8 month old English Mastiff Leg filling with fluid

[CVFD1204]

Looking for a little help, to see anyone has see this before.

So last Thursday my wife and I notice that Ottis was carrying his RT rear leg. As the night went on he showed signs of pain, loss of appetite. We loaded him up and went to the ER VET to get him checked. After a while there the vet said it was just growing pains and give us some pain and anti inflammatory meds and sent us on our way. The next day Ottis was show no signs of getting better but actually getting worse. Now at this point we notice his leg starting to swell. So it now Sunday morning and we are concerned so we call our usual vet. I explain the situation to him and said it could be growing pain but I can bring him in today for ER fee or wait till morning. Monday morning we load Ottis Up and go to our vet and they run all kinds of new test and x-Rays . The vet comes to us and says the he nor the other vet has seen anything like this and wasn't sure what was going on. They change the meds and tell us that if they don't help within three days the only thing we can do is get a referral to Viginia Tech animal hospital. So it's now Tuesday and Ottis is still not eating but a little bit of chicken noodle soup and hamburger every now and then. He seems to want water as long as I bring it to him. Ottis can't get up by his self at all now. After a ER hospital visit at $530 dollars and our regular vet at $415 dollars we still have no answers.

 

[angelbears]

So sorry you and your pup is going through this. I am clueless. It may take a while but we do have some very knowledgeable people here. Good luck!

 

[CVFD1204]

So sorry you and your pup is going through this. I am clueless. It may take a while but we do have some very knowledgeable people here. Good luck!

Thanks angelbears, but our normal vet said time is not in our side. Our vet said it could be between $1500-$2000 dollars to have VA Tech check him. We are going to make contact with them tomorrow to get an estimate.

 

[karennj]

What did the xray show? Did they do the drawer test for the cruciate? Sometimes it does not show up well on xray. Where is the swelling? Does it feel squishy at all?

 

[karennj]

Let me clarify. If you press on the swollen area does it stay indented?

 

[karennj]

Where are you located? You mentioned virigina tech, are you on the east coast? I am assuming they did check for tick borne diseases but figure I should ask. Normally it causes limping, fever, possibly loss of appetite and it can cause swelling of the limb. I am in NJ and we see Ehrlichio , anaplas and lyme often but very few cases have had visible swelling. We usually don't test for rocky mountain spotted fever as we don't see it up here.

 

[CVFD1204]

Let me clarify. If you press on the swollen area does it stay indented?

At first it did not stay indented, but now part of the leg does and some parts don't .

 

[karennj]

Did they say if they tested for tick diseases? If it is spongy feeling and indents I would be worried about pitting edema. Usually does not cause pain if localized but whatever is causing it could cause pain. Are you in an area that has rocky mountain spotted fever?

 

[CVFD1204]

Where are you located? You mentioned virigina tech, are you on the east coast? I am $#@!uming they did check for tick borne diseases but figure I should ask. Normally it causes limping, fever, possibly loss of appetite and it can cause swelling of the limb. I am in NJ and we see Ehrlichio , anaplas and lyme often but very few cases have had visible swelling. We usually don't test for rocky mountain spotted fever as we don't see it up here.

Yes, we are from West Virginia. The ER vet didn't test for tick diseases. Even thou we are upset with her diagnosis there was no swelling when we was there. All she had to go by was the pain and lameness. I am sure our normal vet did the test. Everything is a blur at this point, but we are sure did did.

 

[karennj]

Did the dog have a fever then or does it now? I would call the vet in the morning and tell them the swollen area indents. If it has pitting edema it should be seen again to figure out the cause.

 

[CVFD1204]

I should also mention that his white blood cell count is elevated very high and rest of his blood work was pretty much normal. Our normal vet did a exam and did not find any puncture wounds that would show true with tick,spider, and snake bites.

 

[CVFD1204]

Did the dog have a fever then or does it now? I would call the vet in the morning and tell them the swollen area indents. If it has pitting edema it should be seen again to figure out the cause.

Yes, Ottis did have a small fever at both the vet offices. And we are sure that he still has it also.

 

[CVFD1204]

We are going to call our vet in the morning to give an update. We are going to have them work up the referral papers to go to Virginia Tech. The down fall is Virginia Tech only takes animal on referrals and is very expensive. Just coming up with the money after spending you might as well say $1000 dollars already in 5 days with the two vet bills and gas.

 

[Hector]

The only other thread I can think of with leg swelling was this one

Please pray for Jake - Mastiff Forum

 

[CVFD1204]

We are going to call our vet in the morning to give an update. We are going to have them work up the referral papers to go to Virginia Tech. The down fall is Virginia Tech only takes animal on referrals and is very expensive. Just coming up with the money after spending you might as well say $1000 dollars already in 5 days with the two vet bills and gas.

Sry trying to keep up with all the ?'s. Both vets took x-Rays and said that they was a very small inflammation around the knee. That is the reason the ER vet said it was growing pains. Our normal vet reviewed the ER x-Rays and also took some of his own. He said it does show some inflammation in the knee area but he was certain it was not Panosteitis/Growing pains. The bad thing is that he and the other vet in that office had no idea what was going on.

 

[karennj]

Did they put him on antibiotics? It sounds like it and they are going to do a wait and see if the antibiotics start to clear the infection in 3 days.

 

[CVFD1204]

Did they put him on antibiotics? It sounds like it and they are going to do a wait and see if the antibiotics start to clear the infection in 3 days.

The ER Vet gave us pain and antibiotics, but they didn't seem to help. Our regular vet gave us very strong antibiotics and steroids along with pain meds

 

[karennj]

Ok, well hopefully it is just a mild infection and the antibiotics will clear it. Very weird that it has popped up out of no where. With the tick diseases you usually see low WBC counts although at the peak it can elevate but usually drops again.

 

[CVFD1204]

Ok, well hopefully it is just a mild infection and the antibiotics will clear it. Very weird that it has popped up out of no where. With the tick diseases you usually see low WBC counts although at the peak it can elevate but usually drops again.

Yeah, that would be great. We are scared do to his leg getting so big and him in pain. After I made it home tonight it does appear the the other leg may be starting to retain a very small amount of fluid also. We have managed to get him to eat now as to where from Thursday till Tuesday he wouldn't eat anything. Still don't have much of an appetite. He will not touch his normal dry food but we did get him to eat a few hotdogs, hamburger, and chicken noodle soup at different medicine times.

 

[CVFD1204]

The only other thread I can think of with leg swelling was this one

Please pray for Jake - Mastiff Forum

Thanks for the thoughts.