Aug 10th, 2010
Our path to Tripawdom
Linus adopted us through the Great Dane Rescue of Northern California. www.gdrnc.org If you live in Northern California and have a large enough sofa (or don’t mind sitting on the floor), please consider letting one of the GREAT Danes from the GDR of Northern California adopt you !
Linus is an older Great Dane who had a low-medium grade Spindle Cell tumor in his left hock. Because the tumor was wrapped inside his hock joint, surgery with radiation therapy was not considered a treatment option that would have a great long term prognosis. We were incredibly fortunate to be referred to Dr. Carlos Rodriguez, the world’s best canine oncologist. Dr. Rodriguez is not only the world’s best canine oncologist but also has the most fabulous sense of humor. He kept us laughing — which is some of the BEST medicine. Dr. Rodriguez works at both University California – Davis (http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/ccah/contact.cfm) and San Francisco Veterinary Specialists (http://www.sfvs.net). As long as the cancer did not spread beyond his leg, we were told that amputation could possibly make Linus cancer free. We decided to hold off on the amputation as the tumor was not very large and not yet affecting his mobility or causing much discomfort. We added some pain meds to his daily diet to keep him comfy and tried several Oriental Medicine therapies, both to support his immune system and slow the tumor growth. For the Oriental Medicine, we worked with the amazing Dr. David Fong at San Francisco Veterinary Specialists (http://www.sfvs.net.) With the great alternative therapies we believe we got a lot of extra time before amputation became necessary.
Approximately 18 months after diagnosis the tumor had grown to the point where Linus was not weight bearing on the leg and we had to increase the pain meds to keep him comfy. In the months preceding his amputation surgery, the tumor had started to grow very rapidly and was spreading from his hock toward his hip. The oh-so-amazingly-skilled-we-should-be-plastic-surgeons, Dr. Lauren Larue and Nearly-Dr. Carla Rodriquez, at the UC Davis’ William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital did his amputation surgery on August 11th, 2010. We are so incredibly lucky that we have this facility in Northern California.
Test pre- and post-op indicate the cancer has not spread beyond his now amputated left hind leg. We have fingers and paws crossed for now cancer- and pain-free senior years for our best friend Linus !
Linus thanks too and most especially his GP Dr. Sally Kimsey for taking such incredibly good care of him and partnering so seemlessly with all the specialists. We’ll never be able to thank her enough for taking such fine care of us all !