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Would we do it all again?

I want this last page to be a short story of Our Lovely Boy Barney, as this will be the first page that “new” people will read.
Barney, our Rottweiler was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma at 16 months of age.
After a lot of soul searching we decided, mainly due to his age, that we would have his hind leg amputated and have four rounds of Chemo.
The amputation went quite well and after a lot of ups and downs it healed up really good and Barney coped extremely well on three legs. There are some lovely videos on this blog.
He had his first round of Chemo which was doxorubicin the following week after the amputation followed in three week with Carboplatin. His last a final (3rd) dose of Chemo was Doxorubicin, this we feel, was too much for Barney, he just never recovered from this.
If you are reading this and you are in the same dilemma I can only offer this advice, we would definitely go for the amputation as immediately your dog will be pain free from the cancer and just sore from the operation. The first two weeks and maybe the third are extremely exhausting, emotionally and physically. Be prepared; look after not only your lovely dog but all the surrounding humans.
Research any Chemotherapy that is offered to you, as there are many side effects, some being really severe and I feel that when we were informed we didn’t “want to hear” or wasn’t told enough. We really just hoped that Barney would be one of the survivors but it just wasn’t meant to be.
Barney passed away on Christmas Morning he didn’t even make his 2nd month Ampuversary.

This is my favourite photo of Barney

This is my favourite photo of Barney



10 Responses to “Would we do it all again?”

  1.   YodasMom Says:

    GREAT picture of that beautiful boy and I’m sure the information you shared will be a very useful to others.

  2.   gineej Says:

    Our community has taken a hard hit in the past few months and now I see your report about Barney! He is such a beautiful & handsome boy, he was way too young and I am sorry for your loss!

    Don’t ever second guess your decisions….we all just do the best we can. It is a terrible disease and I am convinced that every moment counts.

    Please know that I am sending you love & prayers as you grieve for your Barney, I too love the photo you posted. I do believe he is smiling!

    Take good care, Ginny & Paris

  3.   admin Says:

    Thank you very much for sharing your experiences with Barney. Posts like this are certain to help others face their own difficult decisions down the road.

  4.   Cherry Says:

    Spirit Barney and family,
    We are so very sorry for your loss, and hope that you can accept our deepest condolences at this time. Such journies can be very difficult and it is always tragic when such a young man is cut short. As Ginny & Paris said, don’t second guess your decisions. They are always made with the best knowledge available and focus on our loving companions. No one has a crystal ball that can predict the exact timeline so we learn to take every moment for its own value. I can see why this is your favorite photo of such a hansome man.
    Spirit Cherry and her dad

  5.   jakesmom Says:

    Your Barney was a beautiful and very loved boy! I’m so sorry that he didn’t make it to his 2 month ampuversary. My Jake also didn’t make it that long… and he didn’t have chemo… I think that every dog is different, and there are no right or wrong decisions that we make.

    Everything we do, is because we love them… Some people opt for chemo, others do not… some live a long time post amp, some don’t… some change their diet and add all kinds of supplements, some do not. I think it all depends upon how much the cancer has spread before the amp… usually micrometastases which cannot be seen on films.

    So, we all take this gamble… and that’s OK… because we love our babies so much and want to give them a chance at life. I have absolutely no regrets about Jake’s surgery… I just wish that he also would have lived much longer… But we had almost 8 weeks more to spend with him… and he was super spoiled (as I know your Barney was too)…

    They were loved until the very end… It is (was) such a scary journey for all of us… but luckily, our babies live for the moment, and don’t know how scary things are…

    My thoughts and prayers are with you… and I hope that Barney is enjoying himself in heaven with all our other tripawd heros that have gone before him… We will all meet them again one day…

    Luv,

    Angel Jake’s Mom

  6.   cairasue Says:

    It is a beautiful picture you posted. We all make the best decision we can based on the information we have at hand at the time. Barney knows that. His time was short in this world, but he was obviously a very important member of your family. Thank you for posting this so soon, I know it had to be very difficult.

  7.   Peyton's Path Says:

    You did what was best for Barney! He knows that! Be strong and remember the wonderful times you had with him. You did what you needed to do to try and give him quality time. We too lost Peyton, but we were blessed with an additional 16 weeks with him after amputation and chemo. Don’t blame yourselves and just remember the happy times you had with him!

  8.   romeo2 Says:

    Dear Chris and family: We apologize for the late reply. I saw your post earlier, but we were visiting family and I just wanted to have some quiet space and time to do justice to your very moving piece. As we said before, we just fell in love with Barney. What a gorgeous boy. He reminds me of the sweet Carl from the children’s books and also a good friend Romeo had Hugo–a big sweet lovable rottie. I can see why the picture you posted is your favorite.
    You did everything you could for Barney and you made those decisions with your love for him. He was so young and strong and I think if Romeo had been a young pup instead of an older one we might have chosen chemo as well.
    I don’t want to minimize your concerns about chemo, however. And I want to tread carefully because I know chemo has helped a lot of dogs here and gives hope to their
    people. I do think oncologists minimize the negative effects of chemo. Maybe we were lucky we were traveling between two vets so we got pretty different views of chemo
    from two different practices. Romeo has had a history of GI problems so we just felt
    chemo was not for him. Also, my mother who is a cancer survivor begged us not to
    do chemo. I hope its ok to mention these things, but I read in your post some very legitimate concerns/frustrations/feelings and I just wanted to validate those. Again, please forgive me if I am overstepping here. Of course, if Romeo had died so soon after surgery—I would probably be very upset with myself for not choosing chemo.
    This is all very hard. I remember when Romeo got diagnosed I just felt very angry—
    Why us? When we love him so.
    We know you loved Barney and we can see in your posts and the video he was a happy
    dog. You gave him a beautiful life and he is watching over you now.
    Please take care. Love, Eve and Romeo

  9.   Kami (Mackenzie's Mom) Says:

    It is always such a difficult decision to make about what the right thing to do is for your beloved pet. As other pawrents have said, there is no right or wrong decision. We elected to have Mackenzie do chemo after her surgery and every treatment she has, I pray that she will survive it. Vets and oncologists, etc., don’t have all the answers and can only tell you their best guess based on statistics that they have on the average # of dogs – it’s rather disconcerting because you can either fall below the average, within the average or if you’re lucky, above the average. Your beloved Barney was just too young and it’s just so unfair – but the blessing is that you were given a beautiful gift with Barney and he had you as his loving pawrents. Nothing could be more beautiful. With our deepest condolences for your beautiful boy. Kami (Mackenzie’s Mom)

  10.   Ted Malone Says:

    My wife and I are about to embark on this journey. Our baby Nikki is 8 years old (Here she is as a puppy, almost 8 years ago: http://www.sqltrainer.com/pics/nikki/viewimage.aspx?img=nikki.jpg ) and here she is now: http://www.sqltrainer.com/pics/nikki/viewimage.aspx?img=DSC_0026.JPG was just diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, and the vets (We’ve taken her to 3) all agree that amputation and chemo are the only answer…….

    Thank you for sharing this.