Sam’s story-the beginning

Sam is, hands down, the sweetest and smartest dog I’ve loved.  He came into our lives  in 2005, making him just about 9 years old now.

We werent going to get a dog, we were just going to look.  I stumbled upon  a young dog, about 6 months old who whined when I walked up to his cage and “broke the rules” by petting him through the bars.  My heart immediately melted, my husband’s too.  We weren’t immediately ready to get a dog (we had a 3 year old yellow lab, Emma, too).  We decided to “think on it”.

We went antique shopping the following day where we found a mid century modern furniture set we’d been looking for for awhile.  Blonde.  Heywood Wakefield.

We decided that of the 2 blonde things we’d seen, we needed the puppy.  The humane society was busy that weekend and only the dog soon-to-be-known as Sam and another black great Dane/lab mix were left.  He’d waited for us.  We brought Sam home.

Sam has been an amazing friend, companion and running buddy for Mike.  He’s so patient with our 3 year old and 6 year old and we love him dearly.

Sam has had several medical “things” over the years.  Hemhorragic gastroenteritis.  A mast cell tumor removed from his hind leg,  but nothing like the recent events.  About a year ago, I noticed Sam’s eyes retained a “glow” and he was not seeing well anymore in the dark.  I mentioned this at an exam and the vet said that Sam’s retina’s were looking like he had signs of “progressive retinal atrophy”.

On March 31st, Sam was out running with Mike.  I got a phone call that Sam had most likely “had a seizure” and Mike needed help.  We ended up getting Sam to the vet where chest and heart x-rays were run.  Blood was taken, and all came back looking nice and clear.

The next day, we noticed Sam was limping on his right front leg.  It was tender to the touch.  We let him relax and “take it easy”. over the next week.  The following Sunday came around and Sam’s paw was worse.  Thinking perhaps he had broken it somehow in his fall the weekend before, I decided to hunt for a clinic that would be open on a Sunday afternoon.  We ended up at a Banfield pet hospital about 40 minutes away.  X-rays revealed no broken bones, but did show an area the vet thought could be bone cancer.  We would have rather had a broken paw.  The only way to know for sure was to consult with the radiologist.  I decided to take the films to our vet the next day.  It took a couple days, but the vet finally called me and said the radiologist there had looked at the films and the news was not good.  Sam was given a diagnosis of osteosarcoma.  I was educated quickly on OA. This was April 17th, 2014.

We were told amputation was the way to go, or we could treat with pain meds but told that Sam would eventually not use the leg. I usually do a lot of research into decisions like this, but we had 2 deaths in the family and I really had a hard time dealing with Sam.  I’ve watched over the last 4 weeks.  The doubt set in.  Then, 8 days ago I had to put a 17 year old cat to sleep, and dealing with Sam came into the forefront again.

Yesterday, I decided to face the diagnosis and in my search found the tripawds site. Despite the cost, I convinced Mike and we made the decision yesterday to amputate Sam’s leg.  He’s become increasingly more cautious when walking.  He’s in pain.  I hate that for him.  I read encouraging stories here (and a couple of sad ones).

The final decision comes down to Sam.  We owe it to him to try and make his last days (whether they’re just days, we’re able to combine days into months or if we can get another year for him) less painful than they are now.  I would rather lose him trying to make that happen than watch him suffer as he will do if we do nothing.

I’m waiting for a call from our vet, but have scheduled Sam for Wednesday at 9:00am at another site (that’s less expensive).  I’m not sure that we’ll use them, but my goal is to have surgery before Friday.

Will provide an update once I know what’s happening.  I’ve been so grateful for all the words of encouragement and finding this site.  It’s nice to know we’re not alone.

-Katie