This last month I had two cases of cancer that were heart-wrenching. Yoshi, the dog we rescued from neglect and abuse, had a small lump on the outer aspect of his left hind leg. I took it off and sent it in, anticipating adopting him out as soon as it healed but it came back soft tissue sarcoma grade 2. It can spread and can recur. The area is all healed, but I am watching it carefully to see if it comes back.

The other case was a 7-year-old female Boxer that had a mass removed on her right front leg near her wrist 6 months ago. It also came back cancer, a soft tissue sarcoma grade 2. Early this summer it started growing back and I contacted a company that I have used before to make a vaccine out of her tumor. We had the date set and I called to get the collection bottle, and the company told me the week prior they were told by the USDA that they were not going to renew their license even though they had compelling results. They gave the license instead to a company that charged 10x more money for a vaccine and only used specialists. I was angry because now my patient was going to suffer and not receive what I thought was the best medicine to save her life. 

We scheduled another surgery and by that time the tumor was so invasive, I could not save her leg. We had to amputate her right front leg. I knew that I had done everything that I could possibly do to save her life. She did well with the surgery but then developed bloody diarrhea and was not eating. I slept in the clinic with her and kept her for 5 days. She recovered and started doing well. I took her out to pee, and she was faster than I thought on 3 legs. She came right back to me, and I had all the gates closed. She really liked Gerber Chicken or Beef baby food while her stomach was upset. I had her on 8 different medications between the amputation, her anorexia and diarrhea. I did not give up until she was ok. I also had to deal with a drain in her amputation site, but I removed that on day 5. She is doing well on 3 legs, but she could also get a well fitted prosthetic leg.

She is still young at 7 years old and was built like a tank. She had huge shoulder muscles from running. This athletic body will help her with the rest of her life. As for Yoshi, he survived neglect, abuse and now cancer. He can be adopted out and we will monitor him closely to make sure the cancer does not come back.