Any of you following this thread know that 9 days ago, Sarge collapsed and became unresponsive. Over the night, his dad and I laid with him, not expecting him to survive the night. He was pulse-less and barely breathing, but not in pain.
He made it through the night so I took him to the vet. The vet determined he had a massive abdominal bleed and ordered an ultrasound, but it could not be done till the next morning. Sarge pulled through another night so Wednesday, a week ago, we went in for the U/S. He was still too weak to even stand. The U/S confirmed that he had a bleed from a tumor on his spleen and also had lesions on his intestinal area and prostate. Lymph nodes involved as well. :o(
On the way out, Dr. Heintz handed us a box of chinese herbal medication (yunnan baiyao) and said it may help with the bleeding but that Sarge may be too far gone. What would it hurt? We took Sarge home to keep him comfortable. Mind you, Sarge is a big boy; 100lbs of love and joy. Tim and I slept with him and worked our schedules so that we were always by his side. He was never alone. We syringe fed him chicken broth and water and carried him out with a sling to potty. I was taking the capsules and mixing with the broth to administer.
Saturday he acutely stood up on his own but was still very weak. We continued to give the herbal med, 2 pills 2 times daily. Today Sarge is hopping out to potty on his own and eating and drinking out of his dish, no longer having to be hand fed. He even begged for his evening walk tonight, so we took a very short stroll.
There are not words to express our shock in his miraculous turn around! Thank you for your prayers and ++++ thoughts. We understand his cancer is terminal, but for today, Sarge is a nub wagging happy pup!!! Love every moment with our precious boy!!!
Author: c1nicolei
Sarge has been the the love of my life since we rescued him in 2007. He was thought to be a carcass on the side of the road in our community park. As I walked over to look at the pitiful dead dog, I soon realized he was still breathing, barely. We rushed him to the vet and although severely malnourished and in a terrible state, with TLC he miraculously pulled through. Snap shot ahead to 6/2014, we decide to go outside to play fetch, he was so excited and full of energy, doing his typical bouncy boxer pelvic shuffle. He took a nasty tumble and the sounds that followed was nothing short of heart piercing. My heart stopped, because I knew it was bad, very bad. I am a PA, not a veterinarian, but I knew instantly the leg was broken badly. I splinted him and rushed him to the vet. What initially was going to be an orthopedic surgery to repair a broken radius and ulna, quickly turned into, "Your dog sustained a pathological cancer, we think he has osteosarcoma". I could not even hear what I was being told. How could this seemingly happy, healthy, FULL of life dog have CANCER?? The BX confirmed my worst fears. This whole process took over a week. In that time I researched every aspect of canine osteosarcoma I could find and I had already made up my mind, we were going to fight this, not for me, but I knew he was not done living!!! Making the decision to amputate was not one taken lightly. We ensured there were no macro mets and that his blood work looked stable. I also decided if we amputated we would also do chemo. Sarge had his leg amputated 2 days ago and I am amazed at his hour by hour improvement. We start chemo in 2 weeks. I will keep everyone updated and love reading stories on here that give me hope that he will be able to be a happy, pain free normal Sarge!!! This is when we joined TRIPAWDS! What a wonderful, reassuring supportive community! I love you TRIPAWDS!
View all posts by c1nicolei
I’M STUNNED!!!! STUNNED IN THE BEST WAY!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY FOR SARGE!!! 🙂
I’ve been watching for an “update”…an update that I dreaded.
HA!!! SARGE HAS OTHER PLANS!!!! 🙂 SARGE, YOU KEEP THESE MIRACLES COMING SWEET BOY 🙂
This has made me sooooo happy! 🙂 I cannot stop smiling! Really! 🙂
Now give that amazing boy a big smooch for me and, yes, a scoop of ice cream!!!
Love!
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
PS…YAY for Yunnan Baiyao! 🙂
Makes us SOOOO happy too!! He is so bright eyed and back to his hoppy happy silly self. He is one special boy!!
Way to go Sarge!! What amazing, just amazing, news. I can’t tell you how happy this makes me. I am so happy for your whole family, what an incredible gift – more time together. Thank you for taking a moment to update us so we can all share in your joy. I’m imagining that little nub wagging right now (and I bet his parents’ “nubs” are wagging too).
Wishing you many more happy moments with your Tripawd wonder dog. Love and hugs to you all and a big kiss for Sarge!
❤️Amy & Rusty
WOW~!!! All the feels here … this is great news and I know we were all holding our collective breath on this one. I am happy to hear Sarge is still kicking cancer’s butt and showing them who is boss!!! Keep fighting Sarge! You make us all proud!
XO
Oh you guys I’m really amazed by him too. What a rock star! We send our continued love and pawsitivity for more good days ahead. xoxo