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My dog has an enlarged spleen. What causes it and what can I do?

Updated on September 23rd, 2025

just been told my dog has an enlarges spleen. what can cause this and can i do anything about it?

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

Answered By Sara Farmer, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on June 28th, 2018

The spleen can enlarge with certain infections (especially blood borne infections or tick borne disease), splenic torsions, or certain types of cancer. It can also be normal for some dogs to have a larger spleen, and certain drugs used for sedation or anesthesia can cause the spleen to enlarge. Your veterinarian might want to perform blood work to look for changes that could suggest an infection or may want to perform an ultrasound to examine the spleen as a next step. Some of these causes are very treatable and others are not.

1Pet Parents found this answer helpful

Related Answers from Veterinarians

Answered By Jeffrey Milner
Veterinarian
Published on April 28th, 2017
I am sorry to hear about your dog's health, but it sounds like you are taking the necessary steps to try and figure out the problem. Increases in liver enzymes can mean a very large variety of things. The most common includes various endocrine disease, primary liver disease, diseases of the bile ducts, cancers of the bile system or liver, or direct trauma to the liver. Enlargement of the spleen can be caused by the body's need to produce more cells, which the spleen play a role in. This is called splenic contraction. Unfortunately, some of the other causes of splenic enlargement can be masses. The most common two things to grow on the spleen are splenic hemangiosarcoma and a splenic hematoma. There prevalence is approximately 50/50. The needed aspirate of the liver and spleen should provide a fairly accurate diagnosis. However, sometimes larger tissue samples are needed to come up with a complete picture of what is happening. While cancer is certainly a possible culprit, these would be somewhat unusual for a four year old dog. Try and stay positive until you have some results back from your veterinarian. You and him can figure out the next step to take from there.
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful

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My dog has an enlarged spleen. What are the symptoms and treatments?

Enlarged spleens can occur for many reasons including immune mediated disease, infections and tumours and the treatment for each is quite different. Blood tests to rule out infections and removal and biopsy of the spleen are often used to investigate. There is no single treatment which would be expected to be curative but a well balanced diet is recommended

Updated on September 23rd, 2025

How bad is an enlarged spleen in my dog? What are the dangers?

Enlargement of the spleen when associated with a mass or lesion is typically quite risky. Particularly in older dogs, the most likely cause for splenic enlargement is a cancerous tumor. In these cases, the mass as well as the spleen should be remove to preserve life. In many cases these masses are filled with blood, can rupture, and often will result in the death of the dog. Hope this answers your question.

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My dog has blood in her eye and an enlarged spleen. Is it serious?

I would highly recommend taking her to a vet as soon as possible. Bleeding in the eye can be due to local trauma to the eye but also can be connected to underlying disease like toxin (rat poison), bleeding disorders, cancer, high blood pressure or infectious disease. I would be very concerned in an older dog with enlarged spleen that the blood in eye is related to this. I would recommend x-rays of the body and blood work to look at organ function and platelet count. Also, taking sassy to an ophthalmologist would be in her best interest

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Can a rattlesnake bite make my dog's spleen swell or enlarge?

Hi and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Sorry to hear about Rocks. I would think that since the spleen plays a big role in the immune system and a storage area for red blood cells, that a subsequent enlargement of the organ is entirely possible. I would say this though......if the spleen remains enlarged a month or two after the snake bite episode, I would pursue the x-ray and/or ultrasound to evaluate why it is truly enlarged. Many middle aged to older dogs end up having problems with their spleens including hematomas, splenic cysts, or even splenic tumors which can either be benign or malignant. Sometimes these problems with the spleen cause internal bleeding from the damaged organ thus often necessitating an emergency splenectomy. Your vet is correct to advise imaging studies to try to detect an enlarged spleen and attempt to treat it if necessary in a non emergent setting. Good luck with Rocks and I hope this is all related to the snake bite.

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My cat has a swollen spleen and bloated belly. What could it be?

Hi there. The spleen is a lymphatic organ, somewhat similar to lymphnodes. It can enlarge with many different types of problems such as feline leukemia virus, FIV, FIP, and even cancers like lymphoma. If blood work has not been done yet then I would recommend blood work and an ultrasound of the abdomen. I would encourage you to discuss doing an ultrasound guided needle aspirate of the spleen with your veterinarian. This may help determine what the underlying problem is. Best of luck and thank you for using Pet Coach.

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My cat has an enlarged spleen. Could it be feline infectious anemia?

Depending on which infectious disease we are talking about, generally speaking yes spleen can react and become enlarged, eventually with localized enlargement (mass like lesions). Ultrasound and sample of the spleen can eventually differentiate it from tumors and other type of lesions.

Updated on September 23rd, 2025

My dog with a spleen tumor died at the vet. What happened?

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! As a veterinarian who specializes in cancer and sees a lot of splenic tumors on a regular basis, I can tell you that this could have happened as a result of an arrhythmia as some of these tumors that affect the spleen such as hemangiosarcoma can result in arrhythmias or a result of a splenic mass rupture causing significant internal bleeding. So sorry for your loss.

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