), we took Austin to a new vet to discuss the end of life plan. We didn’t know what that would entail but we figured it was a matter of a few weeks at best. The new vet listened to our concerns. Austin, despite having this horrible looking lump on her leg, was still happy and loving, eating, no abnormal actions or reactions, not even limping. The only sign of distress was that from time to time, she would lick at the tumor on her leg. So, we couldn’t imagine having to say goodbye to an otherwise perfectly happy, healthy dog. But at the same time, we did not want Austin to suffer.

After we were finished talking, the vet looked at Austin’s ulcerated tumor which was now showing signs of early necrosis. And she began to tell us our options:
1) Surgery and radiation (as the other vet suggested)
2) Amputation
3) Prepare for the end

Amputation???

This was the first time this option had been mentioned. We were very hesitant to consider this possibility. Wouldn’t this be hard on a dog to recover from? Not as bad we think, the vet said. Dogs recover quite remarkably. Austin is 10 years old, is this a concern? The vet said no. She is perfectly healthy otherwise, so this her age is not a concern. What would her quality of life be like following amputation? The vet said, following the recovery dogs do great and have wonderful lives. She said that we should go look up videos to see dogs activity following amputation.

This was eye opening! It felt like a giant weight was lifted from our shoulders. There was a way, for a reasonable cost, to have the tumor fully removed and allow us to enjoy our Austin’s sweet love for longer. This sounded promising.

We have started the necessary blood work to ensure that Austin is able to undergo surgery, a standard procedure for any veterinary operation. Once the lab work is finished we will be able to schedule Austin’s surgery.

So, here we are, and we wait, and we hope that Austin is able to have her surgery before anything progresses too far and the amputation is no longer a possibility. We will update the progress on Austin’s condition here. And hopefully we will one day have a video showing Austin playing ball again as a tripawd.