Odin

Odin’s Story

My little Odin came to me at 9 weeks old. He was an anniversary present from my boyfriend for our 1 year. I cried my little girly eyeballs out. This puppy was all mine. I finally got my rottweiler. A few weeks later my boyfriend used Odin to propose to me. How could I say no? 😋

A few years went by and shortly before our wedding Odin tore both of his ACLs at the same time. That injury came with a hefty bill, but for our wedding instead of buying the typical gifts, people donated to Odin’s cause and we were able to afford to fix both knees. Things were looking up for my little Viking King.

Later that year Odin was diagnosed with hip displaysia. At only 3 years old he had already had back to back TTA surgeries and now this? What gives? The same day I was delivered the news about his hips, I received a letter in the mail from my home insurance telling me to get rid of him or they were cancelling us……..BYE. I promptly fired them and found a new company.

Odin then went on another 3 years just being a dog. We supplemented and managed his pain. We’re located in Minnesota and winters can be pretty unforgiving up here so when he began limping this last January I chalked it up to slipping on ice and just pulling a muscle. Rimadyl and bed rest it was……but it didn’t get better.

I hauled him into work with me (I’m a CVT) and did a series of xrays that showed nothing. His specialty surgeon examined him and decided it was a reaction to the hardware from his previous TTA. We went in to explore, took the hardware out and found he had torn his meniscus. Great, we know what happened so ON TO RECOVERY!!……but it didn’t get better.

I took him to a rehab center two weeks post op to assess his pain and re calculate his pain meds. Another x-ray showed a rather large mass that wasn’t there two weeks ago. There was no way we could have missed it in surgery. An ultrasound followed to confirm something wasn’t right. We changed up his meds and scheduled a fine needle aspirate……but it didn’t get better.

The cytology confirmed my worst fear. Cancerous cells were present suggesting he had soft tissue sarcoma. So we biopsied it, no conclusion. I scheduled him for a more in depth biopsy and the surgeon confirmed to me that the mass in his leg was more than a soft tissue sarcoma. She said we needed to take the leg.

I wasn’t ready for this. He was supposed to just have a simple biopsy, not lose his leg. After some deliberation I made the decision.

As he was slowly falling asleep from his sedation med I gave him a pep talk, told him I loved him and that I’d see him when he woke up……and I walked away.

I moved through appointments as if nothing was happening in the other room. I cared for client’s pets as mine was losing his limb. My chest was heavy, I couldn’t stop sweating. Finally he was done. I walked into the surgery suite and there it was, the leg was on a tray. But to me, it wasn’t his leg. I can’t explain it. We cut into it and sent off samples from the mass in hopes of getting some answers. I wrapped the limb up and disposed of it.

I walked into Odin’s run and saw him lying there, without his leg.

What had I done…..

(To be continued)

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 22nd, 2017 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.