Axel’s journey

For those of you that have read our post; I just wanted to update you on how everything that has gone on. It’s taken me a bit of time to get the courage to come back here to this website, not because I’m scared, but because my husband and I are deeply sadden with how everything that happened….

We lost our Axel bear Monday November 14th at 6:10pm, oh so suddenly and unexpectedly. As you may know Axel was diagnosed with  STS (soft tissue sarcoma, nerve sheath) on October 27th.

On the initial consultation with our regular vet, she had educated on several ways she can take care of this mass on October 22nd, when she did a fine needle aspiration she noticed the tumor was very bloody, at that point we could sense the hesitation that she had, but with her knowledge and education we thought she knew that best route to go. With that being said, she suggested that we do a core biopsy to send the samples in to really determine what type of cancer it was since it was not a fatty tumor. She had stated that in 10-14 days come back and get the sutures removed, when my husband and I heard that we presumed it would heal and that would give us enough time to figure out what to do next.

Fast forward to October 29th, the tumor dehisce (path of least of resistance) while we were at work and when I came home my poor Axel bear was bleeding and the tumor stuck out about 1/2″ so my husband and I drove back down to ER vet and had him re-sutured up, we express a lot of frustration on why this is happening, and what that particular location. He actually was wondering the same thing. Axel went home that night very groggy and now wrapped. With antibiotics, and more Rimadyl.

We went in for our suture removal Nov 4th, and when I told the vet tech not to take the middle suture out she was not sure what to do so she called our vet in. When she checked Axel out, she said they are not ready to come out yet, and that tumors sometimes take more than 10-14 days to heal or they may not heal….when I heard that my heart sank, and I was seeing red all at the same time!!! I wanted to swear and yell at her, but my poor boy was stressed out enough, so we went home. And the kicker…they wanted to charge me for another consultation fee!!! What in the world!!!!!

So following about 6 days later Nov 10th, Axel’s tumor dehisce’d again!!! This time the bleeding was more, and about 1″- 1″ 1/2″ from that middle location. I had called and made an appointment for Axel to see the oncologist that Friday the 11th, and this happens! Our boy sure couldn’t catch a break….

At the oncology consult, she pretty much stated that she could not believe that the vet that referred us to her neglected to tell us everything,….

 

*****there’s more to be said…..to be continued.

***I’m just crying, and angry and it’s hard to type

HELP

Hello,

Our beloved husky/malamute was just diagnosed with soft tissue sarcoma, located on his leg on his elbow. it’s the size of my fist 🙁 due to limited funds we are not sure what route to take. We were told by an vet oncologist that we can either amputate his leg, de-bulk it with radiation therapy. Just to amputate his leg we are looking between $3200-3400 dollars!!! If we de-bulk it with radiation (mind you the radiation is on the other side of the state at college) it would cost between $5500-6700 all dependent on the radiation vet.

With his diagnoses, it is also coming with set backs, our vet did a biopsy on the tumor, because of where its located, it has dehist and is starting to “ooze” out of the biopsy sites, causing a little blood lost and the sutures to not close up correctly.

We adopted our dog 3 years ago, we are not sure how old he is. We think he’s about 8-10 years old, we have no dog history on him other than the past three years of his life under our care.

We do know that he has arthritis in both hind legs. My biggest concern is his quality of life, how will he manage going up and down stairs with 3 legs and two of which are arthritic…please give us some advice.