Our Maddy is progressing along the road of recovery, after being diagnosed with cancer, or more specifically, Canine Osteosarcoma -- otherwise known as bone cancer. Today we made another trip to the doctor to have the sutures (from her amputation surgery) removed, which meant another car ride for Maddy. She absolutely loves riding in the car, and her excitement was palpable.She was quite a trooper as the doctor removed the sutures, and bounded up and down the stairs going into the office as well as any four-legged dog would do. When we came home from the vet, the kids and I went into the back yard so the kids could play on their slip-n-slide, and Maddy followed us out to lie on her pillow and bask in the sun. She looked so happy and peaceful.
We aren't out of the woods yet. We're hoping that there has been minimal metastases of the cancer cells, and that the piroxicam regimen she's on will help to slow down the progression of any cells. We plan to return to the doctor in a month or so for a follow-up chest x-ray.
So far, though, our Maddy seems to be doing great. It makes me happy that we made the difficult decision to amputate rather than just trying to comfort her in her final months.
Your comments?
Joe
Maddy's Cancer Battle
Our Maddy has been home for one week now after her leg amputation surgery, and she has been improving quite well. She spends a lot of time sleeping, but her last dose of pain medicine and antibiotics was today, so hopefully she'll bound back with more energy soon. The pain medication she's on is known to cause drowsiness, as are most pain medications.
She is quite energetic at times. We've been trying to take her on a short daily walk down to the end of our cul de sac and back, and she loves it. She even tries to pull on the leash and lead the walk, just like she has always done.
I had an unexpected interruption (as if there's any such thing as an expected interruption) at work today, when my wife called to tell my that our 
Our nine year old Dalmatian, Maddy, is finally home again, one week after being diagnosed with 
When I first received the diagnosis from Maddy's doctor, I wasn't surprised. In fact, I had told my wife before making the appointment to see the vet that I thought the lump on her leg was probably a cancerous tumor. My wife, in denial, disagreed. I returned home from the vet and called my wife outside without the kids to deliver the bad news to her. After we coped with anger, denial, shock, confusion -- every emotion you can think of -- we were faced with the dilemma of how to treat our beloved pet, who has been our child since before our kids were born.
But having lost my mother, grandmother, and grandfather (and others) to The Big C, I had a hard time accepting defeat, and convinced my wife that we had to do more -- that we had to at least see how much the cancer had spread through her body. I returned to the vet and learned that 
Our Maddy went through surgery today to have her right front leg -- the leg with the large tumor -- removed, after being diagnosed a week ago with 
I took our Dalmatian, Maddy, back to the veterinarian today for some chest X-rays. After spending two days in extreme sadness over what appeared to be a gloomy prognosis, we decided to find out just how much 
The bad news is, the place that he recommends here in Indianapolis would charge us between $2100 and $2400 to perform the procedure. My wife being from Terre Haute, I got the idea to call some animal hospitals there to get an idea of what the charges would be there. It appears that we can expect to spend half as much (maybe less) by making the ninety minute drive west to have the procedure performed.
Earlier this week, I took our beloved eight-year-old (she just turned nine yesterday) Dalmatian, Maddy, to the veterinarian. She has a swelling on her right front leg that would rise and fall, and suddenly quit falling, swelling up more than ever. I posted the bad news on 
The picture above is an X-ray of a healthy dog leg. The picture to the right is our Maddy's X-ray. In the far right of the picture of the healthy dog leg, you can see the large bone that is missing in Maddy's leg -- literally eaten away from the inside out by the cancer cells. The two bones in the healthy X-ray are the ulna and radius, though I couldn't tell you which is which. In Maddy's leg, one is completely eaten away and the other is very, very deteriorated. The large swelling, I understand, is a result of her body trying to fight the cancer.
Yesterday was her ninth birthday. She's been with us since she was six weeks old, long before either of our children were born. We had a birthday party for her today, and pampered and spoiled her. She had a hot dog to eat, plus two new hot dog squeaky toys. She had several doggie cookies, and one real cupcake, which she absolutely loved.
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