Pimms’ Amputation & Chemotherapy

A little back story of myself and Pimms, I adopted Pimms back in January 2021 after being his dog walker for a few years as his owner sadly passed away with Covid-19. Pimms is the most loving and affectionate boy I’ve ever come across and I’m so lucky to have him, so much so that we’ve previously volunteered in hospitals with Pimms as a therapy dog visiting stroke patients, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

He started limping on his back left leg in August, I took him to the vets and they gave him painkillers and suggested I rest him for 2 weeks to see if he improved. Unfortunately this didn’t help and his limp became worse, we suspected it could be arthritis but wasn’t sure as it doesn’t normally deteriorate this quickly. They performed an x-ray on Pimms’ leg on the 11th of September and I was heartbroken to discover that it wasn’t arthritis, but a tumour. To say I’m devastated is an understatement, you never think it’ll be your dog that falls victim to cancer. He was referred to Aura Vets on the 19th of September for a CT scan and biopsy, this is when we found out it was osteosarcoma which is an aggressive form of bone cancer.

Although he is 9 he is an extremely active and has had no health problems up until this point, which is why I want to give him the best chance possible by receiving this treatment as I believe he still has so much life left in him.

After many conversations with Pickles Vets and two other surgeons we have made the difficult decision to amputate his leg, we are confident this is in his best interests as this is not to stop the cancer, but significantly reduce the pain, as they recommend amputation even under Palliative care. Pimms will then undergo chemotherapy at Pickles every 3 weeks, which will significantly increase his prognosis from 1-3 to up to 12 months, maybe even more at a push. The vets are confident this will give Pimms the best chance at a good quality of life, as if we were simply to do nothing there is a high risk of fracture to his leg as the bone has been eaten away and he would eventually build up a tolerance to painkillers and the osteosarcoma would quickly spread to his lungs.

The vets have recommended that we amputate Pimms’ leg as soon as possible, as he is in a lot of pain, he will be having the amputation on the 26/9/23 at Pickles Vets. Then he will start chemotherapy a week after which he will have every 3 weeks. Although he is 9 he is an extremely active and has had no health problems up until this point, which is why I want to give him the best chance possible by receiving this treatment as I believe he still has so much life left in him.

Pimms does have insurance but unfortunately it only covers up to £3200, his x-ray cost £550 and he needed to be referred to a specialist for a CT scan and bone biopsy which cost £3280 so although this will cover the majority of the scans, sadly it won’t cover this treatment. Both treatments are going to be performed by our local vets Pickles, the estimation for the amputation is £1,540 and we are yet to receive an official estimation for the chemotherapy but they are estimating it to be around £2,000-£3,000. He will then need to have some physiotherapy sessions to get used to having 3 legs which will cost £300. I have attached our official quotes from the vets to my Instagram highlights @happyhoundsfulham for true transparency.

I would be eternally grateful if you could spare even a few pounds to help give me give Pimms time to enjoy the rest of his life. This is one of the most difficult decisions I have ever made and it hasn’t been taken lightly, I still can’t believe this is real as he is still such a happy boy. I made this GoFundMe as I’m really struggling to cover the cost for all of this, but I want to try my best to keep my boy out of pain and give him the best quality of life possible for however long he may have left, I never thought I’d have to be making these decisions so soon after adopting him