nosebleeding - Page 1

Hello again.  Well the soap opera continues.  Some of you may remember my posts about my GS in August or so about her hips.  Tara is doing OK with that but recently she's gotten some nosebleeds.  I'm not sure there's a pattern yet (only had 4 - 1 on Election Day and the 2nd last Saturday, then 1 each the last few days), but she may be susceptible to it under pressure/excitement.

She bleeds from 1 nostril.  The emergency clinic vet said her clotting was good and her blood pressure high.  I had her BP checked again at our regular vet and it was fine (mutliple checks on multiple cuffs), and they had recently checked her thyroid.  So those clues seem to be out.

According to all the vets the next step is X-rays (not always reliable) and very expensive nose scope.  If we weren't strapped this wouldn't be a problem, but my husband has been very worried about money the last year and in fact the plan is I try to get a job back in the new year because we're running into debt.

Anyway, does anyone have any insight into nosebleeding?  I've not heard of GS having trouble with it but maybe I just am not in the know.  Do they tend to have specific problems that can result in this?

Remember she is the most allergic dog the dermatologists have ever seen.  She is 10 years old and has been on drugs of various kinds all her life, and now is on 1 for her hips.  Again, otherwise she is happy and alert with no changes.

I even saw the derm today incidentally because I got Tara's food there.  He was concerned but didn't have any comment about drugs or anything hurting her this way.

I personally have no experience with it. I googled some stuff and maybe this can help you.

http://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/respiratory/c_multi_epistaxis?page=show#.ULaS8WcYF8E

http://petfirstaidclass.blogspot.com/2009/06/v-behaviorurldefaultvml-o.html

http://www.dogchannel.com/dog-vet-library/vetqa/articlenosebleed.aspx

HTH!

I had a male GSD that developed a nose bleed from one nostril at 8 1/2 years old.  That went on for a brief time until it got significantly worse.  I had all the tests done and it turned out to be a malignant tumor in his nasal passage.  Several vets misdiagnosed until I went to a different vet (3rd opinion) who diagnose it immediately.  He did the scope just to confirm it.  I hope your dog does better and recovers soon. 

Check for deadly ehrlichiosis( Tick fever) sooner the better. If it's nothing then good. It can be dry air. But if it is ehrlichiosis then the dog is in grave danger!!!!! Thus the  treatment must be started asap.
Hans  

While we can speculate on what might be going on with your dog, you're going to need to do some additional testing to get to the bottom of it.  My first thought based on the joint pain and nose bleeds would be aspergillus or a similiar fungal infection.  But based on her age, it could well be a tumor.  Other things to consider would be a foreign object in the sinus, maybe a bad molar...or possibly a drug reaction, though you don't mention what drugs she's currently on.   Why not explain the situation to your vet and ask him/her for a list of  the most logical/cost-effective "rule-out" tests and a recommendation as to which s/he would do first based on the dog's history? 

Get a tick panel done. Joint pain and bleeding are both symptoms of many tick borne diseases

For a dog who's been on tick repellents for all her life, and has 2/month for the last 3, what's the chance of her having a serious tick problem in the mid-Atlantic?

Thanks for the ideas.

The vets are aware of the situation, and basically all I've gotten so far is "X-ray - cheaper and unreliable" and 2nd "rhinoscopy - very expensive but accurate".  My only thing would be to ensure they're not missing something silly, like the fact she has splits on her nose from lots of scratching and possibly dryness; although I myself genuinely think it's internal and not just external.

Where are you located?

We're in Maryland, near Baltimore.

We've decided we will ask the vet to make sure there were checks done that can include bacterial or fungal infections.  They certainly mentioned that kind of thing, but I didn't understand whether anything was actually checked.  Maybe there're too many to check for so they don't know how to narrow it down?

Ol' Line Rebel, the chances of a tick-borne disease in the Mid-Atlantic area are EXTRAORDINARY.  Ehlichiosis, Rocky Mountian Spotted Fever and babesiosis are all regularly diagnosed in dogs in the Mid-Atlantic states, and as far up as the New England area, and south to Florida.  In truth, when it comes to a tick 'repellant', about the only thing that truly repels ticks is DEET, and there aren't any DEET products approved for dogs...so I would never dismiss one of the tick borne ailments [specifically ehrlichiosis] just because the a tick repellant product had been used on the dog faithfully.  I'm sure there are many out there who can attest to finding attached ticks on dogs treated with such products, too.

The tick panel in-office "SNAP" test is probably much less costly than the rhinoscopy, and if the problem IS a tick-borne disease you most definitely don't want to delay diagnosis any longer than necessary, so I'd suggest doing the tick panel before doing a rhinoscopy.