Undiagnosed Symptoms

[linda]

I'm currently working with the vet to try to figure out what's going on with Molly, and thought I'd put this out there in case anyone has experienced something similar.

 

Molly is 12, and has been in great health the three years I've had her other than a couple of UTI's

 

A couple of months ago, her neck lymph nodes became swollen. This actually followed a flu that I had with swollen lymph nodes about a week before, so I didn't fuss about it immediately but when they didn't go down we went to the vet and got the presumption of lymphoma. However a biopsy was negative, and no other nodes were palpable, so we moved onto some type of infection and a course of Baytril. There was no response to this, she was running a fever, and we moved to a course of Doxy for four weeks. There was a partial response to this in that the nodes went down in size but never completely resolved, they fluctuated and she continued to run a cyclical fever. At this point we tested for tick borne diseases (negative) and also ran a full panel that showed absolutely nothing but some plasma globulin suggesting inflammation somewhere (apparently could be anything from dental infection to cancer). We're going to do two more weeks of doxy since there was some response and also Clavamox in case it's from her not-great teeth (but the vet isn't really sold on this and neither of us want to put her under while there's something going on).

 

She fluctuates a lot day to day. Yesterday she looked like she felt crummy and was running a fever, but today (and the day before yesterday) she's cool and looks better - the nodes are still present but smaller than yesterday. She's eating no problem. No changes in food, coat looks good. At times she has a dry cough but it normally lasts a half day or so and then disappears for sometimes weeks.

 

One thing that she tried shortly before this started was Sasha's Blend, a green mussel supplement. This is going on for so long that I doubt it's allergies or anything but I've left that question with the vet as well.

 

Does any of this sound familiar to anyone?

 

Thanks!

[MP_the4pack]

Have you checked for an abscessed tooth. My Pearl was misdiagnosed with myocitis because that tiny tooth way in the back was abscessed.

[BatterseaBrindl]

Oh No!!

We're sorry that Molly is still NQR.

 

No ideas...but I like the above idea that it 'could' be a problem tooth....

 

Nancy

[JJNg]

Has your vet considered Bartonella? Even if it was part of the tick panel, it is common to get false negatives. My girl had a suspected case but we were never able to confirm it. We treated with Baytril and doxy together for 8 weeks (plus other things, but she had other signs too). I posted more details about Willow's illness in a previous thread. Just a thought...especially with the partial response to doxy.

 

I'd suggest submitting a consult to Dr. Couto at OSU using the form at this site.

[JohnF]

Also consider canine Brucellosis. aka. 'Undulent (as in up and down) Fever' in humans

[linda]

Thanks everyone for your ideas. We're having a good weekend, she's like normal except for still having swollen lymph nodes, although they're about as good as they've been since this started. I'll mention these thoughts to the vet when we speak this week.

 

Linda

[BatterseaBrindl]

Glad Molly seems to be holding steady and not getting worse.