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my 9-yo fem cocker has onset of massive swelling of the neck/throat area, very hard, extending somewhat to the right side of her face; malaise, drinking lots of water. This morning, area was bloody, like a seepage. Not sure if this was because the tissue was stretched by the swelling.
Optional Information: Type of Animal: American Cocker Spaniel Pet's Gender: Female Pet's Age: 9 Already Tried: Vet gave her tetracycline, no reponse, and a steroid shot two days ago. High fever abated, then swelling was worse today. Antibiotic was dc'd and steroid pills rx'd.
Hi Jacustomer-cb77m9qm~
How long has this been going on?Has the vet done any blood work on her?Is the area soft and squishy or hard?
First noticed hard swelling in the neck when petting her Wed a.m. Swelling increased notably by Fri a.m., took her to the vet Fri afternoon. No blood work. Increased symptoms as noted, this a.m. VERY hard to touch.
Thanks for answering my questions.
In a 9 year old dog, the first thing I'd think of would be something like a salivary gland infection or even, unfortunately, some cancers. Since it's been getting much worse, I think your vet should do some blood work to rule out things like infection or even some cancers.
If this dog presented at the clinic where I work, my first thought would be infection, but he absolutely needs to take a better look at what is going on.
If it were a malignancy would there be such sudden profound symptoms? I pet this dog a lot and never noticed any swelling before Wed, and it was extreme by Friday.
If it were some kind of neoplasia, I woudln't expect that it would pop up so suddenly..however, the cancers don't read the books on how long it should take, so they often fool us and show up much quicker than we'd expect it to.
That being said, from your description, I'm still leaning towards some kind of infection.
Experience: AAS Vet Tech. Bully breed rehab & Behavior modification
Thank you. I'll take her for a second opinion tomorrow. Just one more thing... she didn't seem to respond to the tetracycline. Do you think that necessarily has any bearing on whether it might just be an infection (I sure hope that's what it is!). Possibly just not an infection that would respond to that particular med?
Infections are funny things...sometimes they'll respond really well to one kind of medicatoin but not to another. I've seen many infections that weren't touched by a round of antibiotics that the animal was on for days and days..the vets switched to a different one and everything cleared up.
Asking the vet to do a fine needle aspirate (FNA) of the area may be another thing to suggest. This is where they use a needle and syringe to pull out some of the material in that swollen area and look at it under a microscope to see what they're dealing with.