| As stated before, Syd needed to be free of lung metastisis ("mets", for short) to be able to qualify for the piroxicam clinical trial. Thinking I could save a 3 hour drive to K-State (in case Syd's cancer had already spread), I called my vet to see if they could do lung radiographs. They said their machine wasn't big enough, so I sought out another vet who specializes in orthopedic surgeries that a friend recommended, to have his lungs x-rayed. That same day, I had been told by another rottie friend who said she had been to a seminar about limb-sparing procedure where the rottweiler (who was approximalely 7 or 8 yrs of age at the time) had the procedure done and 3 years have gone by and he continues to do well. This procedure was developed by Colorado State University. I had called and left a message for Dr. Rachel Ehrhart to call me back. As I was arriving at my vets to pick up the original leg radiographs to take with me to the other vet, Dr. Ehrhart called me back. She explained that limb-sparing surgery involves going into the affected limb, removing that part of the affected bone, then replacing it with bone from a donor. The joined bones have a device attached to it that is turned several times a day to scrape off parts of the bone to encourage it to grow new bone tissue. She said some of the side effects are bad infections, which can be very difficult to get rid of, however normally dogs that have bad infections tend to do better in the long run. She said the surgery would have to be done at the CSU facility (which is about a 14 hr drive for me) and would cost around $3000.00. She said the follow up examinations could be coordinated with K-State, IF they chose to work with the device (since a lot of vet hospitals do not perform this limb-sparing procedure). After speaking with her, I headed to the other vet for lung radiographs. Upon arrival, I spoke with the vet about his thoughts on how well Syd would do as a front leg amputee. He said he'd do a complete ortho exam as well as the x-rays and let me know. He initially said Syd was too big to be an amputee and would cause problems down the road. Syd reluctantly went with the vet techs for his x-rays. It took awhile, but the vet finally came out and said he couldn't tell for sure if the lungs were clear and that I should go ahead and go to K-State for my consultation. He said Syd seemed to be sound orthopedically and would probably do well with amputation, but his size and weight were a huge factor. He also announced that Syd had pooped and peed all over the vet techs and they had to give him a bath (he wasn't too happy with Syd). $182 poorer, I left there more confused because I didn't have an answer as to what status Syd was. |
