Last Friday 9/18, Our 6 yr old girl Rottie went in for TPLO surgery for what was believed to be a blown crucial ligament in her rear left leg. She’d started limping badly on Tuesday 8/11 all of a sudden and babying her front right leg. I tried to check her pads and toes but she was having none of it! She seemed to improve but then worsened again so we took her to the vet on Sunday. As she was getting into the back of my SUV, her dad thought he heard/saw something fall out and found a little blob of plastic with sharp corners! We thought “aha” but went to her regular vet anyways. By the time we got there, she was walking fine and even let me fully check out her pads and toes! Since she seemed fine now, we decided to go home without seeing the vet. Unfortunately, she started limping again later that week so we went back to the vet the following Sunday who did a physical exam and found nothing wrong. We were scheduled to go out of town that week for 10 days so she suggested X-rays when we get back if she continued to limp.
we took Amira to her trainer Brigette for the 10 days we were out of town and when we got back, Brigette said that she’d been doing well but for the past 4 days, she’s been having issues with her BACK left leg and we should get X-rays done. We were like “Huh, her back leg??”
anyhow, we scheduled for her regular vet to do the X-rays on Wednesday 9/9. Radiologist reviewed and saw osteoarthritis throughout and some fluid in her rear right stifle but thankfully, no growths/masses. Her vet palpitated and felt some swelling and suspected a torn CCL and referred us to an orthopedic surgeon. We went for the consult 2 days later on 9/11 and yep, torn CCL! We went ahead and scheduled the TPLO surgery for the following Friday 9/18.
During that week in between, Amira seemed fine; one would never know she was limping unless you knew to look carefully at her movement but by the next wednes/ Thursday, she seemed perfectly fine! Her dad and I agonized over whether to proceed with the TPLO since she seemed fine ( and I could not replicate the “drawer movement”!) but ultimately decided to go forward after reading tons of articles saying that CCLs don’t repair themselves and will only further deteriorate without surgical treatment especially in big dogs like Rotties. So I dropped her off Friday morning 9/18 for the TPLO surgery.
Later that afternoon, the surgeon called and told me that during the TPLO surgery, the membrane of her joint capsule was noted to be thickened and discolored. They proceeded with the TPLO and took a biopsy of the joint tissue for pathological testing. I was obviously very worried and started praying HARD but we were so glad we went forward with the TPLO as otherwise, we would never have found the problem until it was probably too late.
We got the devasting news the next day that she tested positive for synovial sarcoma (soft tissue cancer). By this time, I’d tried to learn as much as much as I could about abnormalities in canine “joint capsule” and had read about synovial sarcoma and knew that prognosis could vary depending on what type it was. I’d read one vet study that found a high incidence of histiocystic sarcoma in Rottweilers and that would NOT be good…. We asked the surgeon what type of synovial sarcoma our baby Amira had and she said they wouldn’t know without having further histology stains but those would take 7-10 business days. She said that regardless of the typing, recommended treatment would still be full leg amuputation.
Her daddy and I decided not to wait (or give that evil cancer even one extra second to have a chance to spread!) and scheduled her amputation surgery for Tuesday 9/22 with her primary orthopedic surgeon.
Although her previous X-rays taken when she was diagnosed with the torn CCL showed no thoracic or abdominal abnormalities, an ultrasound of her belly would be performed the next day (Sunday). Needless to say, we were emotionally drained from a night of crying and worrying, so the wait to hear back seemed interminable! We finally got the call with bad news – they found a nodule on her spleen. They aspirated it and sent it off to pathology so another round of crying, begging God to spare her, and night of research re splenic masses ensued. We decided to bring her home Sunday afternoon since her surgery was not going to be until Tuesday.
I have never prayed so hard for anything and it appears that God was listening because the next afternoon, we got the call that pathology found no cancerous cells and the nodule was “normal regenerative growth” ( whatever that means I don’t know cause I stopped listening at “no cancerous cells).
Of course they said that the cytology is not as definitive as a biopsy but we were not about to have her undergo abdominal surgery for a biopsy after she’d just had the TPLO! We are optimistic that the cytology result is indicative of NO metastasis which hopefully means the amputation with follow up chemo, will successfully eradicate and prevent any spread. So, we breathed a sigh of relief, thanked God and prepared to take her in the next morning for her amputation.
The next day was one of the most difficult days I’ve ever been through waiting to hear how Amira did through the surgery. I’m sure God was tired of listening to my prayers all day along! Her surgeon had warned me that they would probably be doing the procedure in the afternoon and that we may not hear from him until 6 or 7 pm. As it turned out, it was actually 7:45 pm when the junior surgeon called and reported that everything went smoothly and Amira did well. My sense of relief was indescribable!
Amira did well that night reportedly and had even been able to get up and walk with a belly sling!! we visited the next afternoon but knew that we had to set a positive emotional example but I was afraid that I would break down seeing her for the first time after the amputation. Having read someone else’s brilliant suggestion to ask the techs to put a t shirt on a new Tripawded, I did exactly that and it definitely helped. She seemed to be in good spirits and in less pain than she was on after the TPLO surgery only 4 days prior. Our poor baby went through so much in such a short period of time…Doc said that if she did well again that night, she could come home the next day and she did! She reportedly was up and moving and was eating (which she wouldn’t do after the TPLO) and “acting as if nothing was wrong!” We sprung her outta there and brought her home yesterday early evening and our road to recovery and rehabilitation began.
within an hour of coming home, I was in a panic and tears again…as I was helping her arrange herself on her new $200 Big Barker bed, I accidentally grazed the stifle area of her remaining rear leg and she let out a scream! My a baby is not a screamer, in fact before all this started, I’d never heard her cry out! Of course our greatest fear is that there is something wrong with her “good” leg (i.e. Same thing as the amputated leg…) as she has already been through so much! I can’t even bear to think about it…..still waiting for the follow up pathology reports which will probably be very telling…we pray that it’s synovial myxomas which rarely metastasis!
It was a very difficult night for all three of us as Amira was visibly in pain starting around 11:00 pm which was 3 hrs after her last dose of Tramadol. She was non-stop heavy panting and wouldn’t sleep. We don’t know whether it was due to incision pain, phantom pain or God forbid, her remaining hind leg. We gave her another does of tramadol at 6 hrs vs 8 her but it took 45 mins to kick in and only seemed to help for about an hour before she stared panting again. I slept on the floor with her to try to soothe her and I don’t know if it helped or not…
We got up at 7:30 and she went out and peed. I feed her her breakfast by hand and she ate it all which was a great sign! She’s been resting much more comfortably today so not sure what helped although I’m just glad she seems to be feeling better. I’ve been taking her out to do her business using the Ruffwear Webmaster harness and it really helps although we are trying to limit her even being on that back leg at all for now. Talked to her surgeon today and he said there’s no way to know what is going on with that leg without examining it but we agreed to do it at her next appointment in 2 weeks for sutures to be removed. In meantime, he told us to slightly increase her tramadol from 3 to 4 pills every 8 hrs and see if that helps. We shall see tonight! Fingers and toes crossed that she will rest easier tonight!
