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Yes, I am very worried about Lucas. His breathing is rapid and he sounds asthmatic. I tried to listen to his lungs with my stethescope and I am afraid that the cancer is in his lungs. I have been giving him tramadol to help with pain, just in case his rapid breathing is due to pain intolerance. I WISH they could just talk to us!! You know that we would do ANYTHING they wanted. It is just sooooo hard to decipher what is going on.
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I was thinking and worried about you and Lucas all day today. I remember you mentioning that his breathing was off but that his xrays came back clean is good news. His off breathing could be because of pain. When we first got the dx we were very conservative with pain medication and I remember Harley panting a week later. I thought it was already in his lungs after 1 week and placed a panicky call to our vet. They repeated the chest xrays for my benefit, still clear, but our vet thought that his unusual breathing could have been pain related. We increased his pain medication and it did end the panting and labored breathing. Since you have ruled out cancer in the lungs, this would be my second guess for an explanation. I believe you have room to increase the pain rx. Generally, I'd rather have my dog I little more than a little less comfortable. If you haven't already, I would discuss this with your vet.
I also feel strongly that you shouldn't plan on a fracture being the time to let him pass. Ultimately this is your decision and I respect your role as his owner. We went through a break (it was the plate not the bone but same effect) with Harley before we amputated and it was no picnic. I am glad I didn't PTS at that point, but if I had it wouldn't have been wrong either. We had some saving graces that made this event somewhat bearable. We had sufficient strong painkillers to administer to keep him comfortable, he didn't have a tumor so he didn't have that pain on top of a fracture, I had a splint to use and was very skilled at wrapping his leg and using his custom fitted splint and last (probably most important) because he had been through four surgeries before this happened a lot of nerves were completely destroyed hence he did not have the full sensation of a dog with a leg that was always in tact. Because he seemed comfortable and was even bearing weight on the leg I couldn't appreciate how bad it was until I saw the xrays. Evenso, this was incredibly difficult, and if I had PTS at this point, it would not have been a wrong decision.
Yes, Lucas could fracture his leg tonight (of course, I hope that doesn't happen) but I wouldn't leave that as the determination of when to say goodbye. If this sadly occurs, he will be in a tremendous amount of pain and it will be very difficult for you to be able to take care of him at that point unless you can get the vet to come to you. If you plan to wait until this happens at least find a vet that can be more available according to your dogs needs.