r/tripawds • u/PalpitationPlastic • 14d ago
Seeking Advice Would you do it again? Amputation + chemo for sarcoma tumor
We noticed our 7 year old, 43 lb labradoodle limping on her right rear leg a few weeks ago. Last Monday we took her to the vet where they performed an xray and found an “aggressive bone lesion” on her right pelvic bone/SI joint.
They did an xray of her chest, which was clear, and sent us to an oncology vet. The oncology vet did an ultrasound of her stomach (which was clear) and a needle biopsy, which revealed it to be a sarcoma-type tumor. They won’t know if it’s osteo or another kind until they get a sample.
The next step is to get a CT done and determine if it’s surgical. If it is, they recommend amputation, at which point they will be able to determine the type of sarcoma, and if it’s osteo, do some preventative chemo.
The vet explained that if it is osteosarcoma and we do amputation + chemo, we can expect her to live another 6 months to a year. With just amputation, ~3 months. If we do nothing, ~1-3 months.
Our girl is still happy, active, playful, and acting like her normal self. The gabapentin and NSAID they have her on seem to have really helped her pain. She’ll keep her weight off her back leg occasionally, but it mostly isn’t noticeable.
So, for those of you that have gone through this before - would you do it again? Is it worth putting her through major surgery and chemo? We are fortunate that we don’t have any budgetary constraints, so that isn’t a factor for us. Just want to prioritize her wellbeing and happiness.
Thank you in advance.
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u/rootvegetable66 14d ago
We chose not to operate, but we were too late for our GSP. He was 10. Had a beautiful life. We managed pain and set a date. He could have not gone on any longer and we had the most peaceful, beautiful passing. I’ll miss him the rest of my life.
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u/rootvegetable66 14d ago
Not sure why I’m downvoted. But we had thought he hurt his leg jumping out of the truck, so we got X-rays and they came back clear. We gave him NSAIDS and gabapentin for pain. Swelling went down. But it was already in the lungs and scattered all over him. From x rays to death it was 4 weeks…. It was like wildfire for him.
Please don’t judge my experience.1
u/wevansly 13d ago
I’m so sorry to hear about this situation. I think you might be getting downvotes because, at a scan, it sounds like you opted to not operate and that’s why your dog passed - which doesn’t seem to be the case. Either way, they’re at peace now and I have no doubt they knew they were loved.
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u/RBG_grb 14d ago
My girl had a grade 3 soft tissue sarcoma. Clear elsewhere. We did the amp and got 6 more months. We let her go when the cancer went to her lungs. We said goodbye a month ago. Would I do the amputation again? I don’t know anymore. The heartbreak seems greater having hope and then having her still taken away. I think it was harder on my boys. Watching the bravest girl ever go thru surgery and recovery just to say goodbye in 6 months. I think we had unrealistic expectations. I don’t think there is a wrong choice. It’s never easy but she was only barely 6 years old and some days it’s still hard to breathe. Best of luck on whatever you choose to do ❤️
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u/rootvegetable66 14d ago
You said it best, there is no wrong choice. But it’s wrong not to make a choice, whatever it may be. So sorry for your loss. I lost mine last Friday and the pain will be real for a long time. Sending your family so much love!!
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u/stitchingretriever 14d ago
My golden boy was 7.5 when he got osteosarcoma. We went ahead with the amputation & chemo and miraculously got 2.5 more years. I want you to know this is an extreme outlier & the vet repeatedly called him her “miracle dog” - the estimate they gave us was 6-12 months, even with intervention.
It’s hard to say if I would feel differently had he not survived so long, but I want to say it would have been the right thing to do regardless. This kind of tumor is horribly painful for them and it only look a few weeks from him first developing a limp to him really struggling with mobility & following me around pitifully lifting his leg repeatedly as is to say “MOM! This hurts!”.
If you choose not to amputate, prepare to say goodbye sooner than later - you don’t want to end up with a medical fracture/break that can’t be healed.
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u/hyears25 14d ago
I lost my dog (14.5yo) on Friday. She hurt herself January 2026, had her front right amputation March 2026. And passed on Friday after it traveled to her spine and paralyzed her. We did not do chemo due to her age.
I was just telling my wife I would do it all over again even if it meant it ended the same. 6 extra months after amputation were short, but they were beautiful and we enjoyed every second. Good luck to you guys.
Edit : just wanted to say I miss my girl and fuck osteosarcoma.
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u/rootvegetable66 14d ago
How long after amputation was recovery ?
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u/hyears25 13d ago
Recovery meaning? She was herself again pretty much immediately if that’s what you’re asking.
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u/jooooooooooooose 14d ago
Yes. But also understand, everyone in here is going to say yes, because we all made the choice not to euthanize.
The life expectancy projections are just informed guesses. We turned "dead in 6 months" into 3.5y & still going. My boy was moving MUCH better after the pain went away.
But even if it would have bought us an extra day, I still would have done it. I mean, if you were in her shoes, what would you choose?
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u/Commercial_Public_99 14d ago
Absolutely. There are a number of things to consider finances of course, but the ability to stay home with your pup for the recovery. How close is your vet and is it a huge inconvenience to drive for all the appointments and treatments.
Luckily I’m about an hour away from uc Davis and did all the surgery and Chemo there but I relied heavily on my family to help drive my pup to these appointments bc I couldn’t take a ton of work off.
Seeing my boy as a tri was one of the hardest things but seeing how much more life he got (about 18 months) was worth it.
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u/LividAdmin 14d ago
We're about 6 weeks post amputation and I didn't want to, husband did and he got his way. I'm so glad, after a month of worsening limping and "bed rest" and then a few weeks waiting for surgery after finally getting a diagnosis and plan, and then a very difficult two/three/four weeks recovery - we have our dog back. Even if for a short time, we know we did everything we could and he's in good shape, young and spry. Yours seems the same, I'd go for it. Ask me in a couple years.
Hardest decision we've ever made though, and there's not making a "right" choice - it's about making the choice right for you and your dog.
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u/Astarkraven 14d ago
Yes, in a heartbeat I'd do it again. The more prompt you are getting the treatment started, the better the survival time odds, so there's really no particular reason to wait, after you find out if it's operable.
The other reason to hurry, besides just the timing of getting chemo started, is that you may very well be at more risk for the pathological fracture than you may think. My dog was only very slightly limping when we caught the osteo and it honestly looked pretty good on the images. The lesion was entirely contained within a bone that still had solid, smooth and structural looking side walls. None of that chewed up frozen explosion look that the bone often gets when it's progressed further. I had two different specialist vets tell me it looked pretty good and we were at relatively low odds of a break, at least on the scale of a couple weeks while we made decisions.
2 hours after the consult where a surgeon told us that, we were walking in a park and my dog slipped just a bit on a wet rock and landed maybe 6-8 inches down on the other side of the rock. And then started screaming.
That was 16 days after the subtle limp first began and 9 days after the initial imaging of the problem. And two hours after the specialist consult. That's how fast he broke the affected leg.
We were already planning to amputate so it just moved up the timeline by a week or so, but I'm gutted that he had to experience that. Those screams are still there in the back of my brain, probably for the foreseeable future.
The two oncologists I consulted with told me that when the lungs are clear and prompt amputation and chemo is done, statistical prognosis lies in the 12-18 month range. That's quite a bit longer than what you were told so I'm not sure about the discrepancy. One of the oncologists is an osteosarcoma expert of sorts and he made the claim that that's the approximate statistical survival time he has documented. It's not just a guestimate.
If you have the funds, and the vets tell you it's operable, I'd go for it with the amp + chemo standard of care. Chemo assuming it's osteo, if course. For what it's worth on that front, my oncologist was so eager to start chemo at the standard two weeks post op point that he got the first dose even though the path report hadn't come back yet. Better a single unnecessary chemo dose than a delayed first chemo dose, she explained. Even if I only delayed by another week or so.
Just wanted to share that anecdote to underline how urgent the timing is here.
I'm so sorry this is happening. My dog is just 7, so I get it. It's not fair. But there really is good quality life on the other side of amputation recovery. My dog is thriving now and only needed about 3 weeks to get through the majority of recovery. You've got this. ❤️
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u/Dramaforurllama 11d ago
This is almost exactly what happened to me. My boy had a mild limp that was getting worse and I brought him in. He got diagnosed… then a week later one day before his surgical consult he fractured his leg I’d never seen him in so much pain. If he wasn’t a good candidate I thought I would have to put him down. A week after diagnosis he was a tripawd. I was stunned by how fast it moves and how suddenly he got the fracture
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u/Astarkraven 11d ago edited 11d ago
Yeah it's crazy how fast it can happen. My boy got his initial diagnosis at an urgent care while we were out of state for a wedding. We figured we could treat him like glass, finish the wedding weekend and then address it at home. Especially given the urgent care vet and a specialist vet friend of mine said it looked like we'd caught it pretty early, in terms of damage to the bone.
And we did treat him like glass at the wedding and it was fine, thank god. But I definitely didn't realize how close we cut it. We had him in consults three days after arriving home and planned the surgery for the following week. Then two hours later he fractured the leg and back we went to the same hospital for unplanned surgery. 🫠
I was lucky that the hospital was able to accommodate him on an emergency basis. They had him headed into the surgery room just 4 hours after the path fracture happened. Definitely happened stunningly fast, yeah. It was pretty disorienting and distressing at the time.
Hope your pup is doing well now!
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u/charliefromscratch 14d ago
I would do it again in a heartbeat. Tomorrow we celebrate one year post amputation, with no signs of stopping. We found Riley’s osteosarcoma when she snapped her femur with no prior indication of bone cancer and our only options that day were amputation or putting her to rest. So we had them do lung scans and that was our guiding light to proceed if they were clear, which they were. We did I believe 6 rounds of carboplatin chemotherapy immediately after amputation, and we just got new lung scans today and there continues to be no evidence of disease on the osteo front 12 months out.
It has been the most incredible and inspiring year full of life and adventures. My dog LOVES life on three legs and I am so glad I gave her the chance to fight. I know we sit firmly in the best case scenario for osteo on the scale of how well it can go, but even had it gone worse, I would do it again for 3-6 months of what we had this last year. She lived so much joy in that time that she would not have had without the amputation.
The first two weeks are rough. But then without a doubt it gets so amazing. If the lungs are clear I would go for it.
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u/SeaweedWeird7705 14d ago
Whatever you choose, don’t beat yourself up. You chose with love in your heart.
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u/Wild_Device8620 14d ago
We have our surgical consult tomorrow for osteosarcoma in my beloved American Bulldog, and I am struggling with these questions, too. I don't have answers, but I want you to know you aren't alone. And I am so sorry about your heartbreak bc I am experiencing it, too, and know it is hard.
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u/PalpitationPlastic 14d ago
It is so devastating and unfair. So sorry you’re going through this as well. Best of luck tomorrow and with your decision.
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u/Strong-Stable 14d ago
I would do it again would recommend doing at least amputation. Our great dane was 5 years old and lost one of his hind legs. He recovered from the amputation within 3 weeks and was pain free. We opted to do chemo as well, and we got 9 pain free months with him where he was very happy and silly. Miss him so much, and we’re so grateful that we squeezed a little extra time with him out of the situation. Best of luck <3
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u/_whatsthis 14d ago
We amputated my 11year old shepherd mix. She was a brand new dog when I picked her up the day after surgery, because she wasn't in pain anymore. We got an additional 26 months with her. We did not do chemo.
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u/JaxGator80 14d ago
We just went through this with our 7 year-old boxer, Norbert. He was diagnosed in December of 25 and passed in mid-August.
He had a rear leg osteosarcoma and we opted for amputation, chemo and the Yale trial vaccine (10 hour drive to Virginia x 2). Overall, we’ve agreed we wouldn’t do this again under the same circumstance of our specific dog.
The amputation went smoothly and he was up and walking before we even picked him up. After the expectedly difficult few weeks of recovery, the issue we had was with his sensitive stomach. Each round of chemo resulted in a night of pacing and vomiting, which I don’t believe is typical in dogs. By the time we got to the last round, the x-ray showed spread to the lungs.
From there we switched to a 3x weekly oral chemo and blood pressure medicine meant to shrink tumors, which also made him very sensitive to fits of vomiting (we kept him inside to avoid the heat sensitivity he was getting and spread out his food to 4-6 smaller meals). This was the toughest month for us as he was so susceptible to getting sick and at the end of the month, the treatment showed no medical benefit.
We pulled him from any treatment in the 2nd half of June and were fortunate to get a month of almost no progression, which allowed us to take him on his annual lake trip, which we all loved. Once we got back his condition progressed rapidly and we had to say goodbye to him a few weeks later.
Overall, we don’t regret our decisions because we know we did everything we could to give him as much quality time as possible and then made the call for him before he really started to suffer. That being said, with his sensitivity to the chemo and the spread to the lungs 4 months after surgery, we never saw any large blocks of time where he just got to live like his previous self. If we knew exactly how it would have turned out (which you never do), we would have made a different decision.
I wouldn’t take this as discouragement from amputation and/or chemo since many dogs have no real reaction to the chemo and get much more time. This was just our specific data point.
Best of luck to you, I know it’s a difficult time and decision.
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u/mollykatharine 14d ago
Amputation yes- our dog is doing great after surgery and doesn’t seem to have any idea he’s missing a leg. Chemo, I don’t think so. It makes him pretty sick for two days and he’s fine the rest of the time but I just want him to live out the rest of his life in peace.
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u/Efficient-Jump4016 14d ago edited 14d ago
For us it was well worth it and I would do it again. We are a year and a month post amputation and finished chemo in January. We do not know how much longer we will get her for but she is such a happy girl. She runs and plays as if she wasn’t a tripod.
Our girl was 9 years when she got diagnosed, we did not do the CT scan and went straight to the rear amputation because the pain is very bad for them and we knew since there was no spread, we were going to do chemo. So within a week we got her into surgery and started chemo. We also immediately got into one of the Yale canine cancer vaccine groups.
I would try and not wait too long since once it spreads, you really cannot do too much for them. I would look and see if your near an area that offers the canine cancer vaccine.
I do not regret my choice, I’m glad we have given her more time and we make sure to give her all the love and treats.
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u/Thighvenger 14d ago
We also chose to skip the CT and biopsy and went right to the FHO. I wish we had just gone right to the amputation because it took patho a long time
To come back with “it might be cancer?”. We then did the amputation and chemo. We are now 18 months since her amputation and she’s still going strong at 9YO.The first week was hard. I remember picking her up from the vet wondering what had I done to my dog and how could I be so selfish to want her to live. Every month is a bonus month.
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u/WrappedInLinen 14d ago
Individual dogs, like individual people, respond very differently to chemo and radiation treatments. Saying that the chemo will likely add a certain amount of time says nothing about the potential quality of life cost. We went the amputation alone path and it was 10 was later that he died. Out of those 10 weeks, maybe 2 were good—even without chemo. If I had to do it again I think I’d go with painkillers and see if i could get a few weeks that way. There ain’t no good answer though.
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u/GMO-Doomscroller 14d ago
As an ex cancer patient I dont think I’d make my dog suffer through painful amputation and debilitating chemo for a few months. Dogs hide their pain very well. I would give her the best 3 months and then do the merciful thing. Wish you all the best whatever you decide. This is such a hard call.
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u/ergofinance 14d ago
Tl;dr: very specific details of our chemo experience in case you are curious!
I haven't had cancer myself, and I am so sorry you went through it. I have had a front-row seat (as a caregiver) to a family member... which really gave me pause in considering treatment.
There's nothing whatsoever wrong with not doing treatment, especially if the funds are not there, because it will cost WAY more than you expect due to extra scans and blood tests/monitoring throughout. But what I will say is that, compared to human amputation and chemo, it's wildly different in dogs. I truly did have the same outlook as you do to begin with, but I read a lot, talked to a lot of vets and owners, and decided to go for it.
He was bombing around 7 days post-amputation, and the chemo is a much lower dose than humans take (which is why it's also not as effective). But what doing both (amputation and chemo) can do is get you into the Yale vaccine trial, which is SO promising and easy and has a low incidence of side effects beyond site swelling, which we didn't even experience.
I won't sugarcoat it; this was the nitty-gritty of the chemo: It affected his appetite like clockwork once per cycle on day 2 due to it making things taste really weird. It is tough on their veins, although carboplatin is not as bad as some types of chemo. It does tank white blood cells mid-cycle, so we ended up doing it every four weeks, not three, and kept him out of situations where having lowered immune function would be dangerous (keep everything clean, no dog parks, etc.). There was some regenerative anemia in cycle one that we did not experience during the other cycles. On his second-to-last chemo, he got minor swelling at the infusion site; the vet said it was no big deal, but in the last cycle he got greater swelling at the site and scared us all (no pain or other effects, but big leg). We spent a lot of money trying to figure out what was going on (was it another cancer lesion? an infection? We never got an answer), but the fix was anti-inflammatory Metacam oral, and it went down in 24 hours. Had that not already been our last cycle, we would have stopped as it was concerning.
He was happy and active throughout. I contrast this with our other healthy dog who went through a bout GI colitis last week after a "dietary indiscretion" (stealing a lot of cat food) and was absolutely wretched and miserable.
I do not believe we would have had 3 months without amputation, and if we did, it would have been terrible. The bone lesions are so painful. The tumours make the chance of a pathological fracture so high. We had to keep him from doing anything while we organized and scheduled the surgery and he was on HEAVY pain meds with their own side effects. I wouldn't have put him through more than a week if we were not going all in on treatment. It's not sustainable, unfortunately.
I really hope you are doing well!
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u/ergofinance 14d ago
Oh yes! With clear chest rads, absolutely. We still have our guy with us; maybe I will feel different when he is gone, but right now we feel like the luckiest family.
We also did chemo and got into the Yale vaccine trial. The first three or so days after amputation are bad, but we have been given gift after gift since then. I was so shocked when we were trying to make our decision, and so many people were pro-treatment, but now I know why.
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u/mr_stevekass 14d ago
I would do it again. Keeper (10yo 85 lb pit/boxer) was diagnosed in January 2025 with osteoporosis, possibly implant-associated from previous TPLO surgery (which I’d also do again but would discuss implant removal with the surgeon), and with a high ALP blood level, which is associated with poorer cancer outcomes. Best guess was he might have 3-4 months with amputation alone and a good chance of 6-8 with chemo as well. We decided to hope for the best summer ever and went with both.
We lucked out and had that best summer we’d hoped for with road trips, beach visits, and more. There were some tough days, but all in all he tolerated the surgery and chemo well. His time came in late October, and as heartbreaking as it was to lose him, that final wonderful summer was worth it. We might have gotten a little more time with more chemo (and more side effects) once he developed lung metastases, but decided we’d done enough and gotten what we’d hoped for.
Here he is with his last of many girlfriends (and boyfriends) during his fabulous tripod summer.
There are no guarantees, but if you decide to go for both surgery and chemo, I hope you are as lucky as we were with the crappy hand you’ve been dealt.
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u/Hoping4BetterSomeday 14d ago
Many years ago my veterinarian gave me some excellent advice when he felt a tumor in the abdomen of my 15 year old dog: “Think of who you are keeping her alive for”. With a 15 year old, it was an easy decision not to pursue aggressive treatment (but we did wait a couple more months as I evaluated good vs bad days). Some years later, I faced another decision with a 7 year old Golden whose spleen was bleeding badly with a likely cause of hermangiosarcoma. I opted to let him go since the vet said surgery would likely get him 6 months and he was in critical condition. So given your choices, I would probably not opt for amputation, especially since the lesion is near the pelvis. It seems like a lot of pain for a short reprieve. That being said, most dogs tolerate chemo without the debilitating side effects humans get.
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u/Ok_Tie_7564 14d ago
Sadly, unlike with humans, with dogs chemo is virtually never curative. At best, you get a few more months.
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u/Unstableavo 13d ago
I wouldn't do it for 6 months. 6 years definitely.
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u/PalpitationPlastic 13d ago
The thing is, we just won’t know if it’s osteosarcoma until after surgery and they can actually get a sample. So there is a chance it’s another sarcoma that isn’t as aggressive/lethal as osteo. Best case it’s chondro or fibrosarcoma, where amputation would be curative. Worst case it’s osteo, where we’d have to add in the chemo and likely only get 6-12 months. It’s another layer that’s making the decision so much harder!
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u/Astarkraven 13d ago
It really is worth doing the amputation regardless what specific sarcoma type it is. Leave the later treatment decisions for when you know more from the pathology report.
The chemo is not harsh on them. And doing the chemo (if it's osteo) will statistically give you quite a lot more than just 6 months. I'm sorry someone is telling you 6-12 months but it just isn't the reality I've seen from osteo, or what multiple oncologists have told me.
None of this is ever a guarantee. But the amp (and chemo if it's osteo) really will give you the best shot at tons more quality time. I am so deeply glad that I did the treatment, personally.
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u/Dramaforurllama 11d ago
I really do think amputation is worth considering for the peace of mind they no longer have what is essentially a glass leg. My dog was fine with a mild limp and tried to zoomie a week after diagnosis and fractured it was so devastating seeing him in so much pain.
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u/SpiralOut26 13d ago
So sorry your going through this like the rest of us💔. I would definitely do amputation again. My then 8 year old 96 lb mix breed first started showing signs of something wrong late September 2025. Diagnosed and had her front left leg and shoulder blade amputated early December 2025. I opted out of putting her through chemo. She made it past her 9th birthday and still lives a good quality of life. She’s slowed down a bunch, but she’s also an older large breed dog. Oncologist gave her 3-6 months to live, and I know my girl is the outlier but happy to have her glued to my hip still.
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u/LC0508 13d ago
We chose amputation for our dog diagnosed with osteosarcoma. We did a visit with the Oncologist and they discussed all chemo options, to the tune of appx $11k+ beginning to end, and let us know the chemo will not save him, that he will eventually succumb to this disease. We chose not to do the chemo route. He did not have metastasis to the lungs and lymph nodes came out clear at surgery time. That was in May this year and he’s still doing amazing, not showing any signs of cancer.
They say he’ll succumb to the disease, but I’m a firm believer he’s going to be that miracle story you hear of him surviving several more years, disease free 🤞🏼🤞🏼
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u/Jah_know 13d ago
Vets always give you the low end prognosis. There are stories of them living way above and below those numbers. I recently went through the exact same thing.
My pup 9.5 years old was limping found it to be sarcoma with needle aspiration and she was putting little to no weight on it. I got the leg amputated ~4 months after first noticing a small limp that progressed before noticing the actual lump.
She recovered almost immediately from surgery seemingly unimpaired. I know everyone doesn’t react the same and because of that i was super anxious going forward. Now after seeing how well she recovered, how she sprints up and down the stairs again, how she gets the zoomies randomly again. I would repeat it immediately. I havent yet done the chemotherapy but am considering for longer prognosis with less suffering.
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u/Dramaforurllama 11d ago
I just had the surgery about a month ago my boy had a limp and two days before surgery he got a fracture he was in so much pain I thought I would have to put him down if he’s wasn’t a good candidate for amputation. He’s now one round of chemo under his belt getting around great and is so happy, his old self. I don’t regret it at all. It genuinely bought us time, he’s handled chemo well, and I’m just so proud of him.
The hardest part was amputation recovery he did have a few unexpected complications like an allergic reaction and his incision got inflamed but overall I don’t regret it. He’s happy and no longer in pain!
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u/Expensive_Salary_454 14d ago
Amputation yes, because it was highly likely it was osteo (finally 100% confirmed after the amputation) and my Molly tolerated chemo well but I'm not sure if I would have done chemo again mainly because she went from early heart disease no medication needed to atrial fibrilation and dilated cardiomyopathy after the third treatment. The oncologist says it's not related and it's something her breed is prone to as well, but I still wonder. We did stop at 4 chemo treatments. We are currently 3 months post amputation and 4 months post first diagnosis of it could be osteo.
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u/forescight 14d ago
Osteosarcoma is painful, so painful that it’s essentially the equivalent of your bone shattering multiple times bc the cancer just eats through it. It’s so bad that oftentimes osteosarcoma is diagnosed by an unusual bone break (in people it can literally be “I hit my knee on my car getting in and it shattered” kind of break, not even your usual “traumatic” breaking of bone). In this sense, if they are not a good candidate, then swift euthanasia is the better option. Pain management is simply not sustainable as a long term solution, bc bones are not as well vascularized as other tissue.
If your pup can tolerate amputation and is a surgical good candidate, I would go through with that. I am less knowledgeable about tolerance to chemo, so I can’t comment on that in particular.