Second opinions and why they matter
My dog, Donnie, was recently diagnosed with bone cancer and we were told it was most likely osteosarcoma. We decided to take her to Colorado State University’s cancer clinic as we are fortunate enough to live nearby. In a strange turn of events, their team of oncologists and radiologists were skeptical that this was osteosarcoma and they recommended an MRI and possible bone biopsy. We were scheduled to amputate her leg that Thursday, but decided to cancel that in favor of doing the extra testing as we knew we wouldn’t be okay if we found out her bone biopsy was normal after we already amputated her leg.
They did her MRI and found that her bone is completely normal and is not the cause of her limping, paw dragging/knuckling, muscle atrophy, and pain. What they did find is that she has thickening of three nerve roots in her cervical spine. This is the true cause of her problems.
They cannot say whether this is autoimmune neuritis (inflammation of her nerves) or if it is a nerve sheath tumor. It has been a confusing route as they were advocating for radiation, but pulled the plug last minute when they felt less convinced it was a tumor due to her response to steroids and also felt they didn’t have a good enough target yet. We are living in a world of only grey now — not knowing what the right choices are because we don’t even know what the exact diagnosis is, but just trying to do our best to make her quality of life better. Currently, she is doing well on steroids, a variety of pain medications, and we’ve recently started physical therapy to address her severe muscle loss in the bad leg.
Donnie’s right front limb is bearing the brunt of this nerve problem, as shown in this photo.
This situation has truly taught us the importance of seeking a second opinion before making any major decisions on our pets and their health. Had we not gotten an opinion at CSU, we would have amputated her leg because we just didn’t even consider the possibility that a specialist might have misread her x-rays. The amputation would not have fixed her pain in the end (because the problematic nerve roots would still be there) and would have made it even harder for her to communicate to us when she has severe pain. If it had actually been osteosarcoma, amputation would have been the right decision and would have fixed her pain. We would not have known any of this without the additional MRI that was done.
Donnie enjoying a park visit on her 14th birthday in October
The past few weeks have been pretty hard on all of us. We are learning to cope with the changes this has created for Donnie’s life and mobility, though she honestly does really well most of the time, even with a bum leg. This is probably a good time to mention that while Donnie doesn’t have health insurance, our younger dog (Dylan) does! I am a huge supporter of pet health insurance and we are extremely happy with our experience using Healthy Paws for Dylan so far. I share this because having insurance really changes the entire game in terms of knowing you can afford treatments, even if they are extremely expensive. I’ve had Donnie for 13 years and pet health insurance was pretty poor back when I adopted her. Having insurance really removes the stress of worrying about money, which makes it possible to just focus on treatments and deciding which route is the best route.
Anyway, we are trying to soak up the good days with Donnie — enjoy time out in the world, cuddle time in bed, and let Donnie enjoy the little pleasures that make her happy. We are so thankful for our regular vets and for all of our new specialists over at CSU. We don’t know what the future holds for miss Donnie, but we are certainly not going to waste any extra days we’ve been given.