Author: admin

 Hello!  I’m just getting this site going and feel that i have a lot of catching up to do!  Here is Bogart’s back story.

Sometime this spring Tony and I noticed a bulge on Bogart’s left front leg at the joint.  It doesn’t seem to bother him, so we don’t think anything of it.  He is still running 2-3 miles a day with Tony.

June 06 2012 – Grandma Oliver took Bogart to see Dr Bunn.  She thought the bulge on Bogart’s leg just didn’t look right.  Tony and I didn’t even think about the appointment that day because we never thought anything was wrong.  Dr Bunn took x-rays of Bogart’s leg and said it looked like Bogart had bone cancer and he wanted us to go see the surgeon at IVS.

June 08 2012 – Tony and Grandma Oliver took Bogart to see the surgeon.  He reviewed the x-rays and agreed that it looked like cancer.  The only way to validate if it was cancer and what kind was to biopsy the bone.  This would also help give us a life expectancy.   He recommended amputation to eliminate the pain in the leg.  The cost at IVS was $14,000 for amputation and chemo therapy.  The surgeon also told us that he was leaving the practice in one week and did not feel comfortable doing the surgery since he would not be around if Bogart had any complications after surgery and suggested we go have him looked at Ames Veterinary College.

Tony and I did some research on the Internet.  Our main focus was to not cause Bogart any additional pain in the time he had left.  We agreed that we did not want to do the biopsy.  Bogart would have to be put under anesthesia and the biopsy would weaken his bone.  We also agreed we would not do chemo because this only gave a few additional months – it is not a cure.  We did however want to go to Ames and have x-rays of his chest.  The most common bone cancer osteocarcinoma usually moves to the lungs fast.  We wanted to know if it had moved to his lungs and that would help judge how progressed the cancer was.  By this time we have all done A LOT of crying.  We love Bogart so much and he is such a good dog we can’t imagine not having him around.  Plus he does so well with Nico and she LOVES him.  At this point Bogart starts favoring the leg a little more.  We think it’s partly because now the vets have been manipulating and pressing on the tumor.

June 14 2012 – We have an appointment today with Dr Fox the oncologist at Ames Veterinary College.  We met her nurse Mike and her student Justin.  We talk to Mike for a while he is very nice.  He tells us that he has a 3 legged dog.  He makes a statement that will stay with me.  He says this is an emotional thing and they know that ‘when we see you here it means they are your family and you want to help’.  Justin performs the initial review of Bogart.  He then takes him out to see Dr Fox.  Dr Fox and Justin come back in to talk about our options.  Dr Fox states that they would like to do another x-ray of his leg.  They are concerned that the tumor has also affected the Ulna bone and it is not common for bone cancer to job to the next bone.  We also went through the possibilities of diagnosis and the possible treatments.  Tony and I stuck to our plan that we just wanted the chest x-ray and now the additional x-ray of the leg.  We also agreed that if possible Dr Fox would try to use ultra sound to see if she could find a crack in the tumor that she could stick a needle in to do a biopsy without using the drill.  We left Bogart in the doctor’s hands and went to lunch.  Dr Fox called back and was ready to review results.  His chest x-ray came back clean, although they tell you that don’t mean there are not micro cancer cells in the chest.  They also found that Bogart’s Ulna bone had a fracture.  She thinks it was caused by the tumor growing so large it pressed against the Ulna and eventually caused the fracture.  (We wonder if all the doctors manipulating the leg didn’t cause the fracture.)  With this she recommended amputation.  She said it was only a matter of time before the larger bone with the tumor broke and then amputation would be necessary.  Then Dr Fox said something else.  This doesn’t look like the typical bone cancer.  It’s possible Chondrocarcinoma which is a slow growing cancer or maybe it’s not even cancer at all.  Why did she have to say this and get our hopes up?  And what about the amputation?  We had agreed we would not cause him any extra pain.  Dr Fox gave us a lot to think about but stated we were on a short time frame.  If we don’t decide soon to do the procedure then all the lab work and x-rays already completed would have to be done again prior to surgery (this = more $).  Until we decided the vet recommended keeping his physical activity low so as not to stress the leg.  Dr Fox sent us an email with all the possible scenarios and estimated fees associated with treatment.  Ames fees were a fraction of IVS.

We were dog sitting for the neighbors so now we had to make sure Couy and Bogart did not get to active

Tony and I know felt confused.  We originally knew what are plans would be.  Now his leg is already fractured, and he may not have cancer??  Now what??  We felt like our only options were to have his leg amputated or put him down.  And who could put him down?  There was nothing wrong with him.  If it wasn’t for a small bulge on his leg you would not know anything was wrong with him.  We did a lot of thinking that weekend.  My fear would be that I would be home alone and Bogart’s leg would break.  I would have Nico and panic because I can’t lift a 100 pound dog.  Then of course it would be an emergency visit in Des Moines which would end up costing us more money that if we would have just done the surgery earlier.  Then what quality of life would Bogart have if we didn’t.  We were fearful of him running down the stairs, getting out of the jeep.  We wouldn’t throw the ball for fear his leg would break.  That’s no fun for him.  Even on the trip home we were leaning towards the amputation.  But we still had a lot of thinking to do.  I spent the evening researching amputation on line.  Everything said the same thing: it’s a low risk surgery, no owners regretted the surgery y and all the dogs bounced right back.  Dogs are truly three legged dogs with a spare.  Everything said it’s the owner that has a problem not the dog.  I watched this video of a golden retriever and his puppy friend.  Just days after surgery they were running around playing.  By day 17 it was like the dog had always had three legs. Tony and I were again on the same page, we had to do amputation and soon.  Leaving the Vet I texted a family friend to ask about family pictures.  She called back immediately and we set them up for that next Tuesday.

June 19 2012 – Family pictures at grandma and grandpas.  Joelle took our pictures and they turned out great!  Of course it was hot today – in the 80’s by 9am.  Bogart had some much fun on the farm he ran all around the timber area and the prairie grass  It was hard to imagine that he had something wrong with him.

June 20 2012 – After yesterdays adventure on the farm Bogart was limping.  We hated to see him in pain but it made it easier to validate in our mind that there was something wrong.  Today we had an appointment with the Surgeons at Iowa State University Vet hospital.  Dr Kieves and Dr Krebs along with Student Doctor John reviewed Bogart’s file and preformed another exam on him.  Bogart was weighed in at 95 lbs and all vitals were good.  Today was the first day that Bogart was getting anxious with all the visits to the strange people and i could tell he just wanted to go home.  After review the doctors came back in to talk to us.  They stated of course they do not know what the tumor is so they have to list all possibilities but of course its cancer, cancer, cancer, other, other.  We went through the options that Dr Fox had stated before.  Tony and I were still struggling with taking his leg, he still didn’t act like he was in much pain, what if it really is the ‘other’ diagnosis.  Would we regret taking a good leg?  Well the truth is it wasn’t a good leg.  It has a large tumor and a fracture. So in reality all roads lead to amputation.  We could try other things first but that would just cost us more money and Bogart more pain.  I have done research online about amputation.  I didn’t find one story where the owner regretted the surgery.  That helped.  I’m amazed at how the doctors seem to care so much.  It even seems they tear up sometimes.  How can they deal with all the pain they see?  It takes a special person that’s for sure. Ok so we decided for the surgery – it will be tomorrow.  They said we could take Bogart home that night if we wanted but he would have to be back up by 7:30 the next morning.  We decided to leave him there, he was already getting anxious with all the trips so we thought it would be best.  Apparently the student doctors are assigned a pet.  John was ours 🙂  We tried to tell him any of Bogarts idiosyncrasies but there’s to many to tell.  We told him don’t call the kennel a kennel, he wont go in.  Tell him to go to bed and he will walk right in.  Just love him!

June 21 2012 – Today is surgery day.  John calls us around 7:30 in the morning said Bogart was doing good.  There were two surgeries scheduled before Bogart so they thought he would go in later morning early afternoon.  I was stressed about the surgery all day.  What if this wasn’t the right decision.  What if he didn’t come out of the anesthesia?  What if he lost too much blood??  I could go on and on.  Then the doctors never called and it seemed like forever.  Finally at 3:30 pm I made Tony call for an update.  He was in surgery right then.  Then at 5:30 Tony called Bogart was out of surgery and did good.  What a relief!  I cried for a moment and then felt so much better to know it was over.  We went to meeting that night, everyone wanted to know how he was doing, I have been keeping them updated through my face book page.  Of course we hear the same from everyone.  He’s so young, he’s such a good dog, he’s so pretty.  We know all of these things 🙂  John called around 8:30pm said that Bogart was doing good but was still pretty drugged and wasn’t moving much but they would get him up moving in the morning.

June 22 2012 – We were told that we could come visit Bogie so we went to see him Friday night.  We had talked to Nico about Bogart having an ouchy and that he needed lots of kisses.  Not sure how else to prepare a 19 month old?  I wasn’t sure she would even realize whats going on.  They took us into a visitor room and they went to go get Bogie.  When I heard them coming I turned my head.  I just couldn’t look.  I finally took a quick glance and it wasn’t that bad.  They had him bandaged pretty good nothing for me to see.  Bogart came in and laid on the blankets on the floor.  We just showered him with love.  Nico noticed some of the areas that had been shaved.  She thinks that’s his ouchy.  Dr Kieves came in to talk with us.  She showed us a picture of Bogart that morning.  He had rolled onto his back for her to pet his tummy first thing in the morning.  He must have been feeling good.  He wasn’t feeling the greatest and didn’t want to eat.  Dr Kieves remembered that I had said Bogart loves cat food, so guess what he got for breakfast!  Then John made meatballs from canned dog food for lunch and dinner.  Dr Kieves was so good with Bogart and Nico!  Nico took over her on call phone pretending to play doctor.  I could tell that Bogart was pretty drugged and that his muscles were very sore.  He would not move his neck to look at you.  When it was time to leave John and help got Bogart standing up and used towels to help steady him.  At that moment Bogart regurgitated.  Apparently he had been doing this since surgery.  Bogart was not really anxious to try to start walking.  I think he found it easier to just have John slide him on the slick floor.  Maybe Bogart will go home tomorrow or Sunday?

June 23 2012 – Got a call from John 7:30am Bogart is still regurgitating every time he stands up and they are concerned he has not gone to the bathroom.  Oops.  We forgot to tell them he will NOT go to the bathroom on a leash, never has and I don’t know why.  We had John remove the leash (its not like Bogart was going to run away) and immediately he hoped around in his circle found the right place and went to the bathroom.  There problem 2 solved.  Now for problem 1.  Originally we thought it was because of all the pain medications.  So they decided to start taking him off the pain meds.  Our 8pm checkup call found that everything was still the same.  Bogart was still regurgitating.  The new thought is that while he was in surgery he regurgitated some and it sat in his esophagus during the surgery and so it irritated the esophagus.  Dr Kieves is going to try some new meds for stomach and reflux.  They are also going to take him off food and water.

June 24 2012 – Got our morning call from John 🙂  Bogart’s still getting sick.  Dr Kieves called us and explained the treatment plan.  She asked if we had any questions.  I just want to know if I should be worried.  I kind of felt guilty that I was not worrying much.  I knew he was in such good hands  and I felt more comfortable with him there than him home with me. We went to  see  Bogart today.  Grandma and Grandpa Oliver also come, they want to get the ‘shock’ over with.  When we get there Bogart had just started to get an IV drug so we had to wait for him.  When they brought him in he seemed worse to me that he did 24 hours after surgery.  He seemed very out of it.  Possible just tired.  They say that the ICU room is no different that human hospital.  They bother them every hour and Bogart also hops up anytime someone walks by.  We give him lots more love.  He has a yellow mesh shirt on today so we can see more of the incision.  Nico is bothered by this.  She doesn’t directly show it but she begins to act up the minute Bogart is there and tries to move around.  At this point you have to find humor in things.  I notice that Bogart tends to hop around in circles.  Hope he goes straight someday 🙂  We also weighed him.  He was down 6lbs, so how much do you think the leg weighed?  Of course grandpa doesn’t pay attention to our conversations and tried to offer Bogart a t.r.e.a.t we all yelled because Bogart was supposed to be off food.  But this really perked Bogart up.  I have video of him hoping down the hall way like nothing happened.  This made me feel good.  He was going to be ok.  If we could just figure out why he is getting sick maybe he can come home.  I think maybe he’s just homesick?  I know he does love John, i could tell.  But still not as much as mom and dad.  8pm checkup call – Bogart hasn’t gotten sick since morning!! Maybe if he keeps this up he gets to come home.

June 25 2012 – We sent Nico to grandma Stewart’s today in hopes that we would get the call to go get Bogart.  The call came!  Tony called me at work around noon and said that he kept his food down and he could go home!  I took off work early and we went to get our boy.  We met with John and another student doctor first.  They went through Bogart’s discharge papers.  7 drugs he is on!  and mostly for his stomach. Its so confusing  Some have to be taken on empty stomach some while eating and some prior to eating but one of them cant be taken anytime around all the others geesh.  then he has hot and cold compresses.  While waiting for Dr Kieves we started looking at a book in the waiting room ( i wonder if they planted it there for us)  it was 100 things to do with a golden retriever.  So many of them were Bogart.  So does that mean hes not that special?  I think he is…but i think all goldens are pretty special.  Dr Kieves came out and gave us discharge instructions and then went to get our boy.  He was doing so good.  She had put new dressing on the incision because she knew i didn’t want to see it.  His shaved hair bothers me just as much as the wound.  He looks like the monster from Monsters Inc that gets shaved down because he touches a human sock.  Bogart drew a little group to say goodbye.  He really makes friends wherever he goes.  And we are so grateful for everyone that loved him while we couldn’t.  We got him in the car and we were on our way home to start our new journey!