Day 1 and run up to surgery

Hercules is a 12 year old black lab who, as his name suggests, is a strong dog full of life and love. For 12 years he has provided our family and his brother with fun and laughter, doing his 3 favourite things : swimming, running off and chewing up his new toys. However two months ago Hercules was confronted with his first ever illness/injury. After a walk one day we noticed a small cut on the back of his paw behind his main pad. At first we thought it was just a graze from kicking back when marking his territory however we took him to his vet to be sure as he was limping slightly. The vet gave him some antibiotics and told us there was nothing to worry about and sent us on our way. However after the first course of antibiotics the cut had got worse and we noticed a lump had started to appear. Back we went to the vet. Yet once again he was given another course of antibiotics and sent on his way.

Once the second course of antibiotics had failed to do anything to help Hercy we decided to change vets. We had already had doubts over his care for animals as he had previously failed to diagnose Archie (hercy’s brother) with pneumonia despite 3 separate visits and clear symptoms. By this point the lump on hercules’ foot had grown further. The new vet wasted no time in suggesting a biopsy of the lump. Once taken a week later the biopsy came back clear of cancer which led the vet to wonder whether he had got a grass seed in his paw. However to be sure Hercules was referred to a specialist hospital in London for exploratory surgery. During this operation it was found that inside this lump was something the vet had never seen before. There was no blood at all from the lump, and deep inside towards his tendons was a small pink mushroom like object which was surrounded by what she described as white tentacles attaching to his tendons. To be sure she stopped the surgery and took a biopsy of this. It came back as a rare form of fibrosarcoma which does not spread but would eventually cut off the blood supply to his foot.

Obviously we were devastated. The only option given was amputation or euthanasia. Neither of which sounded good. However after much discussion over whether his quality of life would be worsened by amputating, we made the difficult decision to have his front right leg amputated. Hercules is healthy in every other aspect and although an older dog with some joint pain we were fairly confident he would recover.

It is now day 1 after his surgery. I am currently sat next to him whilst he’s laying in his bed crying and panting. Although its extremely hard to see him like this, i know things will get better with time. I’m trying to act normal and stay positive, and avoid babying him too much as i know this won’t help him recover quickly. For a dog who has just woken up with an 8 inch stitched wound down his leg I am so unbelievably proud of him, and I hope that in a few weeks when his wound is better and he feels more stable he will be happy with the decision we made for him.