caitlinsam – Page 4 – Duchess the Dane loosing her front leg to bone cancer

Out of surgery

Our girl is out of surgery! All went well, some blood loss but nothing of concern. She will be monitored til at least tomorrow & we will see how she’s doing. I will be receiving a photo tomorrow from the amazing nurse taking care of her. Although the stress of surgery is over I still worry for complications. I really hope my girl does well on 3 legs

WE ARE OFFICIALLY A TRIPAWD FAMILY. Thank you all for support and will keep updating tomorrow

And off she goes to surgery

7:40am we send off our girl to change her life forever. Although this is a good thing for her pain I still feel sad that we are changing her life so drastically. She was definitely anxious last night as if she knew something was happening, she didn’t wanna lay down to sleep without me sitting next to her. I trust this vet team she’s in the best possible hands to take care of this. They will call me as soon as she’s out and update me throughout her time admitted. Fingers crossed

Introducing; “grandma??”

This is Kim, my (Caitlin) mom. She has helped me with Duchess since day 1 when I lived under her roof with a crazy, fast growing pup, to now when she’s in the most need. She loves Duchess as a family dog even tho she was going back and fourth between Milton and her home in Toronto. Our family dogs Buddy and Daisy were around until Duchess was 2 (Buddy passed at 13.5) and recently before Christmas Daisy crossed the rainbow bridge. My mom has been very emotional through losing Daisy very suddenly (even tho she was almost 15) and the idea of amputation was much harder for her to process. It took some time but she now sees it is our best option to get as much time as possible with our girl. She has been housing Duchess since she was a pup, and now is willing to keep her until she is mobile enough to come back to our home in Milton whether that be weeks or months from now. We are grateful for that.

Evening before amputation; anxiety is creeping in

5:50pm the evening before surgery Tomorrow we will be getting up at 5:30, leaving the house between 6 and 6:30am to drive Duchess in for surgery. I feel nervous for the future, but ready to get this tumor off of her body. I am scared for anesthesia just anticipating everything ahead. I’m scared for recovery. I’m scared for my girl. I know all of the stats about recovery and how she will do and how she will be a warrior and bounce back, but until I see her I will be scared. I’m also strangely feel a bit guilty, like I’m taking her leg without her consent even tho I know it will take her pain (trust me I repeat over and over in my head that I’m taking her pain which involves taking the leg) but i can’t seem to shake the guilt that maybe she will hate us. I feel bad for her that we HAVE to do this. Anyways just venting for today. She’s about to eat her final meal on 4 legs, so strange.

Introducing; “dad”

Duchess’ “dad” is Ryan. He has been in her life for the last 3yrs and she is incredibly close with him. Sometimes she even ignores me (Caitlin) to cuddle him ~ very jealous. He is a machinist and lives with me in Milton ON Canada. We are both extremely anxious for this surgery but want our girl back to herself and out of pain.