[BeverlyC]

It has been a year since we lost Boss and I haven’t been able to talk or write about the details of his life or his cancer since his death, but I figured after a year I ought to be able to at least write something about him. So here goes…

It all started for us in late January of 2001, my husband and I were finally going on a week long vacation to the Atlantis in the Bahamas. Boss was 6 years old and we had noticed some changes in him such as getting tired on his walks of 2 miles and having to reduce to 1 mile, being a picky eater for the first time in his life and not barking when the pizza man came to the house. So we were taking him to the vet for boarding and for a complete check up. I went to hug Boss goodbye when I noticed an egg size lump between his chest and neck. I kept feeling of it and it would move around a little. So we took him to the vet and told him about the lump and to give him any tests he felt necessary.

So we left headed for the Bahamas, the next day our vet called and told Steve (my husband) the news. He said it appeared to be cancerous; lymphoma and that they removed the whole lymph nod and sent it off to the lab. Well, there went our lovely vacation, we cried the whole time there and even left early. By the time we had returned it had been confirmed that is was indeed lymphoma and our vet had already tried getting us in to UGA for chemo, but they had no availabilities at the time and he suggested one other oncologist an hour and a half away that was suppose to be the best. So, we took Boss the very next day for his first chemo treatment. Things were going very well, the doctor appeared to be very good and Boss was doing exceptionally well on the chemo for about a month. Steve would take Boss to the vet’s office and come back to work then go back and get him later that afternoon, so he got to the office one day and said hello to everyone and that he was there for Boss. He noticed as soon as he said that nurses started running around the halls calling for the doctor. A little side bar on Steve, he has a very loud and prominent voice, and in other words, he doesn’t need a microphone to speak, ever! Well, they sent Boss home and never mentioned any of the commotion in the office, the only thing they told my husband was to put a little heat on Boss’s injection site because they gave him Adriamycin (Doxorubicin) and it might be a bit sore and the heat would help. After this dose, I believe he was due for 2 weeks off chemo, but after about two days his leg started swelling up and hair was coming out. Steve called the oncologist and he got right nasty when Steve asked him what happened to his leg. He told him that Boss “wanted” to get on the couch in the employee lounge and they let him have his chemo in there were he would be more comfortable and that when my husband walked in the door Boss heard him and jumped off the couch, while he was unattended we found out later, and broke the catheter off into his leg releasing the Adriamycin under the skin. (Just for anyone’s info about the drug, this is what the warning label says: Severe local tissue necrosis will occur if there is extravasation during administration.) The vet proceeds to tell him that nothing can be done for the dog other than cutting off his leg or putting him to sleep. I really thought my husband was going to go to jail, he was that mad at this guy and his attitude about what he allowed to let happen by not having anyone in the room with our dog.

As the days went by more hair fell out along with skin starting to slough off. It was horrible. One of the worst things I have ever seen. We didn’t know what to do at this point, I wrote to oncologists at Cornell and Purdue University and received almost identical replies, with an animal or human, immediate surgery should have been preformed to try and surgically remove tissue. If this did not occur then they advised the animals leg should be amputated or he should be put to sleep. Not what we wanted to hear. Then about a week later I was crying in my office with Boss lying next to me, we started taking him to work with us to watch him, and a vendor of ours came in and was asking me what was wrong. I told him and he got on the phone with a close friend of his and gave the phone to me. It was another vet here in Atlanta that also treated animals with cancer. I convinced my husband to talk to him and he immediately took Boss and went to see him. (We were both pretty apprehensive of anyone at this point.) Dr. Mize took one look at Boss and said he would do whatever he could to save his leg.

This started our next year’s battle. We had about 3 to 4 months of tissue dying on his leg; Dr. Mize suggested trying DMSO to possibly stop the necrosis. So I went on the internet and bought some, we were doing hydro-therapy three times a day with Boss’s leg and when we were finished we would drench in DMSO and then wrap it. Finally he had lost all tissue to the muscle, and it appeared to be slowing and not wrapping around the leg as we were told it would probably do. It ended up taking about 6 inches long and 2 ½ wide of tissue from his leg before it stopped. Dr. Mize scheduled a surgery to then remove about a half an inch of skin and tissue around the wound and kept him for a few days. When we got him back we were told that he had to have wet to dry bandages applied twice a day to try and regenerate some tissue to the wound. So we took him to the vet 2 times a day for them to put on a wet bandage then take them off when dry. We did this for another 3 to 4 months and no chemo had been continued since starting with new vet. Cancer was in remission already. Boss went through all of this like the absolute champion that he was, never once getting testy. He would lay down with his head in the vet techs lap and start snoring. Dr. Mize continually commented on how human like this dog was, that in all of his years working on animals of all kinds, he had never had one like him. Boss, when there in his office, even went in patient rooms with Dr. Mize and was allowed to just hang out with the lab techs in the back room.

Finally Dr. Mize advised us that enough tissue had re-generated on his leg for the next step, a skin graph. So, we did the skin graph and were told that usually only about 50% of it would take hold. Well, 99.9% of it took hold and the .1% grew back in within a few weeks. It was wonderful. He had his leg back after everyone told us it would never happen. This vet did something that his own teachers at Auburn University told him was a waste of time to attempt. It truly was a miracle. And to top it off, Boss got a face lift; he looked like a puppy again. We still had to keep his leg bandaged though, because the new skin itched him so bad he would try and chew it off. Like I said, all of this took about a year to complete and by the time we saved his leg, his cancer had come out of remission.

So we tried a new protocol and it went back into remission for about 8 months. Over the remainder of his life we had tried many human and animal protocols and different forms of medications for various problems such as dangerously low red blood counts to E. coli infections. You name it and he got it due to his low immune system, but we dealt with it and he kept on loving life.

Once the cancer started to not respond to the protocols I became determined in finding something that would work for our dog. I am sure some would disagree with this approach, but it was what we thought best for our dog. I did research on the internet all of the time and anything new I would find, I would email it to Dr. Mize and he would order it and try it. He was very good about that sort of thing. That is when I ran across Rottweiler.net. I was a lurker for a very long time before I finally decided to become a member and could never really talk about the specifics of Boss’s death other than saying he had cancer. But today is the one year anniversary of his death and he still is a hard one to forget.

In the end he had to be put to sleep at almost 9 years old, on the Sunday before, we woke up to find he could no longer walk. He had gotten another lump and it was the size of a grapefruit on the side of his face. He couldn’t eat steak or anything and we knew it was time. Dr. Mize offered to come over and do it in our home on Sunday, but we said we would wait until Monday and bring him to his office. We wanted to bury him in the pet cemetery and wanted to get him there right after. I have never seen a vet cry when they have put any of my previous animals down, but Dr. Mize did, most of his staff couldn’t even be there when it was done and had asked to leave. Boss had impacted everyone’s life in a way that he could never be replaced or forgotten. His picture still hangs in the waiting room.

So today is a very sad day for us as we are mourning him all over again. We will be visiting his grave today to put fresh flowers on them and say our goodbyes again. It has been a very trying year for us and Lothar has helped us tremendously ease the pain of loosing Boss. He will forever be the best dog we have ever had the privilege of owning.