BS: My dog is unwell

Subject: BS: My dog is unwell
From: ranger1
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 01:13 PM

I kind of feel bad for asking for good thoughts when so many people have serious ailments going on right now, but I don't have kids and Bandit's very dear to us. So anyway, I'm asking.

Last Tuesday night, I noticed that his face was all lop-sided and on further investigation discovered that there was some strange swelling going on under his jaw. Of course it was after-hours at our vet practice, and I didn't think it was worth paying the huge bucks for the emergency vet clinic, so we waited until the next morning. In the meantime, his ear flap swelled up. Because Wednesdays are surgery day at our vet, I had to leave him there for the day. They checked a bunch of the obvious things, nothing really came up, so we got some prednisone for the swelling and a "call us if it gets worse." Fast-forward to last night - the insides of his ear flaps (it's now both of them that are swollen) and seeping goo and don't smell quite right. I get a vet appointment this AM, the vet goes over him, looks puzzled and tells me she's never seen anything quite like it before. He now has an infection going on in both ear flaps, not in the ear canal, just the flaps, and we've had to have a blood sample sent to the lab and he's on antibiotics. No temp, appetite is fine, just gross, swollen infected ear flaps. Anyway, Bandit, J-boy and I would appreciate any good thoughts anyone has to spare.

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: Jeri
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 01:36 PM

Sorry he's not getting better yet, and I hope it turns around fast. He did NOT seem like a happy puppy when I saw him.

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: gnu
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 01:37 PM

I certainly hope it gets sorted out. Fact that his appetite is good and there is no temp problem is encuraging.

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: wysiwyg
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 01:42 PM

Aw! :~(

<3

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: maeve
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 01:50 PM

No chance of porcupine spines in there somewhere, I suppose?

Thinking of you, Jason, and Bandit.

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: GUEST,999
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 02:12 PM

What kind of dog do you have?

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 02:21 PM

My American Staffordshire terrier had a angry looking swollen spot on her chin last summer - the vet asked what she drinks out of. I told him she has a galvanized tub. He said that sometimes they're allergic to plastic- and of course, she was spending a lot of time in the molded plastic wading pool, and drinking out of it. She was on an antibiotic for that reaction and I got rid of the plastic pools. We now have galvanized stock tanks for the dogs to take a dip in and the spot cleared up. It would have kept getting worse if we'd done nothing. She also get Zyrtec daily in the summer because she's allergic to something in the turf.

Do you suppose there is something allergy oriented setting this off?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: Maryrrf
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 02:27 PM

Don't feel bad about asking for healing thoughts for your dog, Tami. Our animals are important, they are part of the family. I was wondering about the possibility of insect bites and a possible allergic reaction, but that isn't so likely in the middle of winter. I recall a dog I had whose face and ear swelled up due to a wasp or bee sting - we weren't sure which. Another problem I've seen with ear flaps (this was a hound dog with long floppy ears) - this dog would shake her head paying no attention to the fact that she was next to the coffee table, and her ears would slap against the furniture. She ended up with pooled blood in her ear flaps, they swelled like water balloons and it was a mess (and expensive) to get them fixed - they had to make small incisions all throughout the ear flaps and she had to wear a really uncomfortable head bandage. Anyway I hope it's something easily sorted out.

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: Ebbie
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 03:04 PM

Probably totally unrelated but still, it concerns the ear flaps, so here goes:

A couple of months ago, Ellery, my Chinese Crested dog, got encrustations on both ears. Like yours, not in the ear canals but on the tips of his (upright) ears.

I took him to the vet and she said to try Neosporin, that if the crusts were wedge-shaped she would suspect something else but it didn't appear to be so in this case.

I kept the lesions greased up with the Neosporin and they cleared up. They responded almost immediately but it took several days before they were entirely gone.

They haven't come back.

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: kendall
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 05:06 PM

Something tells me it's not too serious, but you have my best wishes anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: Neil D
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 05:18 PM

My dog's ear swelled up like that intermittently until we figured out that he had food allergies. Since we found a food he can tolerate, that hasn't happened anymore. I hope your puppy feels better soon:)

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 05:31 PM

We always use an out of hours vet if necessary.

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: ranger1
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 05:53 PM

Thanks, everyone.
- Maggie, I don't think it's a plastic food dish issue - one of the park cats has that and this is very different looking and feeling. Plus, we use ceramic bowls.
-Neil, I had thought of the food allergy angle, waiting to talk to the vet on Monday when the results of the blood work comes back and will discuss that with her then.
- Ebbie, we have some salve from the vet that we're supposed to put on a couple of times a day. My guess is that it's some sort of vet-grade neosporin.
- Maeve, nope, no porcupine contact. With Bandit, there would have been noise involved, lots of noise.
- Bruce, he's a mutt. Our best guess is chow, beagle and god knows what else.
-Bonzo, the only after hours vets around here are at the emergency clinic, which costs $200 just to walk through the door. Worth it in case of life-threatening emergency, not in the budget otherwise.

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: Bobert
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 06:11 PM

I hope the antibiotics will take and Bandit be back to his self in no time... Hate it when the critters are sick...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 06:16 PM

Ms. Luna, Kipling, Trystan and I are all sending our love and good thoughts to you all. I have a good feeling it will all get sorted out and Bandit will be fine. I remember how excite you all were when you got him. He's a doll!

Pets are family members and just as important when it comes to asking friends for help when they are down.:-)

luvyakat

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: wordfella
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 06:27 PM

Please keep us updated.

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: catspaw49
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 12:00 AM

You have my best for Ranger and you guys too!

A good bit of what you're describing sounds like an aural hematoma. Weims are susceptible to them. Does he react to squeezing the ear?


Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: Crowhugger
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 12:51 AM

My little pack sends all their best woofs to your sick pooch! I sure hope you can divert all your worry energy into calm love and support for him.   

To all the dog lovers reading this thread: I don't often put forward advice, but I'll go out on a limb here ... If your dog is behaving at all unusually, there is SOMETHING wrong. Social animals like dogs (maybe others too, but our vet was talking about dogs when she explained this) will expend a lot of energy to hide illness because it is a sign of weakness, which quickly invites rank ordering challenges. Our vet said it's pretty common to have a dog measure as normal (temperature, BP, labs, behaviour) while something icky or dangerous develops, and that's why emergency clinics say "bring it in" when people call about their pet acting peculiar. Normal appetite, water intake, behaviour and energy often do exist in dogs who are quite ill, and the animal only slows down or behaves uncharacteristically when their situation becomes grave. Been there. It cost us a small fortune for a week of overnight care including 2 days in ICU, plus a couple of months of follow-up, but that's another story, and one that ended well if not cheaply.

Get well soon, Bandit! Here's hoping a good run of antibiotics takes care of things for you.

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 01:00 AM

I hope the problem is soon diagnosed and cured. Pats to Bandit and hugs to his people.

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: GUEST,999
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 01:58 AM

Tami, has the vet ruled out mites?

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 04:07 AM

Sounds like he is flop-eared. Has the vet been able definitively to rule out grass seeds? Spaniels suffer from that a lot here in the UK.

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: Little Robyn
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 06:19 AM

Our dear old dog Kiri (no longer with us) had some sort of infection and her ear ballooned up. The vet operated and cut and drained it. Then she had to wear a plastic thing around her neck so she couldn't scratch the stitches out. I don't know if we ever found out why - she just started scratching and eventually it made the ear swell. The whole thing was upsetting and expensive, but it didn't kill her.
She lived to be 17!!
She was a mixture of bull terrier and NZ cattle dog (called a Huntaway over here) and she was beautiful and intelligent.
Robyn

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: Jeri
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 09:44 AM

Having just visited...
His ears are floppy, but not hound-floppy or even beagle-floppy. They don't hang below the bottom of his neck.
This started under his chin, probably in a lymph node. His ears don't show signs of mites, and Tami would know mites. I didn't get a super good look at his ears because 1. he's not my dog, 2. he starts shaking his head when Tami messes with his ears, and 3. they're gooey.

His ears, when I saw them, looked free from everything except goo, so it's draining from inside. The aroma seems to indicate some sort of infection, including fluid trapped inside somewhere. If it were me, it would be a sinus infection, but it's not me, and my ears aren't as floppy as his so nobody would know.

He's still as social as ever, but he's dialed the usual dog bounciness way down.

I know you didn't ask for folks to try to out-diagnose your vet, but we can't let any mystery escape un-molested.

Hugs.

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: gnu
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 12:38 PM

Thanks for the update, Jeri.

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: Jeri
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 01:16 PM

It's actually from the night before she last (AFAIK) took him to the vet--Friday night. I really hope he's doing better today!

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 02:28 PM

Good luck to Bandit!

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: Tinker
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 04:59 PM

Sending good cleansing thoughts off to the northern hinderlands....

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: DougR
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 06:08 PM

Sorry to hear about Bandit's problem. Our pets are important to us and I hope he pulls out of this okay. Our miniature Schnauzer, Emma, had to have two teeth pulled a week ago and she is just now recovering. Pets have a hard time of it because they can't communicate to us what's wrong and how they are feeling.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: ranger1
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 06:41 PM

Thanks, everyone! The antibiotics seem to be kicking in, swelling all gone in one ear, almost gone in the other, seepage is also going away and things seem to be drying out. I am interested in the results of the blood work, which should be back tomorrow.

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: Jeri
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 07:23 PM

Give him a hug from me whenever he gets to the point you won't stick to him. I'm glad he's improving!

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: Joybell
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 07:29 PM

Good luck Bandit. Happy thoughts from us and our Mob.
Joy

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: Maryrrf
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 07:41 PM

Glad to hear he's getting better and yes it will be interesting to see the results of the tests and find out what it is. Let us know.

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: Crowhugger
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 08:56 PM

Hurray for good news!

woof love,
our little pack.

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: gnu
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 09:00 PM

Improvement! I hope it continues. Good luck.

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: Crowhugger
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 09:07 PM

«...they can't communicate to us what's wrong and how they are feeling.»

...and we can't communicate to them that the added trauma of treatment will make them better in the long run.

I missed Jeri's mention of it starting under the chin. That brings to mind: Years ago, one of ours developed an infection on the front of her neck under her chin, far enough down to be well out of sight from her mouth. The cause was never known for sure but given her young-ish age at the time (< 1 year, which means an immature immune system) plus her then-recent discovery of how much fun it was to chew sticks, the vet figured it was likely an abscessed puncture or sliver. But any dog can get an abscess--there are so many germs in the world they won't have immunity to everything.

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: gnu
Date: 16 Jan 12 - 04:16 PM

Soooooo? What's the scoop?

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: SINSULL
Date: 16 Jan 12 - 05:42 PM

Poor Bandit.
Any chance he picked something up at the park over the holidays? Just a thought.
Had a bacterial infection in my lymph nodes and it was not pretty.
Give the puppy a gentle hug and keep an eye on him (as if you needed to be told).
SINS

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: ranger1
Date: 17 Jan 12 - 09:31 PM

Bloodwork came back today, nothing out of the ordinary. Vet is still stumped, but the antibiotics seem to be doing the trick. Swelling completely gone, seepage has stopped and things appear to be drying up and healing.

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: Jeri
Date: 17 Jan 12 - 09:39 PM

You just have a leaky dog! I'm glad he's feeling better.

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: gnu
Date: 17 Jan 12 - 09:41 PM

Great news!

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 17 Jan 12 - 10:41 PM

Woosh!

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: GUEST,999
Date: 18 Jan 12 - 07:09 AM

Glad to hear that, Tami.

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 18 Jan 12 - 07:29 AM

He deserves a prize!

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: SINSULL
Date: 18 Jan 12 - 09:07 AM

Good news. MAybe he is just looking for attention.

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: Leadfingers
Date: 18 Jan 12 - 09:16 AM

Glad the Antibiotics have done the necessary Tami !

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: Bobert
Date: 18 Jan 12 - 09:16 AM

Good dog...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: kendall
Date: 18 Jan 12 - 02:42 PM

Yay Bandit.

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Jan 12 - 03:05 PM

Good going, Bandit and parents!:-)

kat & cats and dog

Subject: RE: BS: My dog is unwell
From: gnu
Date: 18 Jan 12 - 03:48 PM

Make sure you write all this down, r1. When it happened, the description of it, the smell... whatever you can think of... the meds provided (keep the bottle). How it progrressed. How it healed, day by day. The works.