poor Tressel

Yesterday we found out Tressel has osteosarcoma (bone cancer).  It is probably pretty advanced already as there was another lump on his neck/chest area that is probably a tumor as well. There isn't any point in doing major treatment for him since it would help at all anyway, so we are faced with a sweet 5 year old dog who is basically in hospice care for a few weeks or months at most.

A couple of weeks ago we noticed tressel limping a little bit. We waited to see what would happen, keeping up our regular walks for a few days, hoping it was just a sprain or something in his foot. However, we examined his leg and paw day after day and didn't find anything. Meanwhile, tressel was definitely in more pain as the second week progressed, crying out at times and slowing down his activites. The limp was very pronounced and he was hardly bearing weight on his left leg.  As he jumped off the couch, or into the car he would sometimes let out a cry. Over the weekend on several occasions he let out a long long cry "ouhhhhhh ahhhhhhhh" when he tried to jump into the car and once when he tried copying Dave who jumped over a bush. We knew then that something was wrong. maybe a break or sprain?

I took him to the vet Monday morning.  The vet examined him and localized the pain to his joint at the top of his leg (like our shoulder) and wanted to do x-rays. She also found a bump that she thought might be a lymph node that was clogged and wanted to aspirate the lymph node.  Additionally she noted some edema, loose skin around tressels arm pit area which was unusual. The dogs skin is tight and he is muscular underneath.  So, I left tressel with her and went home to go about my day. I was a little worried about these 3 symptoms pointing to something more serious than a break, but hoped that somehow that's all it was going to be.

When I went back to the vet she showed me his x-ray and the part on the bone where there is a tumor at the top of his leg bone. She also said that the bump was not a lymph node but some other kind of mass (obviously a tumor).  She already knew that we were not the extensive surgery type so she didn't recommend that, but she said it probably wouldn't help much anyway. She had another case like Tressels where they amputated the leg and did aggressive treatment but the dog still died within 6 months.  She thinks Tressel will live 1-3 months.  She gave us some pain meds to help manage his pain. He is obviously in a lot of pain right now.   Last night I let Tressel sleep in my room on the floor (previously he was not allowed in my room), and he cried a lot of the night. I'm not sure if he was hurt or if he just wanted to sleep with the girls.  But it hurts him to walk downstairs so he didn't just get up and go down there on his own.  At one point, I walked with him downstairs and tucked him in with the girls.

This morning I gave Tressel some pain meds and he seems to be feeling a little better. He is up and around a bit. Prior to the pain meds he was just laying around mostly. The kids dropped food on the floor and he didn't go for it.  Clare said, "mom, I just put some food on the floor and tressel is not getting up for it."  Then Lexey said, "TRESSEL'S DYING" and cried for 'til it was time to go to school.

The kids have mixed emotions. They are sad but they also aren't. Kids can't really grieve for what is going to happen, I don't think they understand it well. They are all asking if we can get a new pet when tressel dies. Lex wants a cat, Calvin wants a golden retriever puppy! They are funny kids.

I was really hoping that Tressel would be the balm for the girls after our move, since he sleeps in their room and is such a good companion to them, especially Clare. now we're thinking Tressel won't even make the move with us.

Here is a picture of Tressels leg with the tumor just below the joint.