March 24, 2020
My mom is a nurse and gave me some great advice in regards to keeping tracking of Akeela’s medication. She was on 4 different medications after her surgery and most of them were taken at different times throughout the day. It’s an incredibly chaotic, emotional, and stressful time, so it’s easy to forget when you last administered them. My mom recommended that I keep a drug journal, so that I could see when her last dosage was and when I would need to give her the next one. On a note card I wrote down what was being given, the time that it should be given, when I actually gave it, and the date. The pain medication was supposed to be given every 8-12 hours, but in the beginning she would sporadically yelp out in pain, so I would give it to her a couple hours early (hence the when it should be given vs when it was given).
When Akeela came out of surgery, her wound was covered with a bandage. The vet said that I could leave it on as long as we wanted and that it would peel off naturally. After about 3 days we opted to remove it, so that we could keep an eye on the incision. We wanted to make sure that it was healing properly and did not have any signs of infection. We did not want to leave the incision exposed, so we cut up one of my moms shirts and sewed it around the belly for a more customized fit. If you do this, just be careful that you don’t sew it too tight! We ended up leaving it a little too baggy in the back end, which caused her back foot to get stuck one night. I had been sleeping next to her bed on the floor, so fortunately I was able to catch it and help her out before she got too tangled. I ended up using a hair tie and bunched up the extra fabric at the back so it didn’t hang down as much.
For the first two days the vet instructed that I ice Akeela’s incision to help reduce the swelling. I eat a lot of smoothies, so I used frozen bags of blackberries and covered them with a towel. The second two days we were told to use a warm compress on the incision, to help with the healing process. I purchased one of those red rubber water bottles from Walgreens for about $16. Akeela runs warm anyways, so the hot water bottle was not as favored as the ice packs (lots of squirming).
March 23, 2020
Around the beginning of February in 2020 Akeela started limping on her right front leg, with no apparent cause. We made an appointment with our regular vet, who prescribed pain medication and an anti-inflammatory. They thought that she may have tore or strained a ligament in her wrist and recommended that we see a specialist if it did not go away within 10 days.
By the end of the 10 days her limp was almost entirely gone. I am fortunate because I can bring her to my work with me (yay pet friendly start-ups) and keep an eye on her throughout the day. I left her home alone for a few hours the following weekend while I ran some errands, and when I came home her limp made a full fledged comeback – this time worse than before.
That night while I was giving her belly rubs, she started whining when I touched her chest and upper arm. It became clear to me then that this was not an issue with her little dog wrist. I made an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon for the next Monday.
On March 16, 2020 xrays of Akeela’s shoulder showed lysis of her proximal humerus – aka bone cancer or bone infection. They took xrays of her chest as well, and fortunately did not find any abnormalities. Treatment for bone cancer involves amputation of the affected limb, followed by chemotherapy (dependent on the exact type of cancer she has). Removing the limb would not remove all the cancer, but does prevent pathologic bone fracture and pain.
Akeela is a very active dog who plays incredibly hard, especially for her age. This was not a decision that I made lightly. For two days I did as much research as I could and called every clinic in the area to get their opinion on treatment. SRS/radiation therapy is commonly used for dogs who have cancer or tumors in areas that cannot be removed. I thought this might be a better alternative to amputation, but was told by several specialists that the best way to extend her life and give her the best quality of life was to amputate and proceed with chemotherapy.
Dogs who have amputation only have a life expectancy of 6-8 months. Dogs who go through chemotherapy typically make it to one year. If I did not move forward with amputation or treatment, they expected her to only make it two months. Although it was an incredibly hard decision to make, I decided to move forward with amputation. My incredible mom drove all the way from Oregon to Colorado to help me with her post-operative care.
A few months before, Akeela had an incident where she fainted at the pop of a champagne cork. When I took her to the vet, they said that with her age it is likely that she just has a weak heart. The noise startled her and caused a ‘fight or flight’ reaction. Because of this, they did not recommend putting her under anesthesia. This was a major concern for this operation, but the orthopedic surgeon assured me that they would pay close attention to the EKG throughout her surgery and that they were using all heart-safe medications.
They surgery took about 4 hours, but everything went as they expected. They even convinced her to eat hospital food (she is a very picky eater)! She spent the night at the clinic and was given 24/7 care. Since the clinic was open all hours of the night, I was able to call every couple of hours to check on her status. I was able to pick her up the following morning at 11 am.