Koda the Great Pyrenees

Update on Koda- he is 6 weeks post partial front limb amputation. Our original chemotherapy date was delayed unfortunately due to a wound that developed post surgery- a note to future owners who elect for partial amputation, is that the bandage over the amputation site is very difficult to keep on given the only surface it has for gripping is the elbow, and if the dog extends the elbow then the bandage loosens and falls off. After multiple trips to the vet with the bandage slipping off within hours, we elected to replace it ourselves at home. Having to replace the bandage 1-3x/day, we ultimately placed a bandage on too tightly which created an eschar- an area of dead skin/tissue damage from being on too tight. These things take weeks to months to heal, and so unfortunately we were unable to start chemo on time due to this. Despite this, we are happy with the decision to only partly amputate, as Koda is such a large dog, the residual limb does not see to affect his balance as he walks and he actually uses the remaining part to help him lay down and push up from a seated position.

In the last 3 weeks

we sold our house, and while waiting for the new house to be ready, we bought an RV and traveled the country, including a visit to the Grand Canyon. Koda’s favorite place was Yellowstone I think, for his breed I think he felt those “lands” were the best!

Chemo is now scheduled for Aug 6, and he will get his prosthetic on Aug 12th. The folks at OrthoPets in CO have been making his prosthetic. He’s done incredibly well on 3 legs for a 165lb dog but we are hopeful that the prosthetic will allow him to go on longer walks, as he often wants to go farther and farther and he does not have the stamina to hop that far.

Koda’s surgery ended up being Friday June 19th instead of Thursday as planned. The delay allowed us to get a CT scan beforehand of his leg, in order to know exactly how far up the tumor went so that the surgeon could get good margins (still waiting to hear back on that, fingers crossed). We also decided to CT the lungs- no mets! Thanks to God! But I do not doubt that this delay in surgery on the front end has cost him some time with us on the back end of all this. We are trying to balance both quality and quantity of life, and I hope that the delay in order to get a partial amputation instead of doing the full was the right decision for him. I hope this is our middle ground.

At the vets office, they brought him out strapped down onto a stretcher. When he saw the open trunk, he made a lunge for it, ripping off a toenail which started bleeding everywhere. He was so happy to be in the back of our car. Getting him out of the car was another story. Basically he decided he was tired and since he couldn’t walk, he would just live there for the rest of his life. We are so lucky that our neighbor came to help. My husband is very strong, but trying to deadlift 165lbs of a wiggling large dog was impossible without the neighbors help. Basically we stuffed a comforter under him, then rolled him up like a burrito, and carried him struggling into the house.

A few things since then:

1) I do not believe they sent him home with enough pain medications. Since he still has part of a limb, he has been sleeping/putting pressure on it and this is causing pain not well controlled by rimadyl and gabapentin alone. We are so fortunate to have a precious few tramadol tabs leftover from one of our dogs who had bad arthritis. She has since passed away, but I know she is looking over him and it is only because of her prescription that we were able to control his pain the first day he came home.

2) He did not urinate for 25hrs after bringing him home. I am thinking somehow he was just profoundly dehydrated, and a lot of the water he drank was just to replace what his body needed. Plus, he was resistant to peeing while my husband held him up in the harness but eventually you just gotta go!

3) He really has done so much better than I expected. He even hopped on the couch! (with lots of assistance on/off, also not condoned by us but basically was happening before we could stop it so we just helped him- trying to stop him from doing what he wants, at his size, has always been a challenge). He also hopped all the way out to the front yard (our attempt to give him more tempting bushes to pee on) and then proceeded to continue hopping all the way to the back of our car where he waited expectantly for us to load him up. This occurred at a slow pace, mind you, but I was still incredibly impressed by the effort. My husband joked, “He is telling us we need to go back to the vet, that we forgot his leg there and need to go back and get it!!” :’)

Sorry buddy, that leg was no good for you anymore.

I never thought I’d be so happy to say that my dog is having his leg amputated tomorrow! After we read about the diagnosis and prognosis, we knew and were okay with him needing an amputation in order to provide the best quality and quantity of life. The problem being, we really felt like a partial limb amputation with the future use of a prosthetic was the way to go, and spent 2.5 weeks of trying to find someone, anyone, who is familiar with doing that surgery, AND had availability any time in the next 1 month. But after weeks of waiting and many phone calls, we finally are scheduled for surgery TOMORROW! Hooray! Koda was limping considerably this morning, but after a hearty home cooked breakfast, he is in better spirits and jumping around on that leg, causing me to chase him around to try and calm him. Less than 24hrs to go, can’t have a pathological fracture now!!

The surgery cost is more expensive than anticipated, though I believe some of this is that the vet wants to get a CT of the leg to better outline where the tumor ends, so that he can be more confident about getting good margins. Since good margins = adequate cancer removal, and more leg left behind = more tissue available for a prosthetic, we think this is money in= better result all around so we are agreeable to it. But boy this is adding up. $1500 in for the initial vet trip, blood work, x-rays, antibiotics (initially thought it might be osteomyelitis), rimadyl, then oncology visit + more xrays and needle biopsy + pathology. And I admit I’ve gone a little crazy on buying supplements that may or may not be of benefit, but they make ME feel better, like I’m actually doing something to help him while we’ve been awaiting surgery.

Anyone with tips for post-op day 1? He’ll be coming home Friday. I’ve read about the grocery bag sling, I’ll be making one later tonight. We have rugs in the house for our wooden floors. Only a half step to get outside for business.

Tomorrow will be 2 weeks since the diagnosis was biopsy confirmed (and 3 weeks since the first limp). In that time, I have:

– Learned about this wonderful website in preparation for Koda becoming a tripawd, and what supplements he should be on

– Done a lot of reading about 3 legged dogs and done a lot of soul searching with my husband about this. If I am honest, I know we should have amputated the leg the day we learned his diagnosis in order to give him the best/longest survival chance. But we have been so scared about how becoming a tripawd will affect his quality of life. You see it’s not just a weight/size thing (I’ve read lots of success stories on here about similar sized dogs), but Koda is a lumberer. He wanders throughout the halls and throughout life. He is a carefree guy, who likes to take his time to sniff the roses, swaying from side to side, and never goes anywhere in a hurry. So the thought of him having to hop around to get anywhere is just hard for us to imagine, since he is just a slow paced kind of guy. This is when we read about the possibility of doing a partial limb amputation, with the hopes of being able to receive a partial limb prosthetic which would eventually put him back on 4 legs.

Partial limb prosthetics:
3 companies that I learned about who offer this for front limbs:
1) OrthoPets
2) AOCPets
3) Bionic Pets

I spoke with both OrthoPets and Bionic Pets over the phone and both were extremely helpful and walked me through the general process. (I called AOC Pets too, just never heard back from them)
If the amputation is below the elbow (and they will give you a diagram which shows exactly how much limb they need to remain behind), then they are generally a candidate for a partial limb prosthesis. Time is: amputation, 3 weeks healing time, then you place the order for the prosthetic, they mail you a plaster mold kit to your house and send you instructions on how to make a cast of the limb (or you can ask your vet to help you), mail back the mold, and turn around time is 3 weeks for Bionic Pets, 6 weeks for orthopets due to some of their manufacturing supplies being diverted to making other things to help with COVID, so the timing may improve in the future.

All that sounded great so we have decided we want to give it a try. The problem being, finding a surgeon who is familiar with doing partial amputations. My fear is that we will cut too high up, and then not be a candidate for a prosthetic, and then will have this useless half leg that dangles and throws him off balance and that case we should have just amputated the entire limb. The other concern of course is that by choosing to spare part of the leg, that we have a surgeon who is confident they can get clean margins with the partial amputation based on x-ray location, because I don’t want part of the tumor left behind. So, having someone who has done this before is important.

COVID has created a lot of problems. Getting to see a specialty surgeon being one of them. With the help of our oncologist, we identified specialists at the Vet schools of FL, GA, and MI, VCA Animal Specialty Center of SC, Blue Pearl in Augusta GA, and the Animal Surgical Center in Flint, MI. I’m sure there are other places, but these are the ones we happened to come across that are near(ish) to us. Unfortunately with COVID, many places are only seeing emergencies (isn’t this kind of an emergency though??) or are booked up until July. Thankfully Blue Pearl of Augusta GA has been able to schedule us for this week. It’s been an anxiety provoking wait (what if we get there and he’s not even a candidate, and we should have amputated the entire leg two weeks ago??) but the wait will be over this week. Tomorrow is our consultation, and hopefully surgery later this week. Wish Koda bear luck!

Koda is an 8 year Great Pyrenees weighing 165lbs. We rescued him 4 years ago as an accidental adoption (you know, the kind where you walk into pet smart to buy dog food on a Saturday morning and come home with a giant stinky slobber monster instead). He’s been the best thing to accidentally come into our lives. We knew nothing about the breed when we got him. But he is the sweetest, gentlest, old soul there is. He can spend all day outside looking over his “lands” – picture a Lion King (everything the light touches is yours) kind of scene and that’s Koda enjoying the outdoors. He is also a stealer of freshly baked banana bread.

On May 26th, we noticed a limp on the front left leg.

May 28th, we had our x-rays: osteosarcoma or osteomyelitis. Got some antibiotics and a referral to oncology.

June 2nd- biopsy- osteosarcoma. But the chest x-rays are clear. The following posts will be of the journey to come.