I finally found where to get going on Buck’s story. In the photo of me with all our family, he is the one on the floor. The others are Bo, the other goldie, Peanut the beagle and Peyton the Belgian Shepherd, who has seizures. We got Buck from the mall pet store. We knew the owner, the wife of a deputy. We are retired K9 cops and at the time, were looking for a drug K9. We tested Buck when he was 7 weeks old by tossing out a set of car keys and he retrieved them and brought then back. There are other tests to do and he passed them all. (Too many to go into at this time, but will if anyone wants later). By the time he was six months old, he was detecting marijuana, cocaine, heroin and meth. He was a natural at it and had a great career right up until he got his diagnosis last year. We mostly did school lockers and vehicles at the schools to try and keep the drugs out of the schools. He has always been healthy so we were really lucky with him. He is also a search and rescue K9, along with Bo, who is also a drug K9. The vet at Towanda Vet Clinic, Dr. Barry, found a growth inside his anus, along with a benign one on his stomach area, and we were afraid it was cancerous so surgery was recommended. Dr. Hudyncia was going to do it, but when he was put under, his heart rate zoomed over 220 and he turned blue. She saved his life. Before he came home though, she aspirated the growth and recommended we go to Colonial Vet Clinic in Ithaca, NY, for further eval. Off we go. Dr. Gelzer, the cardiologist there, puts him on a holter monitor for 24 hours and says he can handle the surgery after the results come back. He also has an ultrasound and all his insides are good, no other tumors. Dr. Ross, another angel, says he can do the surgery and is reasonably sure all will go ok. We find out the growth is benign so we decide we aren’t going to tempt fate again. A few months later, he is limping on his left front leg, so I start giving him aspirin as I figure his arthiritis is acting up. He is happy and so are we. Quite accidently, I touched that leg and discovered it was hard and very swollen. Off to Dr. Barry and xrays reveal the osteosarcoma. She cries with me and gives me a hug. They do his lungs and it hasn’t spread to them yet. Next stop, Colonial Vet and Dr. Ross again. The day we see him, he says he believes he can get Buck through the surgery and has time that day to do it or we can wait a week. We are going to wait, but he talks us into that day. Not ready for this! Buck makes it, but during the night, he does semi crash and needs transfusions. It is a shaky week, but we visit him daily, an hour trip one way, sometimes twice a day so he doesn’t feel abandoned. the staff is great as Buck has to be on the floor in the exam room. They set him up in a corner and we lay on the floor with him, feed him and help getting him outside to pee. At home, (we live in a motorhome for the time being), we have a two sided ramp built with a deck and that works great. I have a friend, Shannon, who helped me with him in a sling getting in and out. The ramp is the easy part, the two steps inside the motorhome are a killer. Shannon got a job, so I had to come up with another idea so we got a toboggan that fits him and that is the mode of transportation for him. He weighs 75 pounds so it is a challenge with the steps but the ramp is not so bad.(I should mention that right in the middle of all this, Jack falls on January 23rd and breaks his leg and dislocates his ankle, something he is still dealing with). Coming up is tough, but we make it. He gets in and out of it by himself now. After the surgery, he needed chemo and that’s when we met the next angel, Dr. Rassnick, the oncologist at Colonial. If anyone is anywhere near Ithaca, NY, and needs an oncologist for their pet, he is the man to see. Buck gets his injections started and for the first two courses, he is ok. He develops a fever of 104 and we go back to Colonial and Dr. Rassnick and he has a urinary tract infection. He is in hospital for another week on IVs, etc, but again Dr. Rassnick pulls him through. He gets through the injections after that and is now on oral chemo meds and so far so good. Dr. Rassnick keeps track of his kidneys, liver and blood count, and we just think the world of him. Whew! I hope I have answered some of the questions someone asked earlier.
