I just talked to my vet and he now thinks the problem with Pookie's paw is a
tumor, rather than just an abcessed infection. He is of the opinion that an
infection would have cleared up by now, with all we've been doing to combat
it. He's going to do some research to determine what kind of tumor it is
likely to be, but he thinks it is probably malignant. So now I have a
horrible decision to make. If we leave things alone it will get worse and
worse and probably kill him eventually. Cancer is a horrid way to die. We
can have the leg amputated (I keep saying his paw but it's really his whole
leg) but I am unsure how well he would adapt. Or we can have him put to
sleep. If there is anybody on the list that had to have a gerbil's leg
amputated I would like to hear from them. I need some idea of how well he
would or would not adapt. His quality of life is the big issue here. I
don't want him to be miserable!
Tana L. Lyman
Courseware Quality Control, C-17 ATS
(580) 481-3467
