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The day of Maya’s surgery was April 21st. We heard from the vet surgeon at the end of the day. The surgery went well and Maya was resting comfortable. They told us she already tried walking! They also sent the leg off to pathology so we could finally know what cancer we were dealing with. We were nervous and excited to pick her up the next day.

Me and my sister went to pick her up the next day in the afternoon. We had to prepare ourselves mentally as it was hard to picture her without a leg. I didn’t want Maya to pick up on any negative feelings that I was experiencing. The vets warned us that she was very out of it and looking sad due to the pain meds. They brought her out to us and it was so good to see her! She was hopping along very slow, looking drugged and trying to figure out her new body. Here she is once we got her to the car. We put her in so that she would lay on the good side.

 

We bought her a harness to help her walk around. It was much needed and worth it.

She was very exhausted but still willing to give kisses!

 

 

 

 

She stayed with me during her recovery as my condo doesn’t have stairs and the grass for her to go potty is only 5ft from the door. Getting her from the parking lot to my place was very challenging though. She was trying so hard to hop along. We kept encouraging her and saying good girl, you can do it, come on! But she kept needing to stop and would fall in the grass. We’d let her rest and then help pick her up again. The short walk took everything she had. We finally got her inside and she passed out. She seemed very happy to be home!

Maya’s surgery to remove her leg was coming up. I knew she was going to be okay, but unfortunately she did not. Even being on the strong antibiotics her leg infection got worse. I cleaned it and changed the bandages every day to help but it did not. Here is a gruesome picture of her infected tumor at it’s worse. It breaks my heart to see that it had gotten this bad.

It was the smell that was the worst part. Of course she smelled it too, as did our other dog Misty. Maya’s behavior began to change. She got very quiet and sad. Dogs know what that smell means. Maya knew she was dying and so did Misty. She even stopped eating completely and would let Misty eat all of her food. Not eating could have been in part due to the strong antibiotics, but she seemed to have lost the light in her eyes. It was so sad to watch. I told her every day that she was going to be fine. I wish she could’ve understood me. Here’s her on the last walk I took her on with four legs.

 

Here is Maya the morning of her surgery, somber and quiet.

 

 

 

 

We dropped her off at the animal hospital and said our goodbyes. The vets already planned on keeping her there for the first night. I was scared for her but I knew the only way to save her life was to take the leg. It was life or limb and we definitely chose life! She is a strong girl and I knew she’d run again, pain free, as a cute lil tripawd!

For the time I wanted to keep Maya’s leg. I was waiting for the bump to break open and I was ready with all kinds of bandages, non-stick gauze pads, wraps, and tape. I was determined to keep it as clean as possible to not get infected. When it did break open I cleaned it with soap and water every day (I didn’t want anything too harsh as I wanted to promote skin growth as much as possible) and changed the bandages frequently. This helped for a little bit but it wasn’t long until infection set in again.

By this point I finally realized that this is no life for her. Something needed to change and I began to embrace the idea of removing her leg. I did a lot of research and the biggest thing for me was that I read that dogs don’t have a psychological issue with losing limbs like us humans do. They notice something is different, they adjust and they continue on with their happy lives. I was thinking too much like a human. I also came to the conclusion that the lump on her leg had to be cancer. I didn’t want to admit that before but it came time to face reality. With all my research I guessed it was probably a fibrosarcoma, a soft tissue cancer. Looking into my dogs eyes I realized she was still so full of life. This was not a dog who was ready to go. I needed to do more for her.

We did some research on a better vet since the last two were not very helpful. We found a cancer specialist vet at VRCC that had great reviews and set up an appointment right away. By this time Maya’s leg was sadly starting to smell…

Talking to the new vet put everything into perspective as she was very helpful and informative. Looking at the tumor she guessed it was also a fibrosarcoma. She explained to us that they tend to grow on the limbs and they grow fast. With Maya’s it had gotten so big and had no where to go that it was breaking through the skin. Her skin was stretched very thin over the whole tumor. She also pointed out that her paw was slightly swollen and this was due to the tumor crushing the lymphatic vessels. Fluid was starting to accumulate in her paw as it couldn’t flow out anymore. She also said that keeping it clear of infection was impossible. Skin is covered in bacteria that just fall into the open wound. There was no preventing the infection. Then came the hard part, the vet told us if we didn’t take the leg at this point then Maya would only live a month or two more and would die from septic shock due to the infection.

To move forward from this point we needed to make sure the cancer hadn’t spread to other parts of her body. The vet took Maya back and did an ultrasound of her stomach, x-rays of her lungs, and took cells from the nearest lymph node on the bad leg. That same day we anxiously waited in the lobby for the test results. The vet then told us the lymph node was clean and there was no sign of anything abnormal! This was a huge relief! The vet even showed us the x-rays of her lungs. Our Maya was healthy in every way (except her leg).

This gave us a 100% confidence that removing her leg was the absolute best thing for her. We set up the date for the surgery! We also got a prescription for some very strong antibiotics to hold her over, as the surgery had to be 2 weeks away. For awhile I was afraid I was going to lose my dog but now I knew she would be ok!

After Maya’s surgery to have the bump on her leg removed, things were good. But about 3 months later the bump started growing back… This was very sad. It started off small and was growing slow. I had a weak hope that maybe it would just stop growing, maybe.

During March our whole family left for a week long vacation. When we got back and saw Maya’s leg it was shocking. The bump quadrupled in size within a week. As seen in the photo it also looked like it was starting to abscess.

We went back to the vet to see what could be done now. The only answer they gave us was to remove the leg. At this time the thought of removing her leg seemed crazy. She still had full function of her leg, she never even had a limp. So it seemed cruel to me to remove it. We went to another vet for a second opinion and they were even harsher. They told us we need to either put her down or remove the leg. At this time it was just a growing bump to me and I couldn’t understand how this could cause the end of her life. Maya is a somewhat anxious dog and the thought of taking her leg away from her was scary for me. I was concerned she wouldn’t cope well. Thinking back now I think it was me who was afraid I wouldn’t cope well. It’s hard to make major decisions for an animal who can’t tell you what they want. I desperately wished she could tell me what she wanted.

 

Maya is our 9 year old light colored golden retriever. Her and our older dog Misty are sisters, same parents but from different litters. They are 3 years apart in age and love each other very much.

It was a little over a year ago that we noticed a bump on Maya’s back left leg. I kept an eye on it and it started to get a little bigger. Thinking it was just a cyst or a fat lump (as Misty has been taken to the vet for several lumps that turned out to be just fat) I didn’t take it too seriously. Here is a picture I got of it when it started growing.

After a couple of months it actually broke open and got very infected. We took her to the vet and they treated the infection. At that point we realized it was more serious then just a fatty lump. The vet did a needle aspiration but it came back inconclusive. We asked if it could be removed and the surgeon actually told us that it was unnecessary and the bump will heal…

It did heal but it didn’t stop growing. It broke open and got infected again and it was back to the vet. Again they put her on antibiotics and kept it wrapped up, requiring weekly bandage changes. We got more serious and told them this has to be removed. They finally agreed and apologized for turning us down the first time.

After about 6 months from when it showed up she went in for surgery in November 2014. By this time the bump was about half the size of a golf ball. Here’s a picture I snapped of her before she went in.

After waiting the whole day she got out of surgery and I went and picked her up. Here is sleepy Maya home after her surgery.

Unfortunately we assumed this surgery would solve the problem, and with money being tight we didn’t pay to have the bump sent to pathology.  The surgeon did state that he tried to remove it all but couldn’t guarantee clean margins, as there isn’t enough muscle and skin on the leg to ensure that. He said it could grow back… I didn’t think that would happen though. We, ignorantly, were just happy the bump was now gone.

After several days I was instructed to take her bandage off. This photo is pretty gruesome. As the vet said he tried very hard to remove it all and it looks like a chunk of her leg was taken out.

Although it looked bad it healed nicely. Maya was back to her active self in no time without a bump to worry about!