Toby the Dobe's Cancer Crushing Journey

Hello tripawds! We are new to the world of blogging so please excuse us as we learn how to navigate through all this crazy information in an attempt to share our furry (or not so furry) friend’s journey. Unfortunately, the recent osteosarcoma diagnosis of our dog, Toby, is what has ignited our interest in the tripawd world and blogging community. This is Toby.

Our 4 year-old baby boy is just as silly as he looks in all of these pictures. He has a personality that is completely goofy and elegant at the same time. I’m not really sure how that’s even possible, but he pulls it off extremely well! He’s quite big, weighing in at 100 pounds. Yes, you read that correctly! 100 pounds! But he is 100 pounds of pure love and joy. Despite his size, he is still a tiny puppy at heart. He loves to snuggle and sit in anyone’s lap. I guess he’s what you would call a gentle giant.

He brings so much joy to everyone in our house, and he is happy to deal with us hooligans despite all the wild ideas we have. He’s the best. Literally, the best.

On October 26, 2016 we made a visit to the vet’s office due to a knot we had noticed near the joint on Toby’s front, right leg. We both have been educated in the medical/health professional community so I suppose we should have been more prepared. I think we were probably in denial. You never think about these sort of things until… BAM! You get smacked right in the stinkin’ face. Maybe a fungal infection? Maybe arthritis? Maybe a torn ligament? These are the questions we stumbled over in the days leading up to the appointment. Never once did we let that nasty word cancer fall out of our mouths. At first glance, the vet immediately seemed a little nervous and said that on the surface it unfortunately looked like osteosarcoma. Wait… What??? I think we both almost fell into the floor at this point. It couldn’t be. Not our Toby. They whisked Toby away from the room to do radiographs. After what seemed like an eternity, they returned with this image on a computer screen.

As you can see, the right leg (left side in this image) has an abnormal growth and remodeling of bone located above the joint. This is a classic, textbook image of osteosarcoma. You can read all about canine osteosarcoma here. It is very common in dogs of Toby’s size. We were left with 3 options:

1. Palliative care
2. Amputation
3. Specialized treatment options.

Being so young and in such good health otherwise, we immediately ruled out palliative care as an option for Toby. We felt that we would always regret making that sort of decision, and would be left with a sense that we had given up on him too early. That left us with amputation and/or specialized treatment options. We chose to pursue the last option, and made an urgent trip to Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine the following day. There the veterinary oncologist informed us of a clinical trial being led by The National Cancer Institute and sponsored by the Morris Animal Foundation. After further testing to determine if the cancer had already spread to either the lymph nodes or lungs, Toby was determined to be a great candidate for the clinical trial. As a part of the trial, Toby would be placed into 1 of 2 groups:

1. Standard of care (amputation and 4 rounds of chemotherapy)
2. Standard of care + rapamycin.

I’ll admit, I too quickly let out a big sigh of relief being that I assumed we would have the opportunity to pursue treatment for this terrible disease at little to no cost as a part of a clinical trial. But life is full of surprises, right? If we choose to allow Toby to participate in the clinical trial, we would need to pay for the remaining tests and amputation that would allow him to be a participant. This would amount to over $5000 in costs. While many will say we are crazy, this is about providing Toby with the best quality of life for his remaining time here on Earth while also helping others. You see, this isn’t just about Toby. This is about the 12,310 people that are estimated to be diagnosed with a soft-tissue sarcoma by the end of 2016 in the United States. Of those, 4,990 will die from this terrible disease. Here the American Cancer Society answers questions about osteosarcoma in humans. Rapamycin could be the best chance that many of these people have at living a long, pain-free life. But only time and results will tell.  You can read more about the clinical trial by visiting this link.

As for Toby’s prognosis, if we are unable to pay for amputation, the bone in Toby’s leg will continue to soften as the cancer destroys the healthy bone and replaces it with abnormal bone until it eventually shatters. The pain will be unbearable. The cancer will spread to other parts of the body, most commonly the lungs, and will cause difficulty with breathing. At some point over the next 1-3 months, we will be forced to make the decision to say goodbye to end his suffering. With amputation and chemotherapy, he will be able to live a normal life with minimal pain for approximately a year or more.

Participation in this clinical trial will provide Toby with the opportunity to serve others during his remaining time here with us, and to be pain-free while doing so. He is still so young, and has a lot of life left to live. Toby must receive the amputation within the next 2 weeks in order to enroll in the trial. The clock is ticking quickly, and we are working hard at making some difficult decisions. We’re staying positive though because we know our tough boy will crush this cancer, and we’re looking forward to whatever time we may have left with him. We’ll be making the most of it for sure!

You can follow Toby’s story and help to spread the word on Instagram: toby.the.dobe

#cancersucks #osteosarcoma #cancercrusher #bonecancer #fightcancer #suckitsarcoma #dobermansofinstagram #dobermans #dogsofinstagram #dogsofbham

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