Osteomyelitis

[lanka1]

Hi Everyone,
I am wondering if anyone has had experience with osteomyelitis? My female rottie, Nikki, aged 8 started limping on her front leg about one month ago and has been back and forth to the vets several time this past month. Her regular vet was away in Australia for one month, so Nik was seen by two other vets that work in the same office. They did X-rays of the leg and foot and didn't see anything, so they felt that she had arthritis. This was a relief to me since my last rottie Lanka had osteosarcoma and ended up dying from it.

So I took Nik home and started her on rimadyl for pain which I ended up switching to Deramaxx because of side effects of the rimadyl. She seemed to get a lot of relief from the deramaxx and also tramadol.

I then noticed that something didn't look right with her outside toe nail. It was sticking up and she spent a lot of time licking this area. So I made an appt. with her regular vet for this morning since he knows her best. She is there right now and I just received a call back from him. He said that he doesn't feel that it's a tumor (which I was scared to death of) and that he thinks it is osteomyelitis. He said she had a small hole at the top of the nail near the nail bed and thinks its a bone infection. He looked at her x-rays and felt that they didn't look exactly "right".

He recommended that he amputate that toe to try to clear away the infected area. He is doing that right now. He said they will send away the tissue to pathology to make sure it isn't osteosarcoma or another form of cancer.

I guess my question is whether anyone here has dealt with osteomyelitis before? I looked online for information but didn't really find anything helpful. I am scared to death and worry that I am going to lose Nikki like I did Lanka.

Nikki isn't a "trooper" like Lanka was. Nikki is a big baby who wants to sit in my lap every time something hurts her. So I definitely know when something is wrong with her. There is no way I would ever put Nikki through a complete amputation of a limb as I don't think she has the personality for that type of procedure. But I think she will be fine with missing a toe, especially if it does turn out to be an infection vs. something more serious.

I know I won't feel comfortable until we get the pathology report back. I'm hoping I only have to wait until tomorrow for those results.

Thank you in advance for any responses I may receive. Not many people understand what us owners go through with our animals unless they've experienced the same thing and then even some of those people think I am a nut for putting the amount of time and money I have into my babies. Nik is my baby and I'll do whatever it takes to make sure she is comfortable.

Thank you again.

Sandi