As most of you know back in August Harvey started limping a bit with his back right leg. At first we thought he was playing too hard, but when it continued we took him to the vet. They checked everything out and said that nothing seemed torn/broken, they informed us to rest him for 2-weeks. This meant no dog parks, no tennis ball chasing, no running, and no long walks... all of which is next to impossible for Harvey.
A couple days later he went chasing after his favorite neighbor dog, and collapsed onto his back right leg. We rushed him to the vet, x-rays were done and nothing was found. They did notice one small 'unknown' spot by his joint, and recommended taking the x-rays to a specialist. We did that after Labor Day, and were yet again told that the 'unknown' spot didn't seem concerning, and that he most likely had a soft tissue bruise, so we were to keep resting him.
The rest of September he got worse and worse, not able to walk in the morning, barely getting out for two 10-minute walks a day. Up to this point we were unsure what specific part of his leg was hurting him as he would pull the whole thing up. Last week Jill noticed some swelling in his joint, so we got him into the vet ASAP. They immediately said they were concerned that it was a tumor, so more x-rays were taken. The 'unknown' spot had now grown and taken over the whole joint, which caused the joint to look swollen. They expressed concern about a tumor, and referred up to a specialist, who we saw on Monday.
The consultation was hard to swallow as the Dr. said he had "never seen anything like this." He suggested that Harvey had terminal cancer and that his 'unknown' spot had spread from another area of the body. In order to rule this option out they wanted to do a chest x-ray. We then waited a grueling 3 hours to find out if cancer was elsewhere. Thankfully everything was clear, but we still had to figure out what was up with his leg.
Harvey went in for a biopsy on Tuesday, this consisted of them going inside and removing part of the 'unknown' spot. Prior to the surgery the Dr. had mentioned that the 'unknown' spot could be a cyst. He would determine this by the color of the fluid once he saw inside Harvey's leg, if it was a yellow color he would then remove the cyst and transfer bone marrow from his upper leg to make the bone re-grow. Our fingers were crossed and we waited anxiously all day to hear from the Dr.
Finally we did, and we were not as lucky as we had hoped. The fluid was gray-ish, therefore the Dr. is still unsure what is going on. The Dr. indicated that the color/texture of Harvey's 'unknown' spot isn't typical of Osteosarcoma (bone cancer) but that the biopsy would have to be sent out in order to test it.
We now are playing the waiting game, as it typically takes 7-10 days to get results back. Poor Harvey had a rough Tuesday night as he came out of sedation. He also had a number of spots shaved on his body from the surgery, one being his whole back leg! :(
It's been 2 full days since the surgery and Harvey is doing great. He is in his wonderful/goofy mood today, which is great because we haven't seen that for almost a month!!
We will take the red bandage off tomorrow and hope to hear back from the Dr. soon!
Moving forward, we are prepared for them to suggest amputation. We have come to terms with this option and know that Harvey is the type of dog that could definitely handle this. Until then we have to keep his poor leg warm!
No comments:
Post a Comment