June 2023 – Soul Dog: Ludo

On the Books

Today I received the phone call from the receptionist at our oncology vet giving us the results from Ludo’s spleen and lung aspirates. He had the samples taken last Tuesday 6/13/2023. They concluded that there were no findings indicating that the cancer has spread to his organs, which means he is all clear to be scheduled for his amputation!

I have to admit there was a small part of me that was still saddened that he will have to endure all that lays ahead of him. But I am so happy that we can start preparing for the next step.

Next week I can’t take any time off of work, so I scheduled him for Thursday July 6th. He will have to spend the night at the vet which I am absolutely dreading. He has pretty severe separation anxiety and I know he will be in pain and confused. It breaks my heart that I won’t be there for him when he wakes up. I wish I could explain to it him. Hopefully they will give him an adequate amount of pain meds.

Anyway all that is to say that we are officially “on the books” and now we wait and prepare for what’s to come. I have a friend who will take care of Evie at her house for maybe the first week, depending on how he’s doing. The same friend also has a fancy expensive harness that she is going to lend to me to help Ludo get from place to place while he learns his new balancing.

A Little History

Summer of 2015, I was in a serious relationship and looking to move out of my parents home. My dad came home and told me he had a surprise for me outside, come to find out there was a bucket of puppies in my front yard! Tears came to my eyes almost immediately as I looked at the little bundle of joys.

A little pup with 2 black spots on his eyes caught my eye. He was lingering around the back of the bundle, curious but not pushy with his brothers. He was the first puppy I picked up, and the rest is history.

He was smart as a whip, and particularly chill for a puppy, a trait he has kept to this day. We joke sometimes that I should’ve named him Eeyore, because he has that sad, serious expression on his face almost constantly. The only issues I had with him growing up was his bouts of separation anxiety, which has gotten much better but is still very prevalent in his life. Actually one week ago now we went up to camp where I had to keep him in a room for a couple hours while I did some chores and he still is just as anxious as ever if he doesn’t have someone to sit with him. We did do the training involved in alleviating his stress, but in the end we were satisfied that this is just how he deals with separation.

Health wise though, Ludo has been a very healthy dog. He once had pancreatitis about 4 years ago in 2019 which I believe was my mistake of feeding him a pigs ear the night before. He never really had a high fat content treat of that kind before, and he hasn’t had one since. After working in the dog boarding, daycare, pet store business, I had learned a ton about nutritional health for dogs and I take pride in knowing that I give Ludo the best quality food that I can while still making it interesting and tasty for him. I provide him with supplements and make sure he is well hydrated. He’s had a pretty uneventful medical life before his cancer diagnosis.

In spring 2020 Ludo got a sister, Evie. She is a retired racing greyhound that loves nothing better than to be praised and loved on constantly. They make a great pair, both are so sweet and have a great temperament. She is 2 years younger than him. We also brought home a cat named Sal (Salazar) who is absolutely in love with Ludo and considers him to be his best friend. They are so precious when they play together!

Ludo grew very close to my stepfather, who was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in October of 2019. He slept with him and hung out with him everyday, until the day he passed in 2021. They had a very special bond and I am so grateful that I was able to share Ludo with him for his last few years. It was so amazing watching Ludo be patient with Bob, and become gentler with him as time went on. I feel blessed that I was able to provide Bob with a furry companion to help him through the end of his life.

Now Ludo and I are trying to navigate life on three paws as he battles his own cancer. He still has so much of his life ahead of him!

Diagnosis & Decisions

March 2022: My husband and I noticed some swelling on the lower part of Ludo’s front right leg. At first I brushed it off, thinking this could simply be a bee sting or some minor inflammation. After a few days, the swelling never went down, so we went to his vet.

The vet examined him, and remarked that she suspected it was some minor inflammation, but since he had another bump on his bum, she decided to take aspirates of both masses to check the cells. When she came back, she handed me a packet of information and explained that Ludo had two Mast Cell Tumors (MCT), one on his bum and the one on his leg. She explained that the smaller one that was located close to his rectum could be easily removed with a very small chance of regrowth, whereas the tumor on his leg was going to be very difficult to remove completely. Without knowing much about removing the tumor on his leg, I okayed him for surgery to remove them both.

Now looking back on this decision, I wish I hadn’t given permission for them to attempt to remove the tumor on his leg. In the moment all I could think was “take it off!”, now I realize I should have sat down and done some more research early on.

We did the surgery and they removed the smaller tumor with no issues but left a large scar. As expected they could not remove all of the tumor on his leg but they did manage to remove some of the mass, so they gave me a referral to the local oncologist that might be able to give Ludo more options.

August 2022: At this point I’ve done a decent amount of research on the different options available. Amputation was of course the oncologists first choice of treatment, however I did want to explore any other options before I resorted to amputating.

I came across the option of a very new treatment called Stelfonta. Ludo was the ideal case for the Stelfonta treatment as it was a tumor that was in a bad location for surgery. The reviews for this drug were mostly positive, however my oncologist had only done this treatment once before and it didn’t yield the best results. In fact he seemed reluctant to try it at all, but agreed to treat Ludo with the drug.

September 2022: I was hopeful that the treatment would work better for Ludo than the vet’s previous patient and at first everything was working as it should. The tumor went necrotic and fell off, and his wound healed perfectly. I documented the entire process with daily emails to my vet and pictures. I was very pleased with the way everything was working, and Ludo was acting just the same as always, sometimes I swore he was acting even more like a puppy than he had in a while.

May 2023: One Sunday afternoon, after a day working in the yard I looked over at Ludo and noticed that his tumor had returned to almost the exact size it had before the Stelfonta treatment. This came out of nowhere. I made another vet appointment and we spoke again about his options. I decided I would get a second opinion from another oncologist and I’m so glad that I did. She gave me about 5 options we could try, and also told me that she believed Ludo would do awesome with an amputation. She directed me to this website and suggested I look into other owner’s stories.

Now I am here to make the decision to schedule Ludo for amputation. He just turned 8 years old in April. He is a large dog (about 55 lbs) and will need to lose a few pounds if we do go through with the surgery. He’s always been what I call “top heavy” meaning he carries most of his weight on his front legs, which is the main reason why I’ve hesitated this long about scheduling him for this procedure. Finance is also another factor of course, Ludo is not insured and I would be paying for the entire procedure with Care Credit, which I know has quite a high interest rate. I am not the type of person that can ask for help for things. I’m very proud to be able to provide the best care for my pets but recently I have considered a gofundme or equivalent to help cover some of the expenses.

Amputation was never something I thought I would have to consider when I held Ludo for the first time at 8 weeks old. Not when I went through my dog training courses with him as my example, or when he came to work with me everyday at doggie daycare.

He’s the dog I always wanted and we’re in sync with everything. My soul dog. Every time I look at him now, I just wish he could speak to me and tell me what he would want.