Tundra. Alaskan Malamute and Proud!

I feel badly that we haven’t posted in such a long time.  Tripawds got us through an unprecedented time in our lives with our boy Tundra.  Against all odds he survived bone cancer and a front leg amputation for nearly two years – in fact, in 6 weeks it would have been two years since the amputation.

In August of this year Tundra was diagnosed with a completely different cancer that was constricting his intestine just at the outflow of the stomach.  He had what I will call a miraculous surgery (thank you to the doctors on that surgical team) on August 14th, but because of the location of the cancer it couldn’t all be removed and it was aggressive.  They didn’t think it would be more than a few weeks before he would succumb to the cancer for the last time.  We got to the point of having to hand feed him with a feeding syringe, but two weeks after the surgery he was back to ‘normal’.

We knew that there would be no more surgeries and as long as he enjoyed eating and being comfortable at home that was where he would be and live out his last days.  Yesterday morning, 10/16 started out as a normal morning, but at some point during the day Tundra went to his doghouse, got himself comfortable and passed away.  Just like that.

He was a loving, beautiful boy who loved food and family.

 

Rest in Peace my beautiful boy.

The vet visit went really well. They were very pleased with the x-rays – bones look very good, hips look very good and they just figured it is a soft tissue injury. Just hard to see him struggle when he already has issues moving on three legs.

FYI everyone. Although I pulled a muscle or something tonight when no one was looking (boy can I make a racket!!!!), my 8 month ampuversary is in a few days. Feelin’ groovy!Tundra made the Survivor lap at our local RFL event and was an inspiration to others.  And he got a cool t-shirt!

 

 

Yesterday was my 6 month ampuversary. I am doing well, being frisky, begging for S N A C K (of course!). I wasn’t doing well for a few weeks starting the beginning of May…I had weakness in my rear legs and had a slight limp (hard to detect for my pawrents when I already walk funny!). Dad kept checking, poking, prodding, squeezing rubbing, massaging, but I was in no pain. Well, that has passed and I am hopping around and getting up on my rear legs again for snatching S N A C K out of the air when it’s thrown to me. Not really sure what was going on, but all seems fine now.

In 10 days my pawrents are participating in the local Relay for Life event and dad has signed me up as a Survivor! I am getting my own t-shirt and we are walking the Survivor lap together to be inspiring. And I think there’s S N A C K after that!!!!!!

Woo Woo! Tundra

Just passed my 4 month ampuversary and spring has sprung.  I am loving the outdoors again and have more energy than the indoors can take!  Now if I could only get a good brushing…

 

Well, it’s a few days past three month ampuversary and Tundra seems to still be doing very well. Sorry we haven’t been on here lately – life has been crazy!!!! We wanted to begin taking Tundra for walks recently and then the extreme cold and a few dumps of snow happened. Nothing but ice out there. Not the best time to take the boy for walks. The only thing kind of concerning us is Tundra’s intermittent panting. The vet said it could be phantom pain and that there is some medication for that, but he doesn’t appear to be in any pain and he isn’t licking at the missing leg or anything like that. He can go long times without any excessive panting and then start it up and we don’t know if he is working himself up for S N A C K or meals. He always has water and may be drinking a little more than normal, but what is normal anymore?!? I looked at a few posts in the forum related to core strength training, but it seems like there is a lot of stuff out there. He is healthy in all other respects – right? We had all those blood tests and exam done before subjecting him to an amputation! All his tests came back with really good numbers. He does take soloxin, but his thyroid numbers have remained steady on a low dosage. Well, we celebrate every day beyond the original two month diagnosis and watching Tundra get just as crazy at S N A C K time as he did when he was a puppy is a good sign as far as we are concerned. Watching him run down the hallway when someone comes to the door means he is still able to and has the energy and every time he wants a little more petting makes me feel like he loves me. We Love him!

I didn’t get a chance to post this yesterday.  Tundra took a few days to recover from this last chemo.  But he celebrated his 2 month ampuversary in true Tundra fashion.  There was eating and drinking and wooing and hopping about!  Today he was running around in the 2 inches of fresh snow we got.  A very happy ending to January.

Chemo treatment #3 today.  Poor guy.  They couldn’t use the vein in his front leg so they had to use the back leg.  Not sure about dogs in general, but Tundra doesn’t like you messing with his back legs!  They had to sedate him in order to do the chemo.  He’s still pretty out of it tonight.  Otherwise, things have been going well.  Looking forward to having him back tomorrow.

Not much to really say other than Tundra is still doing well.  Had to take the following pic last night, though:

Tundra…relaxed…maybe feeling the effects of the chemo from the other day. He’s still doing extremely well.

Well things keep going well.  Tundra had chemo treatment #2 today and the Dr. said his blood counts were good.  As peppy as Tundra is, and showing nothing of any side effects through all of this, I wonder if they are giving him the placebo!

The photo below is one I have meant to post…