\”Come on in,\” she said with a smile. \”Thanks so much for coming around to see our old friend.\”
I walked in through the gate, and up a few steps onto a little deck. I chose a chair in the sun, and opened my bag, getting out my computer while soaking up the warmth. I got settled, and the old dog came over to sniff me over. As he moved I could see that he was hopping lame, and almost dragging the front leg along, rather than holding it up. His face was rigid with tension, so I knew that pain was a big part of hid life right now. He went and laid down, so I turned to his mum.
\”What\’s been going on with him then?\” I asked.
\”He\’s been limping – he\’s had a bit of a limp on and off for a about 4 months, then it has been worse for the last 2-3 weeks, and really bad the past 3 days,\” she explained.
\”Any other problems you\’ve noticed apart from that?\”
\”No – otherwise he seems fine, he\’s eating well and seems happy enough. He\’s been such an awesome dog – we rescued him years and years ago, and he\’s never had any health issues.\”
\”Let\’s have a look at him then,\” I said.
We laid him down gently on his side wit the lame leg upmost. I palpated his foot gently, nothing – then I flexed his elbow gently, but not gently enough! His body jerked as if an electric shock had jolted through it , and he reached around with his mouth to grab my hand.
\”Wow – he\’s really painful there,\” I said.
I became even softer in my approach, but he was so painful that I could hardly be gentle enough. I finally worked out that it wasn\’t the elbow that was painful, but the big bone between the elbow and shoulder joints, his humerus. The lightest palpation led to winces from him, and I could feel that the bone itself was swollen, with quite a lump extending out, visible to the eye once I felt it out. I sighed internally, because I knew now that this was the worst news of all that I had to break to his mum.
\”I know what\’s going on with him,\” I explained, as gently as I could. \”I\’m pretty sure has a tumour in the bone of his leg, an osteosarcoma. They are extraordinarily painful. If you look at his face, you can see that it\’s very tense, and this is a sign that he\’s in pain. I can\’t give you a definitive diagnosis without x-rays, but I can be about 98% certain that that\’s what it is from my examination. The only possible treatment is to amputate the leg, but in a really old fellow like him, that\’s probably not such a great option.\”
Her face was pale with shock, and she took a deep breath. \”Do you think we should have x-rays done? I\’d worry about stressing him out with doing all of that though, I think he\’d hate going to the vets, he\’s never really left our home since we got him.\”
\”Do you think we should have x-rays done? I\’d worry about stressing him out with doing all of that though, I think he\’d hate going to the vets, he\’s never really left our home since we got him.\”
\”If he was my dog, I wouldn\’t put him through that. He definitely needs some pain relief though… Sometimes pain relief doesn\’t work very well with these sorts of cancers, so if he doesn\’t respond to that, then the time to help him across to the other side may come sooner rather than later.\”
\”Ok,\” she said. \”If you could please give me some pain relief for him, then I\’ll talk to all the family tonight, and we\’ll decide what to do. Thanks so much for coming out to see him.\”
I left her there, sitting with her old friend, sadness written deep in her face.
I left her there, sitting with her old friend, sadness written deep in her face.