Gremlin Steve needs your help! Three months ago, he started limping on his left leg. Two months ago, he was put on antibiotics for a bone infection. One month ago, the antibiotics dose got doubled because the infection was spreading.

One hour ago, the veterinary orthopedic surgeon and I made the decision to amputate.

Grem's favorite activity is playing fetch and he hasn't brought me a ball to throw in weeks. He mostly spends his time laying with me in a recliner or laying in his dog bed. Is he still alert? Yes. Is it clearly painful for him to walk? Also yes. His ulna and radius continue to deteriorate even with a heavy dose of antibiotics, so it's looking like it's cancer.

The initial biopsy two months ago came back inconclusive. Because of his history with bone infections in that leg, my regular vet and I were hoping it was an infection that would be cured with meds. Unfortunately, we are wrong. The surgeon wants to amputate and do a larger biopsy on the removed leg to figure out what's going on, because it's one of three things:

Because of the chance of it spreading to the lungs, the surgeon plans on doing a chest x-ray beforehand to make sure it hasn't. If it has I don't know what I'm going to do, so I'm crossing my fingers for a localized bone cancer at worst.

In addition to the actual vet bill, which is going to run around $8,000, I'll need to board my other dog for two weeks following the surgery. That's the length of the "make sure to keep him quiet" recovery time and I don't know that I can do that with a second dog pestering him. 14 days as a boarding facility in MA is about another $1,000.

I've been unemployed since April 2025, so this has all been a stretch for me. The good news is: Grem has pet insurance that covers a lot of things. I'm only going to owe $2,000 to the vet for the amputation and the $1,000 to the boarding facility. There will be aftercare necessary but I don't know how much any of that is going to cost yet.

I can't put into words how much this dog means to me and how devastated I will be if I lose him. I'd appreciate any help at all that y'all can give. Pennies add up to dollars, yanno?