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Old July 8th, 2008, 09:45 AM
susha susha is offline
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dog illness

Greetings fellow pet owners. I am the owner of two shelties who I found at the animal shelter last year in Quebec. They have been the light of my life after my previous sheltie died at 11 yrs of renal failure. Now I'm faced with a situation very similar to what I've been reading on this site, namely that my female dog has been bleeding on and off through a slit at the side of her left nostril since Friday. She'd had some prior crustiness on the outside of that same nares which the vet had been treating with a steroid and antibiotic, but he says it is unrelated to this new bleeding. Although the severity of the bleed is decreased from Friday's incident, it occurs every time she gets excited and starts to sneeze. We've been to the vet and he has strongly suggested that a CT scan is the best route as an x-ray won't be definitive and the rhinoscopy is difficult for shelties due to their small noses. He says the scope would need to be sent from the back and it wouldn't be able to penetrate around the nares to detail all of the area. Also, he says the price is comparable (12-1500 dollars) to the CT. Of course, the CT would then run up to 2500 dollars because of the anesthetic etc. Based on what others have written on this site, everyone seems to have had the scope done. Has this been done on dogs with smaller noses? Has anyone had a CT done on their dog? I love this dog but last year I paid out 2000 dollars for emergency care, IV treatment with antibiotics, x-rays, diagnostics, etc and she still died. Has anyone had a dog whose problem started with a nose bleed and the scope was able to remove an obstruction? I've been through the crying jag, particularly after reading so many of the sad accounts documented here, but now I must figure out what to do. Any suggestions out there?
Susha
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Old July 8th, 2008, 01:16 PM
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hazelrunpack hazelrunpack is offline
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Hi, susha. Welcome to the board, though I wish you were here under happier circumstances.

I've heard of dogs who have had foreign objects removed during rhinoscopy, but the dogs were usually in the 40 - 60 pound range. You might want to ask if the vet thinks flushing the nose might work (or has that been tried before?) If there is something like a grass awn in the nasal passage somewhere, irrigating the nose may loosen it and flush it out.

You don't say how old your dog is. Is it possible she hurt her nose playing outside?

Best of luck, susha! Please keep us posted on your dog's progress!
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Old July 8th, 2008, 04:51 PM
susha susha is offline
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Shauna's bleeding nose

Hello and thanks for the advice.
Shauna is about 4-1/2 years old, although the shelter we got her from told me that was an estimate. She weighs 28lbs because she loves to eat and she will nonchalantly sneak food from her brother's dish if he isn't looking. I mentioned to the vet about saline flushes into the nose but he felt that the best option was the CT scan. He didn't do bloodwork or urinalysis because he said the problem wasn't systemic. You know, I've been wondering about the pesticides on our neighbour's lawns, if that is the cause. I stopped using lawn weedkiller when my oldest was 2 (21 years ago) because she devoloped a rash to her knees which the doctor thought may be from playing in the treated grass. But pretty much everyone in our neighbourhood has those little signs posted on their lawns telling me that they're still using it. Maybe I'm just looking for someone or something to blame. But my little dog doesn't deserve this awfulness. Silly girl keeps on wagging her tail even when her nose is bleeding. Right now, I'm trying to garner as much money as I can to do the test. My vet doesn't do installments although I'm not sure whether the veterinary college will. Anyway, thanks for being there. I hate that there haven't been any good outcomes or success stories on this site, but at least I know I'm not alone.
Susha
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Old July 8th, 2008, 10:18 PM
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hazelrunpack hazelrunpack is offline
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The veterinary hospital might be a very good idea--some of them take installments and they might be willing to do a saline irrigation, as well. And a second opinion never hurts.

Dogs use their noses everywhere, and who knows what all gets up in the passages. To be honest, I've wondered about the lawn chemicals, too--but if that were the only cause or even just a major cause of nasal cancers, then rural dogs shouldn't have as high an incidence. I wonder if anyone has ever tested that?

Keep in mind that most of the people who have posted here in the nosebleed threads found this place accidentally because the bleeding continued. Those who had a successful outcome (either the bleeding disappeared or a grass awn was removed or flushed out) wouldn't end up searching the web and finding these threads.

Shauna has only been bleeding since Friday, yes? So you've done the search early and gotten here sooner than many did. Maybe you'll be our happy outcome!

But definitely try the veterinary hospital. And hang in there!
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