A trip to the vet

With Wesley strapped to my chest and Cisco hobbling next to me, we made it into the vet today to have Cisco checked over for the third time. Once again the vet ordered an x-ray. It had been a month since his last one and it didn't show anything wrong. The results of the new one were not so great. The x-ray showed a definite change in the bone density and there are rough edges which more than likely means bone cancer. The veterinarian is sending the scans to his friend at the vet school just to make sure but that's what he thinks it is. Our sweet lovable six year old golden retriever might have bone cancer. I cried all the way home from the vet. The options aren't good at all. First option is do nothing, give him pain meds and let him have as good end as possible....1-3 months expectancy. Second option is amputate the leg, but he thinks the cancer would have spread...6 months max. Third option is the works, amputate and radiation through a specialist, no guarantees, price starting at $3500 and goes up. Vet said he sees a large amount of animals with bone cancer, said it's very common...that surprised me. For now he's on Prednisone and feeling better, even eating again. I'm not thinking about anything in the future right now with him, just one day at a time. Why do animals have to get old so fast?