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Enlarged Spleen?


Guest chaoran22

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Guest chaoran22

So my Lula was yelping today when anyone touched her side/belly so we made an appointment at the vet. By the time it came time to go to the vet, we noticed that she had a very noticeable bulge on her right side, just behind the end of her ribs. Super freaky. Luckily it was time to go to the vet anyway so we took her in and xrays were really unclear but tentatively the vet thinks he sees an abdominal mass possibly on the spleen. It's really hard to see but it sort of looks like the spleen is a rounder than it should be. We were at the University of Illinois' vet school's satellite clinic so they're sending her xrays down to the board certified radiologists at the vet school to see what they think and see if they recommend an ultrasound (probably will get one either way since the xrays were so clear).

 

I've been on greytalk searching for posts that talk about the spleen and have seen many scary stories about cancer in the spleen. I really hope this is not the case - the vet didn't want to say too much before we got the radiology consult tomorrow but he did say that he hoped it wasn't a tumor so I know he suspects it even though we didn't actually discuss the possibility of cancer. If it is a tumor I just hope it's benign. But my question is (and I'll ask the vet this tomorrow too but wanted to see if anyone here has the experience to know): the bulge wasn't there this morning, how can it all of the sudden appear 4-5 hours later? That makes me think it's not a tumor...but I don't know if that's wishful thinking on my part. Also, it seems like depending on how she moves around, it shrinks back into her body and isn't as noticeable sometimes. She's still in pain, it's not horrible pain, but sometimes when she shifts around on her bed, she'll whimper. We're trying hard to keep my other grey from getting too close to her and bumping her and also she was prescribed Tramadol to help with the pain in the meantime.

 

Also, it's likely that she has been puking bile about 3-4 times in the last week - my cat is currently wearing an e-collar for a paw injury and it's completely messing with his eating habits, so when I found these little puddles of bile on our floors, I just assumed it was him but now we think it was probably her. She's also always had problems drinking since we got her - not real problems but she'll drink too fast, and then cough/choke and then be fine - so we never really think about it when we hear her cough, she does it a million times a day - I wonder if she's been choking a bit more and we just haven't noticed because we expect it from her. I'm really kind of freaked out, none of my pets (two greys and one cat) have ever had a serious illness, and I'm not really sure how to take even the possibility of cancer with her.

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How are her bowel movements? Is she eating normally?

I would wonder about a possible partial bowel obstruction given the changing appearance of the bulge + the bile puke.

 

Freshy (Droopys Fresh), NoAh the podenco orito, Rita the podenco maneta, Howie the portuguese podengo maneto
Angels:  Lila, the podenco, Mr X aka Denali, Lulu the podenco andaluz, Hada the podenco maneta, Georgie Girl (UMR Cordella),  Charlie the iggy,  Mazy (CBR Crazy Girl), Potato, my mystery ibizan girl, Allen (M's Pretty Boy), Percy (Fast But True), Mikey (Doray's Patuti), Pudge le mutt, Tessa the iggy, Possum (Apostle), Gracie (Dusty Lady), Harold (Slatex Harold), "Cousin" Simon our step-iggy, Little Dude the iggy ,Bandit (Bb Blue Jay), Niña the galgo, Wally (Allen Hogg), Thane (Pog Mo Thoine), Oliver (JJ Special Agent), Comet, & Rosie our original mutt.

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Sending good thoughts to you and your girl. :hope There are other causes of spleen enlargement: hepatitis, injury, infection, benign tumors, etc. Enlarged Spleen in Dogs.

 

I've lost a greyhound and a weimaraner to hemangiosarcoma. One was completely asymptomatic until the end and the other showed abdominal tenderness that led to the diagnosis. I hope you get good news about Lula.

Cynthia, & Cristiano, galgo
Always in my heart: Frostman
Newdawn Frost, Keno Jet Action & Chloe (NGA racing name unknown), Irys (galgo), Hannah (weim), Cruz (galgo), & Carly CW Your Charming

Princess http://www.greyhound-data.com/d?i=1018857

"It came to me that every time I lose a dog they take a piece of my heart with them. And every new dog who comes into my life, gifts me with a piece of their heart. If I live long enough, all the components of my heart will be dog, and I will become as generous and loving as they are." -- Unknown

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Guest Energy11

Sending good thoughts for your baby.

 

Just remember, Greyhound's spleens are normally larger than other dogs!

 

Sending love, hugs and prayers!

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Guest chaoran22

really? how much larger are they supposed to be?

 

It's so weird, today, I can't see the bulge anymore. She is still sensitive though - we all got woken up by her yelps this morning. The tramadol does seem to help. We gave her one with breakfast and she hasn't yelped since then. As far as her behavior and bowel movements - everything's normal, great poops as always, eating all her food with gusto, even wanted to run and play this morning.

 

The xrays showed no obstruction (it was our first thought too as it seemed most likely) - the only thing unusual on the xray was the spleen area and it was really unclear but if you sort of stepped back and looked at it from a bit further away, you could make out a very fuzzy line of something that sort of looked like a mass. that's why we're waiting for the consult from a board certified radiologist because the films were not very obvious. We thought really hard about whether she had an injury or not (she's a very exuberant girlie and when she gets a bit too excited, she has been known to run in circles and wipe out on the floors or the stairs) but we really can't think of any incident within the past few months where we saw her do that.

 

She's not even quite 5 yet and we haven't even had her for two years yet...she came off the track July 2008, we got her October 2008 (after she was adopted out and returned by someone else) and she turns 5 on July 16 this year. I really hope it's nothing bad.

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Guest chaoran22

Sending good thoughts to you and your girl. :hope There are other causes of spleen enlargement: hepatitis, injury, infection, benign tumors, etc. Enlarged Spleen in Dogs.

 

I've lost a greyhound and a weimaraner to hemangiosarcoma. One was completely asymptomatic until the end and the other showed abdominal tenderness that led to the diagnosis. I hope you get good news about Lula.

 

 

I'm sitting here reading through your link and it's great! It's the most comprehensive info I've seen - I wasn't able to find anything this good myself when I was looking yesterday. Thanks!

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Guest chaoran22

We're looking at a mass on either the pancreas or spleen or (hopefully) a hematoma on the spleen. Going to a specialist out in the suburbs for an ultrasound tomorrow. Because she's acting totally normal still, it's unlikely it's an infection that's causing the swelling so more likely it's a hematoma or a mass. Hoping for something that can be easily removed. Her chest xrays look clear at least so there are no masses elsewhere.

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Keeping your girl in our prayers. Let us know how it goes tomorrow and we will hope for a really good report

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Missing my little Misty who took a huge piece of my heart with her on 5/2/09, and Ekko, on 6/28/12

 

 

:candle For the sick, the lost, and the homeless

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Sending prayers. Keep us posted, OK?

Star aka Starz Ovation (Ronco x Oneco Maggie*, litter #48538), Coco aka Low Key (Kiowa Mon Manny x Party Hardy, litter # 59881), and mom in Illinois
We miss Reko Batman (Trouper Zeke x Marque Louisiana), 11/15/95-6/29/06, Rocco the thistledown whippet, 04/29/93-10/14/08, Reko Zema (Mo Kick x Reko Princess), 8/16/98-4/18/10, the most beautiful girl in the whole USA, my good egg Joseph aka Won by a Nose (Oneco Cufflink x Buy Back), 09/22/2003-03/01/2013, and our gentle sweet Gidget (Digitizer, Dodgem by Design x Sobe Mulberry), 1/29/2006-11/22/2014, gone much too soon. Never forgetting CJC's Buckshot, 1/2/07-10/25/10.

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:goodluck Hoping Lula gets a good report tomorrow. :hope

Cynthia, & Cristiano, galgo
Always in my heart: Frostman
Newdawn Frost, Keno Jet Action & Chloe (NGA racing name unknown), Irys (galgo), Hannah (weim), Cruz (galgo), & Carly CW Your Charming

Princess http://www.greyhound-data.com/d?i=1018857

"It came to me that every time I lose a dog they take a piece of my heart with them. And every new dog who comes into my life, gifts me with a piece of their heart. If I live long enough, all the components of my heart will be dog, and I will become as generous and loving as they are." -- Unknown

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Guest chaoran22

we just got the best report EVER! unbelievably, she has a perfectly clean bill of health!! Of course, we had to spend over $1000 to find that out but apparently, she just has a S shaped spleen - no mass! I got myself so worked up today - when they brought her back after her ultrasound, the vet tech smiled at me and I freaked out internally thinking "omg she's has cancer and is going to die, he smiled at me b/c he felt sorry for us, omg omg" and then five minutes later the specialist comes in and says "no mass!" or anything else for that matter! She's perfectly perfect on the inside, just has an S shaped spleen! He's not sure why she was in pain on Monday or why there was a small bulge but he said everything looked really good - maybe she just did something in the middle of the night that moved things around in there in a funny way (b/c she woke up with it) but then it corrected itself later. I'll bet it was all the good thoughts from everyone here! I still can't believe it, it looked so dire before today and it turns out it's nothing! whoo hoo!

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we just got the best report EVER! unbelievably, she has a perfectly clean bill of health!! Of course, we had to spend over $1000 to find that out but apparently, she just has a S shaped spleen - no mass! I got myself so worked up today - when they brought her back after her ultrasound, the vet tech smiled at me and I freaked out internally thinking "omg she's has cancer and is going to die, he smiled at me b/c he felt sorry for us, omg omg" and then five minutes later the specialist comes in and says "no mass!" or anything else for that matter! She's perfectly perfect on the inside, just has an S shaped spleen! He's not sure why she was in pain on Monday or why there was a small bulge but he said everything looked really good - maybe she just did something in the middle of the night that moved things around in there in a funny way (b/c she woke up with it) but then it corrected itself later. I'll bet it was all the good thoughts from everyone here! I still can't believe it, it looked so dire before today and it turns out it's nothing! whoo hoo!

 

yay.gifyay.gif

Claudia-noo-siggie.jpg

Missing my little Misty who took a huge piece of my heart with her on 5/2/09, and Ekko, on 6/28/12

 

 

:candle For the sick, the lost, and the homeless

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Fantastic news! :confetti

Cynthia, & Cristiano, galgo
Always in my heart: Frostman
Newdawn Frost, Keno Jet Action & Chloe (NGA racing name unknown), Irys (galgo), Hannah (weim), Cruz (galgo), & Carly CW Your Charming

Princess http://www.greyhound-data.com/d?i=1018857

"It came to me that every time I lose a dog they take a piece of my heart with them. And every new dog who comes into my life, gifts me with a piece of their heart. If I live long enough, all the components of my heart will be dog, and I will become as generous and loving as they are." -- Unknown

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