Kerbie, continued

Well, there's good news and bad news in the Kerbie saga. Good news: After doing a chest x-ray, it doesn't look like his cancer has spread into any of his organs. Bad news: Yet.

At this point, we're just looking to make him as comfortable as possible. Standard cancer treatments (radiation, chemo) are an option, but for a 10yo dog with this type of cancer, none of them really make sense. Why put him through Hell just to buy him a few more weeks (nothing more) that he'll suffer through recovering from the treatments themselves? But, there is one thing that we can do to make his remaining time much better.

We have opted to amputate that leg. The tumor in his leg is causing him a lot of pain. As it gets worse, it will hurt more and weaken the leg, causing it to eventually break. He is already taking weight off of it, and even so he still has a very noticeable limp and pain response. Since it is a front leg, he should be able to recover from the surgery quickly, and that would take away the major source of the pain while leaving him mostly mobile (his mileage may vary). We've also found a great vet that can take care of it next week, without breaking our bank or leaving him without overnight pain care.

Stay tuned!