An Update On Miss Oakley

If you have been following along at "A Life Lived Simply's" FB page, then you know the concerns we have for one of our fur babies, Miss Oakley. She has been having health problems since before Christmas. We had thought we had successfully overcome the problems she was having with the help of an emergency vet, but she still was limping on her right hind leg. So back to the vet we went. This time we went to her regular vet, Doc Hannah, for  a look see. Doc Hannah soon discovered a lump on her leg and diagnosed her with bone cancer. That was on March 31st. 

Miss Oakley giving us her shy pose while we were camping two weekends ago.

Doc Hannah talked over our options for treatment at that time. We all agreed that since Miss Oakley was 15 years old, that is wasn't wise to try to amputate the leg or put her through treatments. We decided to go with pain meds and let her tell us when she was ready for us to do something else. 

Doc Hannah prescribed 3 doses of tramadol a day and one of Previcox a day. We decided to try a dose of tramadol in the morning and then Previcox in the evening. That combo has worked well. We have given her a dose of tramadol at lunchtime, when she seemed to be limping a little more from exertion the day before. Just the two pain meds have helped tremendously. She feels better than she has since before Christmas.

This past Friday, we took her back to see Doc Hannah. She was due for her yearly vaccinations. We also wanted Doc Hannah to do a recheck and  we wanted to discuss her continued course of treatment. With Doc Hannah's advice, we decided to forego the vaccines. They are rather moot at this point. 

Overall, Doc Hannah was encouraged by how well Miss Oakley was doing. She did agree with us that the tumor was now on the outside of the right hind too, but the one on the inside hadn't got any better. She advised us to continue doing the pain meds the way we were and to let how Miss Oakley felt dictate when to increase them. We discussed the concern we had of Miss Oakley breaking her leg which wouldn't heal right and may lead us to making a decision. Since she was feeling better there are times when she takes off running. We were concerned that might up her chances of her breaking that leg. Doc Hannah said she didn't see that happening and let Miss Oakley do what she feels like doing. We were still advised to take precautions because there was a slight chance it could. 

Doc Hannah was pleased to see that Miss Oakley had gained weight back. She gave us the go ahead to continue to feed Miss Oakley people food if that was what Miss Oakley would eat. At this point in Miss Oakley's life, it wasn't going to hurt her. Miss Oakley was thrilled by that bit of news, because she LOVES people food.

We finally discussed the hardest part. How long are we looking at? Doc Hannah said that from the onset of the cancer, it was usually 8 to 10 months before the end comes. She gave us more signs to look for and that Miss Oakley would let us know when she had had enough. 

Our spoiled fur baby, Miss Oakley!

Knowing we still have a few months to love on Miss Oakley was good news. However, we know there are some rough days ahead of us. We will face them when they come and do what is best for our spoiled fur baby. I just ask that you continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers, because it will be hard on us to say good-bye, but we will do so knowing Miss Oakley was well loved and loved us back.