Roxy's Page
Weight: 140
Breed: Mastiff
Age when diagnosed: 7
Tumors:
- Osteosarcoma in the
Front limb
Roxy’s story starts in April 2008 when she started limping with her front left leg. We live on an acreage where she roams free and thought she had just sprained her leg. After 2 weeks of her limping, we took her to the vet to get xrayed. They missed the tumor and diagnosed her with bad arthritis and put her on arthritis medication. 2 weeks after that, I knew it was more than arthritis. She was barely even putting pressure on her front left paw, and when she did, she whined in pain. I took her back to the vet where they re-took the xrays and made a grim discovery….Osteosarcoma! The vet then referred us to a vet that specialized in animal cancer patients.
We took her there to have the xray’s read again, and the outcome remained the same. She has bone cancer. We probably cried throughout the whole vet appointment (which was a 2 hour appointment). They went through the treatments options for Roxy and then sent us on our way to go home and sleep on what would be the worst decision we would have to make. This was 2 days before her 7th birthday.
Roxy is an acreage dog, who is brought up act as a guard dog. She keeps people away by her loud bark and aggressive behavior when she does not know the person. She absolutely HATES vet’s offices and even her yearly vaccine puts soo much stress on her. She has to be muzzled and held by atleast 3 vets in order to give her the needle. After thinking about this, our family decided that it wouldn’t be fair for Roxy to force her into the vets office every few weeks for chemo treatments which would involve her every feared item…a needle. We made the choice of putting her on pain medications to help relieve the pain until the time is right to put her out of her misery.
The vet prescribed her Tramadol (pain killer) and Prednisone (synthetic corticosteroid). The Prednisone has stopped the growth of the tumor, which relieves the pain (for its not throbbing in the bone). They gave Roxy 2 months since she was diagnosed in April and it is now October so she has beat the 2 months and is now moving onto month 6 and she is still going. The side effect with the Prednisone is that it causes the bone to become weak and is not a long term option. But she has lasted longer than what they had said…and for that reason, I am greatful!
I know the day will come when my big baby girl will show me when its time for her to go. But each and every moment I get to spend with her, I am truly greatful for!
Pictures
September 2008
