Edema in Dog's Ears (long, sorry)

[cybele]

Hi, I've just joined and wanted to ask for some help and perhaps support.

I have a 12 year old beagle/spaniel mix. She's about 30 pounds and very fit.

One day ago she woke up and had a lot of extra fluid, including plump ears (she has those long floppy hound ears). I mean her ears are really thick with extra fluid. Her collar was a bit more snug. Her skin beneath her fur and inside her ears is really bright pink and she was a bit warm to the touch.

Of course I took her right to the vet yesterday morning. They kept her during the day and said that it was allergies of some sort. She's now on prednisolone (a steroid) and cephlaxin (an antibiotic) and some eyedrops (I can't remember what kind, but they had some antibiotics in them and some steroids). When they weighed her she was 35 pounds - she's usually 29-30.

Still, this morning her ears were puffy again and haven't gone down today. We're giving her the meds, but she's had a voracious appetite (she never gets people food - except for a litte piece of cheese after her pills) and has been drinking and peeing lots.

I called the vet today and my regular vet wasn't able to get to the office today (their office was a block away from that horrible train crash here in Los Angeles) - the other vet said that we need to give the drugs an opportunity to work. They took blood yesterday and the results won't be ready until tomorrow.

I'm concerned, but my dog doesn't seem to be. Her disposition is still rather bouncy and she's not at all upset if I touch her ears. Her breathing is not affected and except for the puffy ears, she seems exactly the same as always.

I'd appreciate any advice anyone might have.

[CTChin]

I'm very sorry about your dog I'm not sure about the ears but I know that Predisone will make a dog hungry, and drink and pee a lot. I would have to say those symptoms are directly related to Pred. Keep us posted.

[cybele]

Just as an update, Becky's ears were still swollen this morning and so I called the vet (also to get the test results) he was greatly alarmed that she wasn't responding to the drug therapy and told us to bring her right in.

When he saw her again he decided that she's bleeding or has a low platelet count. There are small broken vessels in her mouth and in her cheeks. Her blood tests showed that her platelet count was within normal range, but lower than it was at her last blood test. There was also blood in her urine.

He wanted to keep her overnight and I talked to him a little while ago and he said that they've decided that she has Immune-Mediated Thrombocytopenia which is an autoimmune disorder where her body attacks its own blood platelets.

I'll give him a call in the morning and see how she did overnight. He thinks that it's treatable and thought serious, not life-threatening. She'll proably stay on the steroids for a few more weeks.

Thanks all.

[cybele]

Well, the doctor ran some more tests and has now ruled out any autoimmune disorder and is back to some sort of clotting problem.

More tests in the past two days and some new meds as her thyroid is now off (not sure if it's related to all this).

The vet is running some more blood tests, some sort of clotting factor cascade panel. We'll know more on Monday. I find it a little hard to believe that for all these years she's had some sort of bleeding disorder, but then again, she hasn't really had any bad accidents where it would come up.

In the mean time her ears are much better. Her disposition remains sunny as ever, so we're just taking it one day at a time. My husband is desperately worried, but since the only symptom we have is swollen ears and the dog is eating and peeing and pooing, I'm confident that whatever it is, we'll figure it out and she'll get better.

[possummomca]

Good luck with your girl. I had a 300 bill here a couple monthes ago because of an edema in my cats ear of all things. The vet told me it can happen from severe head shaking or sometimes they will get something in the ear and either shake the head or scratch the ear causing it to swell. My boy had to have the blood let out and a silly looking disk sown onto the ear to keep the blood from just refilling in the ear "flap" persay. He said the same thing to me that i could have relieved it with a needle but that it would have just refilled itself. He wore the disk for over two weeks then when the sutures came out his ear is a bit lumpy still but everything seems fine now. The vet mentioned that this is more common with dogs who have the floppy ears. Good luck and I hope all will get better soon.
Barb

[cybele]

Just another update. The vet has decided he doesn't know what was wrong with her. None of the tests indicated anything - no autoimmune disorder, no clotting problems, all blood levels came back normal.

So, but ruling out any reasonable disease or syndrome, we're back to environment. I guess the only possibility is that she got into some warfarin (rat poison) by finding a dead rodent. It's so highly unlikely though because she's never out off-leash. We never keep the stuff in the house and everyone in the neighborhood has dogs and cats and doesn't use the stuff either.

The good news is that she responded to the treatment of her symptoms using steroids (prednisolone) and vitamin K. We're currently weaning her off the prednisolone and I just picked up another month's worth of vitamin K from the vet this morning.

[Muriel]

Hi, Just joined and seen this. Glad your dog's OK now. Breeds with big long ears can get big swollen ears like that from a lot of head shaking. My Weimaraner did when she had a major allergy to something in the fields. I did take her to the vet for Piriton, but didn't allow the vet to do anything about her ears which were up like balloons as they'd have wanted to knock her out etc. Instead, I got Homeopathic Hammamellis 6c and gave her 4 a day - the swelling was gone in a couple of days:-) 30c would be the preferred potency, 3 a day, but it was unavailable at the time. Just a tip for the future...

[cybele]

Thanks for the suggestion Muriel.

If it were just her ears, I'd think that it was a localized problem. Both were equally swollen, an indication of more than just an irritation or too much scratching. But once we found the broken vessels in her mouth and the blood in her urine, I think it indicated more of a systemic problem.

Oddly enough, we found that the vitamin K was the most effective solution here. Hopefully we won't have a recurrence, but if we do, we have a low-cost, easy treatment.

[ninja_smurtles]

Glad to see your dog is feeling a bit better.
Did you notice a lot of head shaking going on?

[cybele]

I didn't notice any out of the ordinary head shaking going on. She shakes herself when she gets up from a nap or gets wet when she's outside.

We did notice her shaking her head that first morning when her ears were so bad, but not any sort of swift shaking, like you'd expect - more like head turning because the weight of the ears was so odd to her. She tried shaking a few times, but I think she found the weight to be painful.

Now that it's been weeks, she's perfectly normal now. Her ears are just the way they used to be, her appetite is back to normal (the steroids make her voracious) and she's not had any other problems at all. We're still keeping an eye on her, I feel her ears every morning just in case (well, I give her a good petting every morning and make special note of her ears).

Thanks to everyone for their concern. I'm sorry that we never figured out exactly what it was so that I could tell folks what it was in case their dog ended up with a similar problem.

[marmilla]

I'm glad your dog recovered just fine. You're a good owner for noticing the symptoms early and getting her the help she needed. I should think that deserves a star!

[Sadie]

Wow! What a horrible ordeal to go through; especially for your poor dog! I'm glad you got her the help she needed!
That sounds very costly, considering all the tests and bloodwork. Not many pet owners would have stuck by their pets and paid the full cost. Good job!