Month: April 2018

After dropping Beau off this morning I asked for the surgeon to call me before going through with the amputation. After a lengthy discussion we dicided to do the surgical biopsy and remove the bad bone and test that to make sure that it’s definitely cancer because he said it’s strange beau is doing so well and he’s never removed a dogs leg who has shown no signs of pain in the leg, he also said the surgery will give us a better look at everything and give us a definite answer so we aren’t worrying, so Beau isn’t getting his leg removed today but if it comes back it’s cancer he will need it removing anyway. I should get Beau back later today and we will know the results next week.

So Beau had been in really good shape, nothing really wrong. What I had noticed though that in the last few weeks he had been a little sore on his right hand side of his back leg, I’d rubbed in on the odd occasion and he had yelped but then I’d rub it again and he would be fine. One time also in the garden he was rolling upside and stretched his back legs and he had yelped. I thought to myself i’ll keep an eye on it as me may have just strained something and may just need time to heal itself.

Day before good Friday I was in good spirits for the long weekend ahead. I got home, opened the garage like normal and then opened the side door where Beau is usually stood wagging his tail in excitement at me. He wasn’t there….. I shouted his name in my high pitched voice he seems to love. Instantly I hear loud yelp after yelp after yelp. I dropped my bag and ran quickly into the kitchen. I spotted Beau out the corner of my eye laid on the rug next to the kitchen. I could see by his face he was very distressed. I came over to help but he just kept letting loud yelps after loud yelps. I scanned his body for some sign of what was causing his pain and quickly located it was his rear back leg. I managed to keep pressure on it whilst holding it up, this stopped his yelps but he was shaking in panic. I calmed him for 5 minutes thinking maybe he jumped awkwardly when he jumped off the sofa and hes jolted his leg. I thought I’ll give him a few more minutes to see if the pain subsides and he see if he can move the leg. He couldn’t, he was still yelping every time i dropped his leg down. I helped to the car very slowing keeping the pressure on his leg and took him to the vets.

I got to the vets and they quickly told me he would have to go to the emergency vets (Waves) due to the public holidays coming up. She gave him a quick shot of morphine and I was on my way. I got to Waves vets and they took a look at him. They thought maybe it was ligament damage or his hip was displaced and recommended keeping him in to give him a x-ray to see if that could shed any light on it. I headed home and was told to expect a phone call at 10pm. They rang just after 10 and told me they had found two dark patches in Beaus bones and it was most probably bone cancer but they had never seen it so high up in the hip area so he would need further tests. She told me Beau was up and walking around but only because he had a morphine pain patch on which would only last a few days and he would go back to being in pain. She recommended me seeing the surgeon on Tuesday after the long weekend. I was devastated and cried myself to sleep that night, I never ever though she would tell me cancer but whilst I waited for that phone call I couldn’t help thinking this was something serious. My strong dog isn’t taken down easily, I knew something was wrong.

I collected him the following morning and didn’t expect him to come bounding over wagging his tail to see me. I was so happy inside but new it wouldn’t last. Over the weekend he just got better and better but I was dreading Sunday night when his pain patch would run out. Monday morning came and he was still walking, I was shocked but still nervous that it might run out throughout the day, it didn’t.

I took him to the vets on Tuesday morning and the surgeon also couldn’t believe he was still walking fine, like nothing was wrong. We decided to do a CT scan to show the area better and to check his chest to see if it also had cancer. We also agreed to do a bone biopsy so we could see what type of cancer it was. I was told it was highly likely it would be Osteosarcoma, meaning this would rob Beau of his life.

Beau had his CT scan and biopsy. The biopsy results would take 5 working days to arrive but I had the CT scan results straight away. It showed Beau had extensive bone loss on his ball joint of his hip. It showed that he didn’t have any cancer in his chest. The surgeon told me that the biopsy results were likely to come back as Osteosarcoma and that Beau would need his leg amputated to stop the spread of cancer and pain but it would eventually come back in other parts of his body and eventually kill him. He kept telling me that my Beau is a very strong dog and that most dogs after having a bone biopsy taken in four places would take a few days to walk on the leg again, Beau was already walking around like nothing had happened.

The biopsy results came back just as bone, meaning they hadn’t been able to hit the correct part of the damaged bone area so it hadn’t shown anything. I was left with two options. The first being to do a needle biopsy of the area assisted with a CT scan or to do a surgical biopsy, which would remove the effected bone area and would leave Beau with a 50/50 chance of walking on that leg again and if it did show cancer he would need his leg removing anyway. I chose to try the needle biopsy in attempt to limit Beau having two major surgeries. I got the results back the next day and they showed cancer cells. The surgeon told me that the only option now was to amputate ASAP to try stop the cancer spreading quicker. Beau during all this time since he couldn’t walk has got stronger and stronger and is still walking/running like nothing is wrong. However I have decided to go with the vets judgement and he is due to have his leg amputated tomorrow 25/04/2018 :(. It makes it such a hard decision because Beau is no longer showing any signs that his leg is hurting him or causing him any discomfort, hes been off pain killers for over two weeks.

CBD oil. My friend recommended giving Beau a dosage of CBD oil each day. I did some research on it and read it could help kill cancer cells, was a natural pain killer, was a natural anti inflammatory and could help with anxiety. So I purchased some online as its legal to buy in Australia. Ive been giving Beau two doses everyday for nearly 3 weeks. Although I can’t tell if its helping him with pain or fighting cancer cells, what I can tell is it cured Beau of his anxiety of rain. Beau would run and hide in my walk in wardrobe even at the sound of rain. Getting him to go to the toilet whilst it was raining was a chore. Beau no longer runs away at the sound of rain, in fact it doesn’t bother him at all anymore. He even last week sat outside in the garden eating a bone whilst the rain was pouring down on him, believe me this was completely unlike Beau. All I can put this down to is the CBD oil as Beau isn’t on any other medication. I’ve decided to keep Beau on the oil for the rest of his life.

So tomorrow is his big day unfortunately. I’m going to try speak to the surgeon again before the operation just to clarify that Beau is showing no signs of pain in his leg and if he is 100 percent certain that this is the best option currently. I’ll update the blog on the outcome of tomorrow.

3 years ago I found myself wanting to have the company of another dog having left my previous dog behind in the UK 3 years prior after moving to Australia. I spotted Beau on the safe Perth Facebook page. He had been in kennels for 3 years having been abandoned with no name and had finally just started refusing to eat due to giving up after being in kennels so long. I fostered him to start with. When I got him he had kennel cough and was seriously underweight. His head had basically no fat on it and his ribs were showing. He instantly shocked me how house trained and docile he was.  After having one lot of potential new owners meeting him to look at adopting him, I made the decision to adopt him myself. During the past 3 years before Beau showed signs of his cancer the most scary moment came after having him only 4 months was when he smashed through the front window attempting to chase a intruder who was looking through my cars on my drive. Luckily he only suffered a cut paw and 1500 dollars later after a 2am trip to the emergency vets he was fine.

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