Need help with infection??

My wife's house dog(ukc APBT) had a 104.3 temp at 3 am this morning. I gave her 1 adult aspirin(325 mg) and tried to go back to bed. At 4am my wife woke me up again and her temp was right at 106 so she took her to the 24hr emergency room about 1 1/2 hrs away. I didn't know if she had ate something or what to think. She had been home all day while we were out doing Christmas.
After I woke all the way up I knew I didn't want them doing a bunch of poking and prodding and my wife walk out of there with a $1200 bill so I told them to just do a blood work up and I would take it to my vet in morning. She brought her back and she was all bawling and emotional so I agreed to let the vet down the road take a look at her cause I couldn't get in to my vet til 2:30pm and it was about 10am then.
Here is a log kinda of things going on...
Description:::
1)4yrs old and healthy( last heat about 2-3months--did not breed her)
2)40#
3)sportmix dog food
4)gums pretty pink w/mild hint of pale
5)ate yesterday but not last night.Will drink water
6)skin not staying up when check for dehydration by pulling skin up and watching it snap back(is this a good test?)
7)temp at vet 104.2

What has been done so far at vet...Before she got the blood work she felt on her whole abdomen area and did rectal and vaginal exams. Felt she had pyrometra so scheduled her for surgery. She felt pretty confident that was problem. Got blood work in and her white blood cells were low,(she said the infection was winning and overtaking her immune system),platelets were high I think and I cant recall right now what all else(will post a scan tomorrow)
1) Fluids to bring down temp and re-hydrate
2) Surgery
Surgery revealed no pyrometra but a swollen spleen and inflamed tonsils. She had planned to spade the dog and expected it to be simi-complicated as a result of the pus but there was none to speak of.
Now that there was not a pyrometra she has no clue what the hell is wrong. I am kinda in the dark until I can get a copy of her blood work.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

A swollen spleen is yet another sign of babesia ... as is an elevated temperature.

I would check her for some kind of tick disease, as tonsils likewise inflame when trying to fight-off infection.

Hope they didn't yank the uterus, if it wasn't pyometra.

Jack

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The vet ended up charging me $388 to tell me she didn't know what was wrong with her dog. Now my wife is all bummed out thinking her dog is going to die. I am giving her Baytril two times a day for a week. Hopefully it will clear the problem up. If it does not then I am going to start sending blood work out so I can determine what she has. I will prob. send a sample to the DR. in the Carolina's that is listed in your book.


My scanner is messed up so I had to take pictures of the blood work/UA.

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/y...3/DSCN5137.jpg

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/y...3/DSCN5139.jpg

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/y...3/DSCN5140.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ScratchAndGO

The vet ended up charging me $388 to tell me she didn't know what was wrong with her dog. Now my wife is all bummed out thinking her dog is going to die. I am giving her Baytril two times a day for a week. Hopefully it will clear the problem up. If it does not then I am going to start sending blood work out so I can determine what she has. I will prob. send a sample to the DR. in the Carolina's that is listed in your book.

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With a Hematocrit of 40.5, babesia is not your problem.

Interesting that she has a LOW white blood count ... and that her platelets are clumped. Could she have been poisoned/eaten something she shouldn't have?

I don't think you have to send another blood sample anywhere, what I would do is have a second opinion on the bloodwork that has already been done. I wish I could provide more insight, but I am stumped as well.

Jack

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Jack
Thanks for taking a look anyway.She is doing semi-OK right now. Her temp has been right around 103 or less and I got her to eat a couple eggs. She has drank I assume because I had to refill the water bowl this evening. She is still pretty sore from her "much needed" surgery. Hope she makes it. I hate seeing the wife all bummed out.

Well this dang dog is still sick. $700 and no one knows what the hell is wrong with her. Now one of her lymph nodes is swollen very bad. I have no idea what to think.She has had a course of Baytril and took her last steroid pill this morning.The research I have done indicates that she still has a infection and that baytril didn't work.She finished her Baytril 3 days ago.I am going to start her on 500mg of cephalexin 2 times a day. She weights about 40# and the dose is 10mg per #. Should I break the capsule down and give 400mg worth or do you think 500 will be ok? Thanks in advance for all considerations...

Eric

I would never give heavy doses of antibiotics AND give prolonged coriticosteroids (which suppress immunity) at the same time ... that is bad protocol IMO.

It's not her lymph node that is swollen.It is a pocket of infection(pus) or something(don't know how to describe it). My reproduction guy is also a vet tech and I am able to run my stuff past him for a simi professional opinion. He told me that he just dealt with a case where they thought the lymph node was swollen but when they opened the dog up to determine why it was swollen it was this bag of fluid (or whatever) that they drained and the dog was fine. After he told me this I went back and felt the area again and sure as shit I could also feel her lymph node as well as this other mass of something. It just popped up overnight.I don't want to do anything detrimental to her so I think I am going to take her to the vet that I had intended to take her to in the first place had my wife not freaked out on me over her. I just hope it isn't cancer of some kind. Thanks for the heads up about the suppression of her immune system.My guy had said that because it is a different family it may pick something up that the baytril didn't. Will post more as I figure this stuff out... EA

Well, then the lump needs to be examined and pinpointed as to what it is. Cephalexin isn't going to penetrate a pus pocket like that; you would need an anaerobic drug like Antirobe for that, or a combination of clavamox and metronidozole. But I still would investigate what is the exact nature of the bump first, before slinging (the wrong kind of) antibiotics in the dark.

If it is an abscess, then you might be dealing with a bad tooth or infected salivary gland, for which (again) Antirobe (clindamycin) is the preferred drug.

But it always pays to know, not guess.