Patches Journey

Hello, my name is Debbie and my little tripawd is named Patches.  She has a lot of other names but Patches is the official.  Our journey began on Friday August 21st.  I could even tell you the time because the moment I heard that my dog might have osteosarcoma time stood still. 

Patches (aka Patches Minerva Mimi Jane Lorraine) is a Canaan dog that we rescued from the Trenton Animal Shelter in 2007.  She joined her brother Rooster who we adopted in 2006.  She came from a hoarding house.  The well-meaning but ill equipped dog lover had 40 dogs, some cats and a giant mess.  They found Patches with five puppies, all of them covered in feces.  She had broken teeth from fighting for food and she had worms.  They rescued all of the dogs in the house and found that they loved people but were understandably aggressive toward other dogs.  Constantly having to fight for food would do that to a dog.  I found patches on petfinder.com as I was looking for a companion for our Golden/Chow love bug Rooster.  I met her at Petsmart but was told that she was already adopted.  Two weeks after my visit where I expressed interest I received a phone call that Patches was brought back to the shelter and now available for adoption. 

Before we adopted Patches we were not aware of her other dog aggression.  We only knew she was placed in three homes previously but was brought back for reasons that weren’t completely clear.  Ignorance on our part worked in her favor.  We vowed to bring her into our home and keep her no matter what.  “No matter what” turned into fierce food aggression that saw her brother hiding in a corner for two days, constant shedding and us wondering how we were going to survive this aggressiveness and the tumbleweeds.  Her brother is as submissive as she is dominant so thankfully there were no physical altercations though there were some scary growling matches.  We welcomed the tumble weeds and took it all in stride.

Within 6 months, Patches had nipped one other dog and developed a special “frenemy” relationship with the standard poodle down the street.  This was the dog she loved……..or should I say would have loved to taste.  After 6 months us Patches got past a door one day, ran outside and was tearing toward her frenemy as though she were going to literally devour her for being in our yard.  I did a football dive to catch her.  I caught her.  And broke all four fingers on my left hand in the process.  Four external fixation pins and two prescriptions for painkillers later I questioned the wisdom of our decision to keep her.  We soldiered on because we realized she didn’t open that door and let herself out.  We had a moment of sloppiness that we NEVER had again. 

Not long after we noticed a change in Patches.  She began to “soften”.  Mellow if you will.  She now always had a “smile” on her face and was developing a gentleness that came from a sense of security.  Her tail wagged continuously, she no longer looked to devour her brother and she even learned to beg and play.  We realized that by being patient, loving her unconditionally, making food plentiful and not listening to naysayers who told us to give her back we helped her become the dog she was meant to be.  Healthy, joyful, spirited and most of all loving towards humans AND other dogs, especially her brother.  Still with constant shedding 🙂

Fast forward to June of this year.  We have no idea how old Patches is and had no idea in June either but we noticed a slight limp in her front left paw and she began tripping here and there.  We thought old age was setting in and perhaps, like her brother, she had a bout with a strained tendon.  perhaps her eyesight was going a little because her hearing was not as keen as it once was.  We kept an eye on her and she progressively got worse.  To the point where she no longer put weight on her paw.  I couldn’t let the problem linger and I made an emergency appointment with our vet on August 21st because that week she went from a moderate limp to all out non-weight bearing.  We thought she maybe fractured a paw or tibia.  The vet sedated my girl and they performed xrays to see if they could identify the issue.  What they came back with shocked me.  It seemed there was a tumor in her humerus (top of her foreleg and into her shoulder) that was suspicious for osteosarcoma.  Shock.  Denial.  And a sleeping puppy in my arms as the gravity of the situation hit me.  I was given the name and location of a verterinary oncologist who I called immediately and scheduled an appointment with. 

Monday August 24th we visited the oncologist.  More tests.  Further suspicion.  We were presented with options.  Our primary goal was total pain relief.  The best option in our opinion was amputation.  We were told that if we didn’t amputate the tumor would continue to destroy her bone and cause great pain and that in turn would end up requiring a lot of pain meds and very little time for Patches to survive.  Given how feisty she is we felt she could survive the surgery and make a good recovery.  Oh but one other thing…….there seemed to be a suspicious mass on one lung, perhaps a half centimeter.  The vet was kind, explained in lay terms what she thought was going on.  I’m a registered dietitian who worked in a hospital on the oncology wing with 25 years in with J&J presently in an oncology role with the company.  I put it in medical terms.  Metastasis.  The cancer most likely spread.  I know the drill.  The vets talk in “possibly” and “strong suspicion”.  I talk in realistic terms.  Canine OSA is aggressive.  The first place it goes is to their lungs.  The math was simple but awful.  I didn’t know I had that many tears to cry.  I felt hopeless. 

On August 27th Patches has her left foreleg removed.  It was heartbreaking to just look at her.  She had a fentanyl patch for pain plus rimidyl.  To our surprise she walked out of the vets office, came home, ate and took a nap.  As of today she is taking NO pain medication, digging with her one paw and barking at her favorite frenemy.  She even ran to “greet” her.  She had her stitches removed yesterday.  While in the vets office she peed on their welcome mat and harrassed a dog 4 times her size.  No need to ask what she thinks of the vet and the office.

I have a consultation with the oncologist on Tuesday.  The original plan was 5 cycles of carboplatin………only if Patches can tolerate it with few side effects and NO pain.  After countless hours of research I found this site, tripawds, and am now armed with a plethora of information, questions and a whole new set of options.  There is joy in my dogs eyes.  She is happy again, eating like a champ and snuggling like a bug in a rug on steroids lol.  She is a fighter at heart, a survivor and we are doing everything in her best interest to give her as much good quality time as we possibly can.  She is like me, her mom.  I’m a fighter and a survivor.  Please, if you don’t mind, pray (to whatever God you want, believe in and think will do the most good) that we find a well tolerated alternative that will give Patches years and not just months back.  We love her and her brother loves her and we aren’t ready to face our life without her. 

More to come on her oncology visit.  Comments, information, words of encouragement and love emojis are all welcome.  Thank you for reading and taking this journey with us.  It means more than you know. 

xoxo