Bone cancer mistaken for CCL tear...Twice.
It's taken me a bit to be able to write about this because I thought I'd about die of heartbreak. I feel the need to put this out there in case it can help even one person make a decision.
Around September, my boy started limping out of nowhere on his back leg. Being in the final semester for my master's degree at the time, we were not a super active pair. We would play outside as long as he'd like and then come inside. The only place he'd hang out relatively unsupervised is our fenced-in back yard, but he wasn't outside prior to me noticing the limp. I waited a few days to see if it would resolve on it's own, but it did not.
Went to the vet. Dr. Whoever looked at him for maybe 15 seconds (barely touching him) and decided that it was a CCL tear and I'd have to schedule a surgery with the orthopedic specialist. He gave me some Carprofen to be given twice per day. Note: no imaging was done. I asked for an x-ray, and he quoted me $650. I decided against it and moved on.
After doing some reading online, I learned that an x-ray does not show ligaments anyways. There is one physical examination (drawer test) that is generally used to diagnose CCL. He didn't do this. I opted to get a second opinion.
Scheduled an appointment with a brand new (to me), highly-recommended vet. This is where it gets weird.
Appointment was not for a week, and in the meantime I had my pup on the Carprofen as-needed (Dr. Buddyboy only gave me 14 pills so I had to use them sparingly.) Dr. Ladyvet examined my pup pretty well, and said we needed to have x-rays taken to check bone spacing and to rule out any other injury. Sure, makes sense. They were able to get the image without sedating him which was great! She brought me to the back to show me the x-ray.
This chick told me that my dog needs bilateral hip surgery and bilateral knee surgery (dog had luxated patellas, hips were 'weak' but not injured). Yo. My dog is four years old, by the way. Lab/American bull mix. Pretty sturdy boy. Anyways, I physically could not take him in for surgery at this point because I'm in my last three weeks of my whole master's, and I had a LOT at stake; especially when we are talking about a $5,000 surgery to fix ONE apparently injured knee...kind of need a big girl job to even make this possible to pay off. I asked her how long we could hold out, and she told me I could wait after the holidays, but to try to get him in by January. Cool. Semester ends in early December, and the university (where I work) closes as of December 20. In the meantime, we were following the 'conservative management' approach, giving him supplements, dieting him so keep weight off the knee, carprofen every so often to keep him comfortable, leash-walks only in the back yard, crated when company is over, etc.
I went ahead and scheduled an appointment for a surgical consultation on Monday December 23rd, with tentative surgery scheduled that same day. The idea was to drop him off and pick him up on Christmas eve. Within an hour of setting the appointment, my husband called me in a frenzy (which never happens.) Mag's knee swelled up out of nowhere to twice the size. I immediately called the specialist back to move the appointment up to Friday the 20th (soonest they had), with tentative surgery scheduled Monday the 23rd. The specialist advised me that CCL tears don't swell. That should have been my first hint. The next two nights, my boy was in so much pain but we kept him comfortable with the carprofen.
The morning of his appointment, he was fasted and I rushed him out the door to hurry up and poop, rush rush rush to the car, haul ass to the specialist. At this point I'm annoyed and afraid for the financial part, but semi-relieved to finally resolve this whole ordeal. Husband and I drove separate cars because he was planning to go directly from there to work.
Surgeon comes in after viewing the x-ray from previous vet, and she let us know that she had 'bad news.' In my mind, I'm scoffing and thinking "yeah, I know, CCL tear, expensive surgery, okay let's go I got things to do." When said said the words 'bone cancer,' I laughed out loud. The only thing I could say was HEY I KNEW IT WASN'T A CCL TEAR! I TOLD YOU GUYS! For half of a second, I felt thrilled and vindicated, as though bone cancer has an easier course of treatment than a CCL repair.
In sum, the only treatment was amputation of the leg and chemo. Sounded fine at first, except for the fact that it would "buy him a good year." Dr. LovelyPerfectSweetheart took him back for new x-rays to be extremely sure, and sure enough, the top of his femur was basically an eggshell. It was at that point that my husband and I decided to let him go. I couldn't imagine taking off his leg, only to be on a doomsday clock of 'when is my dog going to die?' Since he was already mostly-sedated, we just went ahead with it. About $2,000 later between all three vets (and his ashes), we brought my boy home in a box. Oh, and according to her his ligaments and all other structures were in perfect condition.
I'm sorry this was so long, but I feel that the details are necessary because I cannot be the first, last, or only person to go through this. If I could do anything differently, I would have taken him to the surgeon in September. The outcome would have been the same, only he wouldn't have suffered for three extra months. I did what I thought was right by getting a second opinion, and even after getting quoted for $50k worth of surgeries, still went to the surgeon with an open mind (and thankfully, good credit.) The thing that infuriates me the most is how SURE the first two vets were in their incorrect diagnoses - who are you supposed to trust, if not them?
If this story resonates with you, or if you are in a similar position, just go to the specialist. It's more expensive, but I never would have thought how wrong two educated, licensed professionals could be otherwise. I'm never having another pet. I feel like I wouldn't be able to trust anymore vets. At least not until I can use the specialists as our primary medical provider. If I ever have another dog ever again, it won't be until I can afford to take them in for even the tiniest eye-twitch.
Submitted January 21, 2020 at 09:02AM by afeastingwife
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/DOG/comments/erwkqm/bone_cancer_mistaken_for_ccl_teartwice/?utm_source=ifttt
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