Allie is our 9-year-old female Golden Retriever who was diagnosed with osteosarcoma of the left front leg just above the paw. We had noticed in late November 2003 that she was beginning to limp, it got progressively worse. While she was boarded at our veterinarians over the Christmas holidays, they x-rayed her leg and determined that it might be cancer. The films were then given to pathology who made the final diagnosis of osteosaroma.
The surgery was performed January 19, 2004; her leg was removed just below the shoulder. She was up on her three legs less than 24 hours after her surgery and two weeks later she began chemotherapy. Our veterinarian was in hopes of giving her at least 4 doses of chemotherapy, each one month apart, however, she could only tolerate 2 doses.
We had made arrangements over the Christmas holiday to pick up our brand new Golden Retriever puppy, not realizing at the time that Allie would have to have her leg amputated. Our thoughts at the time were for them to be the best of friends and we had heard that the older dog would help train the puppy. What happened was they did become best of friends but in a different way, however Allie did help train Zack.
At the present time Zack is a normal 9-month-old male Golden Retriever, who loves to jump and run and do all the little normal puppy things (he isn't too little, he weighs over 60 lbs). Allie keeps up with him most of the time. But we are careful that he doesn't hurt her only good front leg. Allie is definitely the dominant dog and Zack listens to her.
On July 19 it was 6 months post-surgery; at this point in time Allie is doing just about every thing she did in the past. She chases the dreaded squirrels that dare show themselves in our yard. She goes up and down our many flights of stairs in our house. She still jumps on the bed at night (we do help her off). She is eating and drinking just like she did in the past. The only thing different is that she has only three legs. She tries her best to boss Zack around and so far he is a believer.
If anyone would like to email me with question or concerns I would be happy to answer back. I can say that if we had to make the same decision again, to have her leg amputated and have chemotherapy, we would. We have been able to love her 6 more months. Her mind is just as sharp as ever and her quality of life is great. To us the quality of life is the most important and we would not compromise that. We just pray that we have a long time left with her; after all Zack is not fully trained (and we doubt he will be) so her job is not done.
