Friend's Grey - What's Happening?

[macoduck]

This is from friend of a friend. What could be going on here?

 

"...I took Wendy to the E vet. last night.

We thought she might have been bitten by something.

She was hot, listless and stiff and salivating foamy stuff and her neck and head were sensitive to the

touch.

Heard her yelp Sat. afternoon and she had a little blood on her nose but thought she pricked herself on a rose bush.

They thought she had menengitis from a secondary infection to a bite and gave her pain meds, antibiotic in the form of four bottles of pills.

Antibiotics seemed to improve her somewhat so they are continuing with that.

Today she went to see her regular vet and they gave her fluids but she is not eating or drinking anything.

Supposed to go back this afternoon and they will give her more fluids. ....

[Burpdog]

Either a TBD, meningitis or poisoning perhaps? Which antibiotics did they give her? Is she giving any pepcid, zantac and carafate?

[macoduck]

More info-

This began Saturday morning(2 days ago) but bad symptoms didn't start til Saturday night. The nose "nick" happened in the morning but the gums and mouth didn't appear swollen until afternoon.

 

Given IV Buprenex and IV metacam, within 15 minutes was getting better but still had pain

Temp was 104.3 and 40 minutes later was 102

BP was 120

Respiration 32

Blood panel OK (I don't think a tick panel was done)

Cephalexin 500mg

Baytril

Tramadol 5mg

Deramaxx 100mg (to start that today)

 

Vet suspects a spider bite, possible snake bite.

Dog just ate a bit of chicken. Pain is much less. Did get the second round of fluids today as well. Definitely improved from Saturday night.

 

[Burpdog]

OK - didn't know there was swelling. Does sound like a bite. What kind of snakes do you have there?

[macoduck]

Copperheads and water moccasins, assorted non-poisonous snakes too. I thought it was odd with the delay in having a reaction of at least 6-8 hours from the initial yelp and bit of blood on her nose.

[Guest greytexplorer]

I have been thru the snake bites with 1 cat, 1 birddog and 1 greyhound.

All survived.

 

Putting hound on antibiotics was good, since it does sound like the bite was on the nose. Snakes have nasty mouths, so antibiotic is good. Fluids good, too, to flush out the venom.

 

My cat and birddog had immediate swelling at bite site (on their muzzles).

Mandy was bitten on the back of her front leg, and the swelling and heat wasn't really evident until next morning.

Also, did not see right away the bite site. Vet found it, but it was still not very obvious to me.

 

Hugs to Wendy. Hope all gets back to normal soon.

[Guest BlackandBrindle]

I am by no means an expert, but my first thought was snake bite, having seen it in my grandmother's dogs growing up.

[ahicks51]

Knowing the geographic region in which your friend resides might help narrow down the list of potentially venomous critters.

[macoduck]

Knowing the geographic region in which your friend resides might help narrow down the list of potentially venomous critters.

 

Wilmington NC - I haven't seen her yard so I don't know what kind of habitat it is.

[ahicks51]

Sounds a little like latrodectism, the results of a black widow spider bite. There are some consistencies, except for the high temperature.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latrodectism

 

Just as a guess- with the hypertrophic muscles of greyhounds, the hypertension, muscle rigidity (tetany), etc., might lead to an elevated body temperature. Muscle relaxants might help some, but if I'm wrong it could be pretty bad for the pup.

 

It just doesn't jibe with snakebite; check the rest of the body very carefully for a bite mark. The front legs are so bony, I don't know how a snake stands a good chance of landing a bite there. Check the depth of the wound on the nose; half the time, snake bites are "dry" bites, with no venom. If it's shallow (less than a millimeter), it could be from a spider. If it's just a scratch- no swelling, no pain, etc.- that's probably not the bite site- keep looking.

 

The good news is, if the dog isn't already dead, there's a good chance she'll make it. The bad news is there may be considerable discomfort for her and worry on the part of everyone else involved. The "listless, stiff, and hot" part of the first appearance of symptoms is certainly characteristic of rigid paralysis such as that found in certain types of envenomations. There *should* be swelling, pain, and other nastiness at the bite site. Not that someone hasn't checked all over already, but another survey to see if something is being missed might be in order if there's any doubt.