Harley's Story

Today was what I consider a ‘Dog Day’.  70’s and low humidity.  A great day for lying around in the yard.  I thought Harley would have trouble chewing a rawhide without two paws to hold it with, but he did fine.

Harley is doing well 17 days after amputation. 

He had his first chemo on Monday night.  He seems to be handling that pretty well too.  I have been giving him some anti-nauseau medication.  He hasn’t thrown-up, that I can tell – he may have done it outside when I wasn’t watching – but he just seems a little ‘burpy’ and anxious at times, that’s when I give him the pill. 

He has been licking his right front leg a lot, so we are trying to keep an eye on that so he doesn’t end up with a hot spot there.  He has licked all the fur off of one spot, I think you can see it in the picture.  I’m not sure why he is licking there.  Maybe he wants to lick his left leg, but since it’s not there he is licking the right?  Or maybe withdrawing from the Tramadol made him feel funky?

 He seems to be leaving his incision site alone.  We had him wear a t-shirt until about two days after his stitches came out.  He wagged his tail the whole time the vet was removing the stitches.  We had him on his side and just kept rubbing his belly – which he loves.  He did kick her in the face once though, when she was digging out a deep stitch! 

He is using the Otto Step to get in and out of my SUV.  I always put his Ruff Wear harness on first, so I can steady him as he goes in and out.  One time, though, he was so excited to go for a ride – I had put the Otto Step in and was standing by it, looking to the left, waiting for him to come around the house, he came flying around the house from the right and jumped into the truck behind my back, without using the step – I never even saw him, he was so fast!  Sassy puppy!

Harley had a good day yesterday.  We went back to the vet to get the bandage changed.  We saw a different vet and she said he didn’t really need a bandage.  So he came home without one.   He did so awesome at the vet.  I was really worried he was going to freak out about going there – after what they did to him!  But he was wagging his tail at everybody.   He has to relearn his balance a little now without the bandage.  When they did the amputation, the didn’t remove the whole leg, they left him his shoulder and part of his upper leg bone.  They thought he would heal faster and would have better balance.   When that shoulder was strapped down with the bandage, he didn’t try to use that leg.  Now that it’s free, I see him trying to use that ‘leg’, and it’s throwing him off a little.  Anyone else have a partial amputee?  He is on Rimadyl and Tramadol for pain and seems to be tolerating them well.   We’ve blocked off the stairs now, so he can’t get up there.  Now we just need to get him to slow down outside.  He wants to run at times.  My 16-year old son had a bunch of friends in the driveway playing basketball yesterday, so Harley was getting a bunch of love!

Harley had a pretty good night.  He woke me up at 1:30 and 6:30 to go outside.  He was sleeping in the powder room this morning, which is one of his favorite spots to sleep.  He is hopping around pretty good.  I had to go into the office today, so my husband stayed home to watch Harley.  At one point he disappeared and my husband found him upstairs!  That’s where I usually work, so maybe he was looking for me.  My husband carried him down.  He got up to greet me when I got home and seems to be getting back to his old self a little.  Tomorrow he goes back to see the vet so they can check his bandage.  I hope he doesn’t freak out having to go back there so soon!

The poor guy is feeling pretty yucky I think.  The vet showed me his stitches and then wrapped him all up.  He pooped on their floor during that process, so I think he was pretty stressed out.  I was able to get him to pee when we got home.  I offered him some water when we came inside, but he wasn’t interested.  I thought with all the panting, he would be parched.  The panting has finally slowed down and I hope he goes to sleep.

The vet just called. Harley is out of surgery and starting to wake up. Everything went well.

Harley, our nine-year old golden retriever is having his left front leg amputated tomorrow.  He has osteosarcoma.  Finding www.tripawds.com has been a blessing.  I found it by searching for three-legged dog videos on YouTube.  Seeing Jerry’s videos on there make me feel so much better about the surgery.  I was starting to think I was crazy for amputating my dog’s leg!  After he has recovered from his surgery, we plan to start chemotherapy to keep him around as long as we can.  He has had chest xrays and an abdominal ultrasound, which show no other tumors, but I know it is just a matter of time.  We love our cute-lovey-puppy (that’s what my daughter wanted to name him when we got him).  My kids were 3 and 6 when we got him, so they can’t imagine life without Harley.  We have another golden who is 12, so it is a bit of a shock to us that Harley may be the first to go.