I didn't know where to post this, so if this not right, let me know
My dog has bone cancer, he's a 7yo German Shepard, and I found out he had bone cancer when his femur broke. He has had cancer previously, jaw cancer about a year ago, and we were able to have the portion of his jaw removed surgically and were told that it was not the type of cancer that spreads to other areas (now I think they may have been bs'ing us, but who knows). Now he had been having issues with his leg before it broke about a month previously, but our vet assured us that it was probably a strained muscle, gave us some pain pills and told us that we should keep him calm with little or no exercise til it wasn't bothering him anymore. When we asked about an x-ray, they told us that it wasn't necessary and that since it was muscle, it wouldn't show up on the x-ray. So we took the vet at their word, gave him the pills and kept him calm. 2 weeks later when his leg showed no improvement, but actually seemed to be getting worse we took him back. We asked about getting an x-ray since it wasn't getting better so it probably wasn't muscle, right? Oh no, must be arthritis, here's another pill. We pushed about the x-ray this time, and they finally set us an appt for 3/11. On the night of 3/8 we came home and he wasn't putting any weight on his leg at all, just letting it hang there as he struggled to get around on 3 legs. We made him comfortable, and decided to call the next morning and see if the vet couldn't move his appt up. They flat out told us no. So we took him to a pet ER were they x-rayed him and about 2 hours later they gave us the bad news.
His femur had snapped, apparently the cancer was so far progressed that it had eaten up most of the bone which led the inevitable break. They told us that untreated, he might live another month, with some sosamax shots he might make it another 6 months and if we remove the leg maybe a year, but there is no cure for this cancer and that it has more than likely spread to other bones in his body. Its not like it is with humans, where we can irradiate and give chemo or a bone marrow/stem cell transplant. Bone cancer is painful in humans, and its the same for dogs. I can't see this situation ending in anything other than me euthanized him, whether that's tomorrow or a year from now.
We are putting him down tomorrow. Which kills me, but I can't go through the struggle of keeping a very sick animal alive again - I had a cat some years earlier that got really sick and I did everything I could only to have him die very much in pain. I don't want to do this, but I don't want him to suffer anymore than he already is.
I hate cancer.
TL;DR: my dog has bone cancer and I'm putting him down tomorrow, but I hate the decision I'm making.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/m2jiae/my_dog_has_bone_cancer/
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