Osteosarcoma - Page 6

jenna, my vet gave us Deramaxx for daily pain relief and we also have Tramadol if the Deramaxx stops helping enough. He was also encouraging, that is these didn't work for us, other options were out there. So far so good.

Right now my guy is out back chewing up a chicken 1/4 and enjoying the morning sun. Once in awhile I hear his tags jingle and he is off after the neighbors cats. Still allot of life left in him. Now I am almost glad we found out this way and have a chance to say goodbye. I am rather enjoying my days home with him and spoiling him rotten. I had him up on my bed for a bit last night. Took pictures. Remember that, take lots of pictures.

I found this article on pain management for dogs.  If you scroll to the bottom it talks about the various classes of drugs you can use:

http://www.thepetcenter.com/gen/pm.html

Also injectable Nalbuphine should be considered.

Thanks bunch Sue.

My dogs oncologist Dr Alice Villalobos has written many books on the subject, her latest being Canine & Feline Geriatric Oncology.  I just re-read some of what she says about Osteosarcoma patients that do not undergo amputation.  She mentions they are at great risk for pathological fracture.  She suggests owners consider having their vet put a walking cast on the dog to help prevent fracture and to have ramps or assistance to get in and out of the car,  the house, the bed, etc..  She also mentions the use of Peroxicam at 0.3mg/kg is something to consider.  She also talks about the various opioids, and says she has had a lot of success in treating pain using the Fentanyl (duragesic) patch.

I'm glad you mentioned the possibility of a pathological fracture, Sueincc. If I opted to not amputate I would definitely have a walking cast put on my dog and do all the other things you have suggested. These tumors "eat" the bone from the inside out, thus the typical "starburst" pattern always seen on  xrays of a dog with this disease.  Even walking at a normal pace can fracture a leg on a dog with osteosarcoma.

In the old days, and still some day, the disease was only detected when a dog broke a leg, & upon x-ray you can see how the bone has an almost sponge like appearance.  Once the dog breaks the leg the only humane thing to do is amputate or put the dog down.

My dog had a break in this spot a year ago. When I took him in I thought he re injured it. In the X-ray you can see the old break and also the frightening sponge affect, the bone is now experiencing. I about hit the floor when the vet put the x-ray up on the light box. I knew that wasn't something we could fix. I'd like to have that to post here, now that everyone is posting negatives.

Does anyone know if you ask the vets for the negatives, will they give them to you? I paid for them, I  think they should.

When my Zorba went through this, he was limping for a couple weeks, but very slightly.  Even his orthopedic specialist couldn't figure out what was going on.  He didn't x-ray because we had x-rays of both hips and legs that were taken that same year.  Then the leg broke.  I took him back to his orthopod who was out on vacation.  The other vet who was studying under him took my dog into surgery to fix the leg.  When they xrayed just before surgery, they saw some questionable spots but they were way below the break.  She called me during surgery to say she just wasn't sure & what did we want to do?  We chose the option of repair but take samples. She repaired the break using bone , plates, screws, cadaver bone and an external fixateur.  She sent the samples to the lab.  The lab report came back clean - no cancer.  She wasn't convinced and sent the x-rays to a colleague who said osteosarcoma.  She had the lab retest, came back osteosarcoma.  We had the leg amputated & did chemo and he lived over 3 more years.  As I mentioned in my original post, he did great, playful, good appetite, demanding (as usual), throughout.

I think you caught Zorba's cancer early, Sue. Out of curiosity, are you aware of any dog related to him that have had osteosarcoma too? In some breeds there seem to be a definite family history of bone cancer or some other type of malignancy. I know an Irish Wolfhound breeder who lost 1 or 2 dogs from almost every litter to it.  She tried everythng we knew to do at the time to save those dogs, but nothing worked. Maybe they could be saved today, I don't know. Back then the treatment was amputation and no chemo.

From another angle, a Malamute friend has lost 5 out of a litter of 7 to some form of cancer, and the 6th was treated and cured for a malignant nasal tumor.  1 of them had osteosarcoma.  In this case it almost sounds like some sort of environmental cause or some toxin the puppies were exposed to, but she has never been able to figure out what it could haved been.