The most exposed dog breeds are Irish Wolfhound, Greyhound, German Sheperd, Rottweiler, Doberman Pinscher, Great Dane and Saint Bernard. This disease is ten times more likely to affect a dog than a human being and it's not fair either way.There are more types of bone cancer in dogs, but in 85% of the cases it's osteosarcoma. Osteosarcoma is a kind of bone cancer that affects the long bones in the dog's body and can be located immediately before or after the joints in these bones. There can be locations like the facial bones for example, but they are a lot more rare. Any way, in this case, the cancer tumour appears on the inside of the bone and replaces the healthy bone tissue with cancer bone, that is a whole lot more fragile and can collapse any time. By the time the tumour can be visible on the outside of the body it is already in the metastatic stage of the disease and this one spreads incredibly fast. Usually it spreads to the lungs and then the other organs.
Science and medicine have evolved a lot lately and now cancer is no longer synonimous with death. But this chance of surviving a fight with cancer is only available if the cancer is caught in the early stages, so that it could be treated. But the worst thing about animal patients is the fact that they can't talk and we have to be the ones paying attention to details and symptoms and trying to identify the real cause of some symptoms. In the early stages the bone cancer in dogs can be be signaled by the dog's lost of appetite and pain. If we pay attention to our pets we will see that they are in pain, but usually these symptoms are attributed to other illnesses. So the best way to have a certain diagnosis is to have X-rays for the dog and this will show clearly if it's a tumour or not, if it's a fracture in the bone or the dog is just healthy. Just do this simple procedure by precaution and you hope your dog it's ok and you have spent a few extra dollars just to find out he's fine.
If you can see and touch the tumour that appears outside of the bone and causes the animal to limp more and more, you already have to prepare for the worse and all you can do at this point is to try and relieve the pain of your dog, which can be really intense. So the best and fastest way to do this is to amputate the sick leg and give your dog the proper medication and the necessary drugs. At this stage survival is out of the question, but you can enjoy the remaining time for about one more year.
But again, in the end I feel compelled to insist for a cancer awareness , even if it's just dogs, I mean animals, just keep your eyes open to see the early symptoms.