Osteosarcoma, Onyx’s Story

Onyx 5 year old labrador Pitt bull mix. In June 2018 we noticed our little man limping on his front left paw. Like most we thought he just stubbed it or hurt it on a thorn or something. After 2 days he was still limping to the point of not even using that leg to run. We decided it was vet time. Onyx at this point was only 5 years old, his birthday was in February. The vet decided to prescribe an anti inflammatory for the swelling thinking it was something common, simple to fix. Just keep him calm and relaxed for a few days they said. Unfortunately that was not the case. The pills did help his limping for a few days until they ran out then it was back to where we started. The vet wouldn’t prescribe more medicine without first doing an xray. At the time we kept thinking “hopefully he didn’t have a sprain or fracture” not even the thought of cancer crossed our minds, we didn’t think in that direction at all. After about 20 minutes the doctor came in the room and told us to come with her to view the xrays. Again I thought “oh no he must of fractured his ankle, he’ll have to wear a cast poor little guy” The doctor showed us the xray of his ankle. She calmly pointed at a white glow in the tips of his ankle bones and you could see the outline of how swollen it was. What she said next hit us like a ton of bricks, “this is what the beginning stage of osteosarcoma cancer looks like here” and pointed at the white glow on his ankle. We lost it. The tears didn’t stop coming. Cancer is a word you never want to hear, ever. Then it went quickly to “I believe we caught this very early and I believe amputation would be curative for a year or 2” Now we’ve gone from thinking he would have to wear a cast for a little while to we have to amputate and do so quickly to remove the cancer. This decision as awful as it was, needed to be made quickly if we wanted to get ahead of this cancer. This was on a Friday afternoon. The earliest we could get him in for amputation was first thing Monday morning. Done. Everything is happening so fast. Not even a second thought, were doing this and doing this asap.

Monday came and to the vet we went. We dropped him off early in the morning and we’re told to come back Tuesday morning to pick him up. Okay.  Again everything’s happening so fast. Afraid to see our little guy without his front leg, afraid he wouldn’t be able to walk just afraid in general we went to pick him up. He literally came running into our arms when he seen us. Wow just wow. All the pain was gone. He was as happy as ever.

I was afraid to look at the wound, thankfully my husband wasn’t and checked it as often as needed to make sure it was healing correctly and clean. I finally got the nerve to look and it wasn’t scary or bad at all. His terrible pain was gone, osteosarcoma is extremely painful and metastasizes, spreads, very quickly and aggressively.

About a week later we went back for a check up. Now it’s time for the new topic of chemo to help his chances of prolonging his life. Okay. All of this literally just kept getting more and more scary and when you love your dog like family, as you should, of course you will do anything to have them be with you as long as possible. So after healing was complete, chemo started. Along with chemo there’s a drug called galliprant that is absolutely wonderful for tripaws. Life changing for their walking abilities. If you’re not offered galliprant you seriously need to ask for it, seriously.

We did 6 rounds of chemo, 1 round every 4 weeks. The day of chemo he was fine, acted no different than his normal happy cheerful self. The next few days aren’t the best but by day 3 he’s back to being himself again. Something I didn’t know about chemo was the aftercare. His waste was toxic and could not be touched, even his urine. I have 2 other dogs and a fenced in back yard for them to run around, play and do their business in. You absolutely MUST take your buddy for a walk far away from where you, your family and fur babies will not come into contact with the waste until 3 days have passed. After the 3rd day it’s back to daily routine of all 3 going out together with no worries.

We read about a supplement called Transfer factor canine which had rave reviews being invented by scientist and veterinarians together. So we purchased it and once a day we made him a special bowl of food with the powder suppliment, kibble and a little bit of water all mixed up together which he LOVED! the suppliment turned into a gravy when mixed with water with an enticing flavor which got onyx excited everytime I got out his special bowl to mix his daily suppliment dinner in.

He responded very well to the chemo and made it through all 6 treatments. After the 4th treatment he developed a cough which we addressed to the vet and after an xray it was labeled as bronchitis so prednisone was prescribed. Unfortunately the miracle drug galliprant can’t be taken with prednisone so we had to take him off of it until the prednisone treatment was over and the cough was gone. This is when we realized exactly how much galliprant helped our little guy walk and run around. Fast forward 4 days, cough is gone.

We made it! Statistics say he should live at least a year, possibly more if caught it early and amputated with chemo.

January 12th 2019. Onyx had a little eye discharge and started to limp slightly on his back left leg which became his balance leg after his surgery. To the vet we went that day. We did a series of xrays of his rear legs, hips basically everything south of the lungs. Xrays were clear, phew. He was given gabapentin and told us to keep him calm for a couple days until the “soft tissue damage” had a chance to heal. As far as the eye drainage nothing was prescribed.

January 13th 2019 Onyx coughed up a thick, dark dark red. At this point I was sure he had pneumonia or bronchitis from his immune system being compromised from the chemo. After all a few months ago he had a similar cough and was prescribed prednisone and it went away….

January 14th 2019 onyx won’t really eat, he’s got a steady unproductive cough and just lays down all day, occasionally getting up for water. Having a hard time with his balance. Just not himself.

January 15th 2019 We took onyx to the vet for chest xrays. I had learned that some signs cancer has spread to the lungs are lameness of a limb, eye discharge, cough, fatigue, loss of appetite… the doctor came back with the results. The cancer has metastasized into his lungs leaving 3 lesions…

Everything was fine and happy until one day where he fell from health so quick it was unbelievable.

The doctor provided us with options. They all had the same end result for there was no chance of being cured. Some people take their beloved friend home for a few days on all kinds of pain medicines and steroids to say goodbye. We couldn’t bare having him all drugged up for our comfort and not his. It isn’t fare to keep him suffering for selfish reasons. That day Onyx was put to sleep. It was the hardest choice I’ve EVER had to make. It was the right choice and now he’s running and playing waiting for me under the rainbow bridge until we meet again.

Statistics are just that, statistics. We caught the cancer extremely early, immediately amputated followed by 6 rounds of chemo. Onyx lived just a little over 6 months.

There’s nothing at all I would of done differently. Having his leg amputated was the best decision, removing all the pain. The chemo kept him healthy and alive throughout the 6 months of treatment. Those are 6 months I will never regret. We got to love and spend happy joyful months with our best buddy.

This cancer sucks. There’s no other thing to say about it. It just really sucks. But we did everything we could possibly do and again wouldn’t of changed a single thing. If you’re reading this as I read a few before I made some decisions and your looking for answers Onyx’s story is the only way I could think of too help anyone going through this same situation. If you have any questions at all I would be more than happy to answer for you. We lived through this and so can you.