I would like to share the story of my Rottweiler Gordy, and his experience with osteosarcoma and amputation.  Gordy is currently 13.5 years old and was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in April of 2006 and had his leg amputated in May 0f 2006.  He has undergone chemotherapy and is on a chemo maintenance program.  As of his last check-up in December, his cancer is in remission.   I have attached his story and some pictures.  It is OK to release my email address.

Gordy is a working Rottweiler through and through with a fighting spirit, a huge heart, a great sense of humor and a never ending devotion to his family…dog and human.   Gordy loved to work and with his huge desire to succeed he passed his Sch B easily, got his CD in three tries with all scores above 190 and competed in agility and earned his AD, AX and AXJ titles.  In 1998, he even went High in Agility Trial at the Amercan Rottweiler Club’s National Specialty.  He was also chosen to be the demonstration Rottweiler in Jane Simmons-Moake’s agility training video series.

Gordy is a working Rottweiler through and through with a fighting spirit, a huge heart, a great sense of humor and a never ending devotion to his family…dog and human.   Gordy loved to work and with his huge desire to succeed he passed his Sch B easily, got his CD in three tries with all scores above 190 and competed in agility and earned his AD, AX and AXJ titles.  In 1998, he even went High in Agility Trial at the Amercan Rottweiler Club’s National Specialty.  He was also chosen to be the demonstration Rottweiler in Jane Simmons-Moake’s agility training video series.

In April of 2006 when Gordy was 11 years old, I noticed a bump on the inside of his front leg just above his wrist.  He was not lame on the leg but was not very happy when I tried to ice it, thinking he had bumped it somehow.  After several days of icing and a miffed Gordy, I took him to our vet.  After an examination and x-ray, my vet diagnosed the “bump” as a tumor and referred me to our local specialty hospital, Gulf Coast Veterinary Specialists.  They examined Gordy and determined that the bump was an osteosarcoma on the left distal radius.

We were presented with several choices: 1) do nothing other than give him pain killers,  2) amputate the leg with the choice to do or not do chemotherapy, and 3) do not amputate the leg and do radiation therapy for pain relief.   We did not want to amputate because Gordy had advanced arthritis in his hips and we thought that walking on three legs would be very difficult for him.  Considering his age, we sadly chose to give him pain killers and start the radiation treatments to relieve the pain realizing that his life expectancy would be limited.   One of the cautions that the vets at Gulf Coast gave us was that the bone with the tumor was not as strong as a normal bone and with him feeling better due to the radiation treatment there was a chance that this leg could break.  Well, sure enough, he did feel better after several treatments and the leg did break.

We were then faced with the decision to amputate or euthanize.  Given Gordy’s age and advanced arthritis this decision was very difficult as we wanted to prolong his time with us but also wanted that time to be quality time for him and us.  After an examination by a surgeon at Gulf Coast and consultation with both our oncologist and the surgeon, they both convinced us to go ahead with the surgery.  They both thought that Gordy had such great attitude and fighting spirit that this would work out even though he had pretty bad arthritis and was 11 years old.

We amputated the leg and started physical therapy and chemotherapy right after the amputation site had started to heal (about 2 weeks).  Gordy went to physical therapy twice a week to learn to walk again and to strengthen his muscles.  He really liked his therapists and became a favorite with them also.

After 5 intravenous chemotherapy treatments spaced at 2 week intervals, which he tolerated well, he is currently on a maintenance program of 50mg of Cytoxan administered once/week and a daily dose of 100mg of Doxycycline.  Gordy goes back to Gulf Coast to see his oncologist every 3 months for a blood test and chest x-ray.  As of this writing in March of 2008, his cancer is in remission and he is due for his next check up on the 17^th. 

While this whole experience has been an emotional roller coaster for us all, we are glad that we did it.  Gordy turned 13 in October of 2007 and is very much an active, happy and very vocal member of our family.  He really has a heart as big as the state of Texas!!