Murphy

It saddens me to share the news that we lost Murphy after his short, aggressive battle with lymphangiosarcoma. When we brought him in for his 3rd chemo treatment, Kyle pointed out to the oncologist a small sore we had noticed on his amputation incision line. They did a needle biopsy as well as a CT to check the progress of his pelvic lymph node mets. It came back positive. Unfortunately there wasn’t much else to offer. We decided that we would make his final days fun. He walked every day up at the park, ate treats, chewed up new toys and, yes Sally, had not one but two McDonald’s cheeseburgers. On his last day he woke up after a great nights sleep, slipped him a little extra pain meds, ate a breakfast of chicken and rice and headed up to the park for a final walk. The vet came to our house. He was a wonderful palliative care vet and Murphy had a peaceful, warm exit.

Many thanks to all the wonderful people we met on this site. We hope to support other people on this site in the future!

Val and Kyle

It started innocently enough. Murphy had a small sore on his back hind leg. It was so small we wouldn’t have even noticed it but our other golden retriever, Molson, started following him around the house smelling at his leg.

Off we went to the vet the next day where we were told it was an infection and antibiotics were started. Fast forward six months. After various antibiotics and being seen by a dermatologist we were finally referred to an oncologist.

She was blunt. Told us that there was no way they could get clean margains and the entire leg would need to be amputated. He’s only 5 years old. We knew we had to give him a fighting chance so we agreed. On September 28th 2018 Murph had his right back leg amputated.

He had a couple of bumps post surgery. A pain crisis in the middle of the night post op day 3 when his fentanyl patch decided to wear off and a small dehiscence of his incision post op day 10 but he got through it.

Murphy’s final biopsy results on his leg showed a very rare form of cancer ; lymphangiosarcoma. There’s not a lot known about it so the oncologist has decided to try chemotherapy, doxorubicin, as he has spread to a pelvic lymph node. He had his first of five treatments this week. Fingers crossed that this will buy our lovely Murphy some time.

This week Murphy got to go with his brother to the park for a walk for the first time in a month. It was short but he was beaming!