Bella our Saint Bernard

Just an update on Bella, first thanks everyone for the comments they are more helpful than you know.  Bella is feeling more and more confident by the day and has now learned how to “walk” with out such a big hop.  In fact she wants to run around in the back yard and mom is not so sure it’s time yet (she is working on me); dad is pretty sure she is fine.  We had two tumbles yesterday because she got so excited and forgot that she only has three legs.  It always puts me in a panic but she just looks up and says “nothing to see here”; I think she’s a little embarrassed but always gets up and starts again.  They heal so fast; heart and body!  We did find some socks that have a sticky bottom for our fellow tripawd friends with wood and tile floors.  We have Pawz rubber booties on order, they should be here on Tuesday.  I’ll let everyone know how they work.  For now we have Pawks Anti-Slip Socks, the XL is still a bit snug but seems to help her with grip around the house.  It is a project finding a boot big enough for a St. Bernard foot.

We are headed for the vet Tuesday to have the stitches removed from the amputation and do blood work.  When we went in for our 5 day check-up after surgery she was so afraid.  I’m hoping with each follow up visit she will learn the vet is not a bad place; she used to love to go.  All the biscuits and pets from everyone reinforced her “superstar” status (which all of our boys and girls all are)!

Thanks Maximutt for the advise, I’m going to ask my vet about Lasix on Tuesday.

Keep on hopping along…

Today was Bella’s first day of chemo.  She didn’t seem to mind the one extra pill in her peanut butter.  She’s such a trooper!  We are keeping our fingers crossed she continues to be her happy, wonderful self.  I’m sure it will take time to build up in her system.  Our vet recommended low-dose chemo; she’s is currently taking 20 mgs  of cyclophosphamide daily.  I’ve read a lot about it and our vet has had good success with a couple of other dogs.  The hope will be that she does not feel sick and keeps her appetite (I’m sure the prednisone will help with that as well).  There is a theory that with a low dose given daily the cancer does not get any “time off” so to speak and therefore does not have time to mutate and become resistant to the chemo.  Anyone out there have any experience with daily or every other day low dose chemo?

Our first post!  Bella our Saint Bernard was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in July 2013, about three weeks ago.  She is a very tall, happy, go-lucky girl about 126 lbs post surgery.  As with any dog owner the news was devastating.  We quickly started to search the web for support and discuss findings and options with our vet whom has just been amazing and very supportive in our decision making process.  Last Friday, August 9th, Bella’s leg was amputated.  We realize the cancer may have already spread but we couldn’t think of an alternative.  She needs us to help give her every chance she has to fight this.  We start her on low dose chemo next week.

We brought her home yesterday and she was so excited.  She had a nice dog popsicle last night and you could just see in her face that she felt better.  As of this morning, 2 days post surgery, I actually had to tell her to stop running!  She is doing better than the vet expected (I knew my girl would).  Prior to the surgery I kept asking all the “what ifs” like what if she hurts one of the three legs she has left but then I realized the one leg she had that we were removing was useless anyway.  She was already running around on three most of the time and knowing there was a cancer in that leg that would hold her back was too much.  Also knowing that it would eventually be so painful that even if she did beat the cancer and it didn’t spread that she would not be living a very happy life.

Currently we are doing everything we can, taking it day by day and we’ll see what happens.  We switched her food to Blue Wilderness, a grain free low carb food and found some low carb treats for her as well.  In case anyone is looking we are using lamb lung treats, and Beams makes this great catfish skin stick which she loves.  We also switched to the raw bones that you keep in the freezer from Instinct Raw Bone.  The vet also suggested vitamin C and she has been on that for about a week.  Carbs feed tumors so if you can avoid them or reduce intake it’s good.

Thanks for reading, if Bella’s story can help anyone else out there in a panic, trying to make a decision, researching about what to do we are grateful.  Every dog is different and we all know our dogs the best.  Here’s to the next post and keeping our fingers crossed there will be many more.