My dog's enlarged neck lymph node keeps coming back. What's wrong?

If it has come back after the initial course of treatment, I would see if your vet can perform a fine needle aspirate and send it out for cytology review with a pathologist. This will help determine if the lymph node in question is suspicious for lymphoma or not. Hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any further questions / concerns. I am also available via consultation.

If the antibiotic therapy helped looks like could be the correct treatment. Maybe the treatment needs a bit more time to completely resolve the problem. But if the treatment completely fail I would suggest to repeat the biopsy and collect a bigger piece of tissue if only a cytology (few cells aspirated with a needle) was performed and if and bacterial origin is still very likely I would recommend to perform a culture to grow the bacteria and select the correct antibiotic. Feel free to post again with the biopsy and culture results for more advices!

Yes! If there is no improvement then he definitely needs a recheck. They can always aspirate or biopsy a sample of that growth to determine if it is a lymph node or a salivary gland because it may need a surgery ir simply stronger antibiotics. Blood work may not be a bad idea either to make sure there isn't a systemic infection.

Lymph nodes can become enlarged because they are draining an infection or inflammatory part of the body, because the lymphatic flow is being disrupted, or because of cancer in the nodes. I would discuss additional diagnostics with your vet, which may vary depending on which lymph nodes are involved. Aspiration of the affected lymph nodes is easy and can often be done without sedation. The samples are sent to a pathologist for review. X-rays of the chest and or abdomen may be indicated. Ultrasound of the abdomen may be needed. Dental cleaning and removal of diseased teeth if the lymph nodes are near the head.

Hello, sorry to hear about Giuseppe. Because the lymph node has decreased in size with antibiotics alone and the fact that only a single lymph node is enlarged, this is less likely consistent with lymphoma. Lymphoma typically affects multiple nodes and does not respond to antibiotics. Occasionally, active lymph nodes may remain slightly enlarged for a few days, or if the infection is not being completely treated then the lymph node may remain big. The best way to confirm if this lymph node has lymphoma or not, would be to obtain cytology with a with a needle aspirate to have a pathologist examine the cells. Cytology is generally a non-invasive procedure and could be done by your veterinarian. Hope this helps and best of luck.

I would be concerned that this lymph node enlargement potentially represents lymphoma. Hopefully one of the vets in your area can do a fine needle aspirate or biopsy of the node to see whether this is indeed cancer, or perhaps an infection that is not responding to the particular antibiotics being given. I would also consider a biopsy of the ulcer on the lip, as that may be a cancerous process which is causing secondary lymph node enlargement.

I would recommend removal or at least a biopsy of the lymphnodes (where a little piece of the lymph node is removed). This can be done under geeneral anesthesia, which nowadays is very safe or, if your dog is very quiet, may be done under sedation and a local anesthesia (I would prefer the general anesthesia though). This could indeed be lymphoma or it could be reactive lymph nodes, swelling because they are filtering out bacteria and other material that the body does not deem healthy. Should it be lymphoma and you do not want chemotherapy , your dog can indeed be made comfortable with steroids. Rather than hoping and guessing whether it is lymphoma or not, the biopsy, whether done by taking the whole lymphnode or just part of it, will give you a diagnosis and then you can deal with the disease.