About
This is the story of Nikki the Rottweiler and her journey with Bone Cancer.
My name is Ted Malone. My wife Mary and I created this page to share Nikki’s story.
Nikki is currently 9 years old. She was born December 26, 2001 and she came to live with us when she was just 6 weeks old. Her breeder was going to euthanize her because she had defects (extra toes actually) and would never make a “worthwhile” show dog. When I heard about this (it was definitely a strange set of circumstances that even led to me knowing about her) I said I would take her. I have had big dogs for most of my life, and had very positive experience with Rotties. Mary wasn’t so sure when I told her about the puppy (she had heard all of the stereotypes about the mean and bad Rottweilers) but she relented and let me pick her up. It was love at first sight for them, and Nikki has been a cherished member of our family ever since. (We now have 3 Rotties in the home; Nikki, her “sister” Sasha (who is just turning 1 year old) and a rescue dog “Buddy” that we adopted a couple of months ago. (We don’t know how old Buddy is, estimates are anywhere from 3-6 years).
Nikki was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma in her right-hind distal fibia just before Christmas. We thought she was limping because of an injury that she got while we were playing with a remote control car. (ok, I was running it through the backyard while she was chasing it) The injury didn’t seem to get better, so we took her to see the vet. The vet couldn’t find anything wrong, and when it still didn’t get better, she suggested we see a specialist. We saw the specialist, and they gave us the very bad news… After some time of denial, and taking Nikki to see the experts at Colorado State University and getting the same diagnosis, we have decided to embark upon the “normal” treatment plan for Osteosarcoma, which is amputation followed by chemotherapy treatments.
Nikki goes in for her amputation surgery on Tuesday, January 19.
This blog details the journey. (As I write this, Nikki is laying at my feet looking at me very funny, almost as if she knows that I am writing about her)
January 16th, 2010 at 20:27
We also have an 8 year old Rottie who is also named Niki and was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in her left hind knee in late September. By the time she was diagnosed the cancer had spread to her lungs and we were told she had 1 month, 2 if we were lucky, to live. We became experts over night on osteosarcoma with all the research we did. We found an herbal tea online called Essiac tea and although we never really believed in taking the hollistic approach we figured why not? We took Niki in to the vet again in late December and had more xrays done on her lungs, three of her mets were gone!!! The other 3 are the size of a ball point pen tip. Against her docs protest we decided to have her leg amputated as she was very much alive and not ready to die keep in mind this is four months after her diagnosis! Her leg was amputated on January 4th 2010 and she is like Niki before being diagnosed with cancer!! I dont know if your Nikki’s cancer has spread but if it has, we believe the use of this tea has helped prevent the cancer from matastisizing in our Niki and wanted to share this info with you. She has not taken any chemo or radiation, she has only taken 6 teaspoons a day of the Essiac tea since she was diagnosed. We hope and pray that your beautiful Nikki has a speedy recovery and continues to live a long healthy life!!
January 18th, 2010 at 21:45
good luck, my rottie had his leg amputated four months ago and he’s doing wonderfully
February 11th, 2010 at 12:27
This site I found has some great info on herbs and was really insightful. Being that its so hard to find information I thought this would help