Well, went up to CSU this morning for my appointment there. I thought I was going to be late with all the traffic and stuff on I25, but I managed to make it just about right on time. CSU is a teaching vet center, so first I had 2 students check us in and get all the history and such. One of them looked at said she had met both Twyla and me before.
We figured out that it was a few years ago when Twyla was in a behavior class that she took. Twyla was very happy for all the attention.
After they got all the information, they went and presented to the on-call staff doctor. He came in and we discussed options.
Really there weren’t many, here’s the plan:
- Twyla is staying at CSU today and tonight.
- They are going to do a full blood panel and look at her kidney values (She had been on kidney meds for a long time)
- They are going to do some more x-rays and see if there are any signs of cancer in the lungs.
- They are going to do a ‘Bone scan’. Basically give her some radioactive junk that attracts to signs of heavy cellular activity and shows up. This will tell us if there are any tumors on other legs, or somewhere else.

If all that looks good, they are going to amputate her left front leg tomorrow. My vet could have done it down here, but they mentioned that they do about 2 a week up there and really know how to do it. with any luck, she will get to come home tomorrow night.

Then, after recovering from that (10-14 days) and getting her stiches out, we will do some Chemo. The drug of choice is a thing called ‘cisplantin’, but it’s very hard on the kidneys, so there are two others that we might use, or even a combo of both.

I have heard back on the x-rays (no visible tumors aside from the leg one). Hurray!
I have heard back on the blood work (slightly high values on a few things, but within the acceptable range). Hurray!
I should hear back on the bone scan later tonight.

Wish her a safe and uneventfull surgery tomorrow.

UPDATE 16:46: The bone scan results are back, and the only thing showing in it is the cancer on her leg. Thats a good sign. Hurray!

Well, went in this morning and the doc had gotten the path report back.
It’s osteo.

He is a nice guy and knows the usual treatment for this (amputation, followed by chemo), but suggested that they might know more up to the minute plans up at CSU.
So, I have an appt tomorrow morning at CSU for her to get looked at. I suspect they will say the same thing, but they might have some diffrent chemo drugs or plan
that will have a better chance of doing good. It’s hard to know what to do, but she is so happy and full of life I have to do everything I can until she lets me know it’s time to let go.

Well, Twyla is much recovered from the biopsy on wed. Thursday she was still zonked and wouldn’t eat until I offered her some roasted chicken. She ate that right up.
Each day she’s gotten better. She still is limping today, but otherwise all her personality is back:

• She comes up and demands attention and petting.
• She was nosing her food around and trying to bury it in blankets
• She growled at kurt when he tried to take any of her food
• She was cockroaching (laying on her back with all 4 feet in the air) on the couch tonight.
• She whined a bunch when I gated her in the bedroom and took the boy dogs for a walk

We go back into the vet tomorrow morning for a 9:30am appt to just check her stitches and make sure she’s doing well.
Then it’s just waiting for the biopsy results to come back.

Well, Twyla was out at the vets all day today to get her biopsy done. It went pretty well, they were able to get some good samples. She bled a LOT they said. They did let her come home tonight, which was nice. She’s pretty darn zonked out though. She can’t figure out how to lay down without using the shoulder/leg that was biopsyed. Hopefully she will feel better after a lot of sleeping. I do have to take her in in the morning to get checked and an IV connection removed.
Should get the results of the biopsy friday or monday, and can try and figure out next steps then.

Twyla started limping on friday. Didn’t want to go down stairs or walk around much this weekend. So, first thing this morning I took her into my vet.
They isolated the problem as being in her shoulder, and suggested X-rays. They took a few right then and developed them.
The bone on the top of her leg where it meets up with her shoulder is “not normal”. It could be a bone infection of some kind, but is much more likely to be bone cancer.
She goes in wed for a bone biopsy to find out what we are dealing with. If it’s an infection she can get treated with antibiotics, so thats the best case.
If it’s bone cancer the treatment is amputation + chemo. Reading up on things it appears that the median survival times for that are pretty good.
Will have to see what happens.

As usual, I seem to be too busy to upload pictures or otherwise update during the week.

Here’s some photos I took over the last week:

Three boys (Merlin, Kurt and Jazz):

Twyla still knows how to relax:

We had some snow monday, and the dogs got to wear their coats for the walk.
Jazz luckily fit in one of Kurts old coats:

Merlin finds Kurt to be an excellent pillow:

well, another day, another adoption.

Jazz went to his forever home today. A very nice lady looking for a nice older calm greyhound. They really seemed to get along great.
Congrats Mr Jazz.

Here’s Jazz, the 10 yr old. He’s in great shape for his age:

“Meeting” Twyla:

He’s a big boy:

He does know how to relax (the muzzle is due to him being slightly interested in the cat):

Well, thats officially the shortest time I have had a foster. Just around 24 hours, and Abel has gone to his forever home.
Everything just worked out great for him and the folks that adopted him.

At the same time I have picked up a new foster, Jazz. He’s a 10 year old return. Golden faun in color. He seems sweet so far, but he has yet to pass the strict cat testing only my cat can dish out.

Pictures up later.

Catching up on some pictures:

Our cat overlords are always watching:

Here’s some pictures of Abel, the new foster I got today…

First order of business:

He seems to like having just 1/2 of his radar running at any given time:

He seems to be settling in ok though:

Whats that flashy light thing?