The Zyriek Zoo: Ally....for better or for worse

On Friday morning at exactly 5am, Ally, our 9 1/2 year old weimaranter fell off our bed and made the worst sound I have EVER heard. We flew out of bed to check on her and found her very sad and not moving on the floor beside the bed. Throughout the morning rush she seemed to get a little better but still not walking around much (no weight on front right leg) and pretty sad. We crated her and decided to wait and see.....that afternoon as Gary drove home from work on his way to Dallas with some friends to see a Cowboys game, he found Ally's leg very swollen and her acting very pitiful. I promptly called and got an appointment at our vet clinic for Saturday morning. I took her up to the clinic with the girls. Our vet was not there as it was Saturday but we saw another partner in the practice. She immediately looked at Ally and said it was fractured. They sedated Ally and took some x-rays. The orthopedic vet was there but not working but still looked over the x-rays. Ally fractured her ulna and her radius in over 5 or 6 places. The x-rays looked terrible. Even Anna could see the huge fractures. The vet told me that either 1) it was a freak accident or 2) it was a pathological fracture, which is the result of cancer in the bone. We scheduled surgery for Monday and I then decided I was going to hock my kids to pay for the surgery bills!!! I made the difficult call to Gary to let her know what was going on. We both thought she had cancer and we sad ALL weekend. Gary threatened to come home early and miss the game many times but I encouraged him to stay. My brother and sister were gracious hosts that weekend and help to keep his thoughts off the awful situation at home. Ally perked up some once we got some strong pain meds in her system. On Monday, after speaking wtih Gary's mom, postponed surgery. I wanted Gary to be here, see the x-rays and speak with our own vet with me before me made any decisions. We had decided over the weekend to put her down. However, on Tuesday morning, our vet and the ortho vet met us before office hours to go over our choices. Our vet LOVES Ally and has helped her so much with her allergies. He knows that we would do anything for Ally but realizes she is 9 1/2, a large breed animal with underlying health issues because of her allergies. The vets gave us the option of "serial splinting" her leg rather than surgery. Her fractures were all vertical and lined up nicely. The one spot on her leg that the ortho vet has a gut feeling is cancer our vet did not see the same way. By keeping the leg in a splint for 2-3 months and x-raying periodically, we will see the cancer grow if it is indeed there. If not, then her leg should heal well, we will have avoided very costly surgery and we will have bought some time. Ally had new x-rays today and everything still looks good. We will hope for a clean health report but realize that should cancer show its face on the x-ray we will have to put her down. Tough times for our family. Our girls wanted to take pictures with Ally all weekend. Anna even added to the top of her letter to Santa that she did not want Ally to have cancer and she wanted her to live longer. Very sad. Lots of tears, but hopefully we are on the road to recovery. We are optimistic, but cautiously and realistically optimistic.