As every pawrent on this site knows, each and every checkup brings fears back up to the surface, second guessing if you missed anything that could have meant something changed, and the fragile hope that everything is truly ok.
As Rusty’s hoomins, we went through all of these and more as we approached his 6 month checkup. After getting lectured by Rusty on the finer points of being in his carrier, on a car ride, handed over to strangers, who, after doings x-rays and other tests, had the nerve to trim his nails, we sat down with the vet. Other than getting his weight down a little bit, he is clear and cancer free! We have graduated to the ‘see you in 6 months’ cautiously hopeful response from Dr. Scott.
Thank you for the continued love and support from everyone here. Here’s to another six! 🍾
It is so hard to believe that our world was turned upside down 5 months ago. I can still feel ever ounce of horror and dread as I learned my baby boy had HSA in his rear leg and hearing the words if we can amputate we may be able to save his life. At the same time, I can barely remember Rusty as anything but a Tripawd boy. He has gotten so strong, uses his stairs to get around without hesitation, and will even ask in his royal catness way for the stairs to be moved to other locations so he can join us (like dining room chairs). He has become more affectionate and even accepts some belly rubs from Mommy only (YAY FOR ME)… sort of….for short periods of time.
As you can see in this picture, the surgery site looks like he was born this way.
His favorite thing to do is still SLEEP.
We have to schedule his next followup for sometime within the next month. I believe this one will include the blood work and ultra sounds to make sure he still cancer free. He seems healthy and happy in everything he does so we are cautiously hopeful.
Our world might have been turned upside down, but through the support of this community and our family, friends, and wonderful doctors, it has been put upright… just slightly shifted onto another path.
Five months down… God willing, many more YEARS to go!
As this holiday season is upon us, we reflect on this past year and know that during one of the hardest points, we have been truly blessed. In our daily life, we have Rusty the Bunnyman’s Auntie Barb, who was by our side at each doctor’s appointment, surgery day, post surgery meltdowns and after surgery life successes. Everyone needs an Auntie Barb in their lives. 💕😊 We have Rusty’s hoomin Grandma who helped us give him a chance at a new life.
We have even more things to be grateful for… You. The Tripawd community. Your help, guidance and support throughout the whole process and after was more than anyone could ever have dreamed of. It is made what was a truly heartbreaking and horrifying experience manageable, and sometimes, dare I say, actually happy. Bell ringing for fellow Tripawds, watching feral boys become tame, hearing about the adventures of hopping cats and dogs, these are things I cherish.
We are blessed. Merry Christmas my Tripawd family.
It has been a little over two months since Rusty was diagnosed with HSA cancer causing us to amputate his leg.
In general cancer is an unknown. There are no timelines, no scripts to follow because cancer does not follow any of that. HSA is more common in dogs and can be very aggressive. As this is a rarer form of cancer in cats, we were very nervous about our two month follow-up with the vet. Everything is fine so far! The oncologist working with Rusty believes it is slower moving in cats, at least in Rusty. It was contained to his removed leg and he currently has no signs that it spread to the organs as it would in the more aggressive cases. The rate of metastasizing as shown in his labs on his removed leg was low. Our next appt will be in 2-4 months!
So how has life been since the amputation? Simply put, an adventure! My house could not pass a photo shoot for Better Homes and Garden magazine but Jackson Galaxy would be proud. Rusty needs help going up to his favorite perches so we have pet stairs going to the couch, his favorite chair, the window, the bed… with one set that is moved around as needed. For example, he wanted to help wrap Christmas presents this past week and stood looking at the chair that was at the end of the table. We moved his steps there and he jumped up onto the chair, then the table and laid down right in the middle of the wrapping paper. SO HELPFUL!
Our floors are covered with the foam tiles used for exercising as well as area rugs and runners. Litter boxes have lower sides which means a lot more cleanup around the box as the litter is kicked out. We have area rugs under the boxes so we can wash or vacuum as needed. I also have a hand vac that stays in that room since that is our new reality.
I do need to explore different types of litter. I haven’t changed his litter because I wanted to keep as much of his world “normal” as possible. Going into this, I was using the light weight clumping litter. While great for the daily/multiple times a day scooping that happens, it will have a tendency to stick to him. He will clean himself but if I can help avoid this, I will try. Maybe if there is a litter that isn’t a fast acting clumping litter it would be better. I will experiment.
If anything, Rusty has become even more loving and cuddly since the surgery. He will often be sleeping in our bed (whether or not he leaves room for others is a different blog entirely!)
I am very grateful for the support that has been given by the Tripawd Community throughout this process. If anyone reading this wants any information on what I have done in this process, please reach out!
The past month has been a whirlwind of challenges, triumphs and emotions. I have been blessed with meeting so many people on this site who are so giving of their time, thoughts, suggestions and just general support. I have shared a great deal of Rusty’s story and my struggles on the forum https://tripawds.com/forums/3-legged-cats/new-tripawd-mom-trying-to-take-it-all-in-stride-for-my-furbaby/ . I wanted to share and summarize some of the highlights of this journey here for others that may be going through something similar.
(Parents of Rusty: Gina and Nick)
The Beginning and Diagnosis
At the end of August/beginning of September, I noticed the back leg of Rusty was a little swollen. He wasn’t showing obvious signs of pain at first, only an occasional limp.
I brought him to our normal, wonderful vet, Dr. Scott Witham of Westfield Veterinary Group, who said it looked like soft tissue trauma and maybe he just hurt his leg somewhere. This was a cautious diagnosis because we weren’t sure. He gave him a shot of 2 weeks of antibiotic but there was no positive change within the next two weeks. We brought Rusty back and the vet ran cultures.
Within the 4 days it took for the results to come back as signs of cancer, he started hissing at his back leg anytime he moved so it was very evident something serious was going on. Our vet gave us the names of two surgical centers with oncologists and we knew our lives were about to change.
So it has been one month since I dropped my little guy off and the vet and began praying for the words “We can amputate”. The vet was going to run the tests to see if cancer had spread to other parts of Rusty’s body before doing the surgery. After an overnight stay at the vet, Rusty had his tests done on Thursday morning. We got the news that they were going to be able to amputate. At home, Nick and I were crying-tears of happiness that we were going to be able to help him and not having to let him go, tears of fear because we didn’t know what type of cancer he had and if there was going to be follow up treatments, tears because of the unknown of now being the parents to a tripawd cat and tears because of the doubt that comes with making a decision like this.
I found this site and with it, confidence that it would be OK.
While Rusty was undergoing the surgery and then going through the recovery at the vets, we got the house prepared as much as we could. We bought a 48″x30″ dog crate at the vet’s suggestion to keep him contained when he returned home. We emptied out the closet (his favorite hang out) and put it there. We got stairs to go up to the bed for after his recovery, and the rubber tiles to cover the wood floors for traction and softer landings if he lost his balance.
The New Flooring in the Bedroom
Surgery=Thursday, September 14, 2017.
Return Home=Saturday, September 16, 2017
Instructions from vet: Got a shot of pain meds that would be good for 3 days. Give an antibiotic (liquid) twice a day. Keep him contained for two weeks. Keep the cone on. Keep him calm. Try to get him to eat.
Reality:
First cone removal of Rusty-IN THE CAR ON THE WAY HOME. We managed to get the cone back on.
Very Happy with my accomplishment-NO CONE! Don’t tell Mom!!!
Used litter box in cage immediately.
First dose of the meds: about 0.3mL of the 1.0mL got in the cat. The rest was on the collar.
Second dose of meds; about 0.2 mL of the 1.0 mL got in the cat. The rest was on the collar and cage.
Second cone removal by Rusty: OVERNIGHT the FIRST NIGHT HOME. He was QUITE PROUD. We couldn’t get it back on. We tried multiple times. I ordered the Kong Comfy Cone for overnight delivery (LOVE AMAZON PRIME)
I called the local vet, in tears about what a horrible cat mommy I am because I couldn’t give him meds or get the cone back on him, and they (1) calmed me down (2) had me come in and gave him a 2 week shot of antibiotics and (3) they put the Comfy Cone on him with gauze AND a cat collar (which lasted for the next 3 weeks!!!).
Rusty has not figured out how to get this one off.
The next two weeks were filled with many posts on this forum (see above link), with support from the other Tripawd Moms and Dads. I found that if I held his food bowl, it was easier for Rusty to eat. We also got bowls that are on an angle. He preferred Mommy holding the bowl though.
During those two weeks, we also were looking ahead at the best and worst case scenarios regarding what type of cancer Rusty had in his back leg. We got the report back that it was hemangiosarcoma (HSA). This type of cancer is commonly found in dogs and is little more rare for cats so there was not a lot of information for me to reference. Also, a lot of the data was from when the tumors formed on organs, not a limb that was removed. As Rusty’s parents we went back and forth over whether or not we would do chemo treatments if there were needed. Again, this group was wonderful with sharing what they went through. We went from a hard NO to we would listen to the vet and then make the decision.
Then it was FINALLY stitch removal day as well as the dreaded conversation with the oncologist.
The outcome: No chemo! From what they could tell, the cancer was completely removed. We now have to do checks every few months for the first year then can spread out to every 6 months. When the stitches came out, we were hoping for complete cone removal too but since the area was a little scabby, the vet recommended we keep the cone for another week. He was allowed to be cage free though!!! (We were surprised but we actually did manage to keep him in the cage for most of the 2 weeks. There was one breakout.) We kept the cone on for the additional 10 days just to make sure it is healed.
These photos are from Rusty’s first night of being cage free. He has managed to get back on the bed using the pet stairs.
He is also on nightly mouse patrol.
On Sunday night/Monday morning around 1am, Rusty became CONE FREE with full run of the first floor of the house. He will be allowed access to the second floor at the end of the month. He had a few licks of Dairy Queen Vanilla soft serve ice cream to celebrate.
He now freely gets on the bed using his staircase. He also has returned to his favorite chair- a chair that is by the sliding doors with the blinds up for proper viewing of Cat TV. He has mommy’s favorite robe draped on the chair for extra comfort as well as another set of pet stairs to get up and down. You can also see that my dining room floor also has the rubber tile decor.
He really likes this spot because in addition to the Cat TV, this is the main door we use to enter the house so he can now greet us when we enter into the house.
Each day he gets stronger. Each day I get emotionally stronger. I know we did the right thing. On another forum/blog, some said remember you are choosing to save their life instead of saving a limb. This is SO true. All doubt is gone.
Rusty the Bunnyman… He is neither a bunny nor a man but he IS OUR BUNNYMAN, hopping through our house and life, bringing more smiles and love to each and everyday we are blessed to have him here.
cancer, he started hissing at his back leg anytime he moved so it was very evident something serious was going on. Our vet gave us the names of two surgical centers with oncologists and we knew our lives were about to change.
So it has been one month since I dropped my little guy off and the vet and began praying for the words “We can amputate”. The vet was going to run the tests to see if cancer had spread to other parts of Rusty’s body before doing the surgery. After an overnight stay at the vet, Rusty had his tests done on Thursday morning. We got the news that they were going to be able to amputate. At home, Nick and I were crying-tears of happiness that we were going to be able to help him and not having to let him go, tears of fear because we didn’t know what type of cancer he had and if there was going to be follow up treatments, tears because of the unknown of now being the parents to a tripawd cat and tears because of the doubt that comes with making a decision like this.
