The Diagnosis

We rescued Gracie almost 6 years ago. Her history was thought to have been abused and abandoned, thrown from a car. She was almost a year when we connected with her. What a joy she immediately brought to our lives and I believe we brought to hers. After the 2nd visit to the vet this summer regarding a sore on her right shoulder that was continually getting worse, I was completely shocked when the veterinarian reported that Gracie may have cancer. What does that mean? She's only 6; how can that be? What do we do? A plethora of questions flowed. I have no experience with cancer. Luckily, none of our family members or friends has dealt with cancer. I don't even know what questions I should be asking, or what the terminology being thrown at me even means. Now what?
The vet wanted to remove the cyst/tumor (what we thought was just a sore) in order to determine if it is cancerous. This meant surgery. The surgery would provide so many answers. The hope, of course, is that we caught this early enough and/or the tumor is benign. I knew enough about cancer to know that we wanted benign, not malignant. The vet would report back after surgery regarding results of the biopsy and margins. The biopsy is a tissue sampling from the threatening sore. The margin is the edge or border of the tissue removed. A clean or negative margin is when the pathologist finds no cancer cells at the edge of the removed tissue, suggesting that all the cancer has been removed. A positive or involved margin is when cancer cells are at the edge of the removed tissue indicating that all the cancer has not been removed. So our sweet Gracie was scheduled for surgery the following week.
The call came after surgery and the vet indicated she feared we would not have a good outcome from the pathologist. The tumor was really large. We were going to have to wait about 7 to 10 days for the pathologist report. In the meantime, we were asked to consider amputating her right front leg. Oh my, 1st I'm told my dog may have cancer and now we might have to consider taking her leg?! Tears flow and the words stopped.
How does someone make this decision on their beloved family member? What would Gracie want? Is cancer in animals similar to humans? Are there environmental factors contributing to cancer? What kinds of treatment options are available? How much money is an owner willing to expend for treatment of their pet? Ultimately, how to prepare for the end? How does another dog in the household mourn? There are so many questions I wish to research over the next coming weeks while we learn of Gracie's dilemma.