Sadie’s journey of becoming a tripawd at 15 years old

I’m like a lot of people on the site who are thinking about or have already made the journey into the Tripawd world.  My journey actually started about 8 months ago.  Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought that I would be the mom of a 15 year old tripawd.

    My journey began last November, 2017, when I noticed a lump on the side of Sadie’s rear leg on the outside of her knee joint.  Since Sadie has been the lumpiest dog with all kinds of fatty tumors all over her body, I was particularly concerned with this tumor/lump.  Sadie seemed to lick it and chew at it more than all her other regular fatty tumors.  So I went to the vet and asked him to remove it.  He told me at the time to not worry about it.  Never once did he tell me it could be cancer. 

    Well, near the end of November, Sadie jumped off our bed and we had to have her ACL repaired on her other rear leg in December.  Through her recovery process of healing that leg, the tumor on her rear left leg began to grow.  It grew so much, that I went back to my vet in January 2018 and asked about the tumor and he said that he couldn’t remove it because it was too large and the area that it was in there wouldn’t be enough skin to close the wound.  It wasn’t until this time that he told me he had aspirated it at the last appointment and found spindle cells, which is a sign that there is a cancer.   I was devastated.  I felt as if I had let too much time lapse to take care of the cancer when it was small.

    So in March, I took Sadie to Texas A&M to do a biopsy to see what my options were.  Needless to say, my options were from bad to worst (at least I thought that at the time).  I could either give her 5 days of straight radiation, which meant anesthesia 5 days in a row, wait two weeks to see if tumor shrunk enough to remove it, then put her back under anesthesia to remove tumor and start her on chemo meds, and then still not be 100 percent guaranteed the cancer wouldn’t come back.  Actually, I was told it would probably come back with a vengeance.    Keep in mind, Sadie turned 15 in April, so there was no way I was going to put her under that much stress without the 100 percent guarantee that the cancer would not return.  Well, the only way they could give me that guarantee was to amputate her leg.  Being totally shocked and taken aback about removing her leg, that wasn’t even an option for me…at that time.

   So I decided to just let her live her life and not do anything.  The tumor didn’t seem to bother her at first.  It just kept on growing.  The original size when I first had it looked at was the size of a nickle.  So from March through July, that tumor started to become a life of its own.  As it grew, I started wrapping it with bandages because it wobbled as she walked and I thought surely that had to be uncomfortable.  Well, as it grew to over the size of a baseball/small potato, over the past month, it started to bleed and ulcerate and it looked like at any moment it was going to burst.  I was daily having to change her bandages and give her Rimadyl twice daily.  Although, Sadie never showed signs of pain, I couldn’t imagine that she wasn’t in pain.

    So over the weekend of July 7 and 8, as I was heading out of town, I called my vet and scheduled to have her leg amputated the following Friday.  But while I was out of town, my friend who has always taken care of Sadie while I was gone, called me in a panic that her tumor was bleeding and she was shaking and looked like she was in a lot of pain.  Well, just hearing that, I made the decision right then to have her leg amputated ASAP.  I didn’t even really think of what I was getting into.  I literally had no other choice.  Sadie is still full of life and a huge part of our family, I couldn’t put her down.

      Basically, I got Sadie in for an appointment on Wednesday, July 11.  The appointment was made so fast, that my consult was at 8:00 that morning and then she was off to surgery!!!  And the strangest thing about that day was I kept telling the vet, she is 15 years old, she has Cushing’s Disease, and she just had ACL surgery on her other rear leg in December, and they weren’t the least bit concerned (or at least they didn’t show it).  Actually, she was so matter of fact about it, that it put me at ease.  She kept telling me that dogs will adapt quicker than we realize.   And you know what, she was absolutely right!

   So here I am, 7 days post op with my 15 year old Tripawd!!  I am amazed by Sadie.  I have learned so much from her.  Watching her make these huge strides in recovery has shown to me that animals don’t know that there is an option to quit or to give up.   We, as humans, too often just give up or quit when things get bad or out of our comfort zone.  I have learned from her that determination and tenacity will get you to where you want to go.  And right now, Sadie is determined to make it to her food bowl without my help!!  LOL!   So the motto that fits Sadie and I think all tripawds is:  Don’t ever give up, give out!

   I’ve attached some pictures and videos that I’ve taken throughout this journey.  I know it’s still going to be a long road to recovery, but I’m following Sadie’s lead and I’ll do whatever it takes to make her quality of life better and I started that by getting her leg amputated and rid her of her cancer.