My dog died from tick disease. What else causes fever, nosebleeds, enlarged spleen?

I am sorry to hear of your loss but without a full post mortem exam there is no way of knowing what contributed to such a severe condition. Tumours in the legs generally do not resolve within 5days and the severe, progressive anemia would indicate a possible bone marrow condition or autoimmune disease which may possibly have been triggered by ticks or an internal tumour

Hello there! I am sorry to hear Platypus has tick fever. Hopefully treatment has already been started. Yes, bleeding from the nose could potentially be another symptom as tick diseases can affect the platelets. In order for the nose bleeds to be related to the platelets, her count would have to be extremely low (range is usually 170-400 and they would have to be <20). If her counts are indeed that low it can be very serious and potentially life threatening if she starts to have bleeding in other places. I would recommend you take her in to see her vet so she can be examined and have some bloodwork checked. They will likely want to check a CBC (complete blood count) that measures her white cells, red cells and platelets. Depending on the levels additional treatment may be needed to help her platelet levels until the tick disease can be fully be treated. I hope this information has been helpful to you and I wish you and Platypus all the best! Dr. Angela Hinton

I am sorry to hear about your loss and my thoughts are with you. Generalized edema could have been caused by a lack of albumin in blood due to albumin losing enteropathy from kidneys. This condition can be secondary to a kidney disease due to the infection disease (from ticks). I understand that the mechanism is not easy to understand but can lead to severe consequences. Anemia in Scooby case was not that severe and possibly another cause could have been present (as your veterinarian is suspecting). Unfortunately I do not think steroids could have helped much and modify clinical worsening. Please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

Blood is certainly a possibility, and could be a very serious complication. However tick fever can also cause vasculitis. This is inflammation of the blood vessels and can make them “leaky” and fluid can leak out. I think if you have noticed anything new since the diagnosis that a follow appointment with your veterinarian would be a good plan. Best of luck and thank you for using Pet Coach.

Hi and thanks for posting! If Bruno was diagnosed with a tick borne illness by his veterinarian, the fever he experienced may be due to this. If he was placed on any inflammatory medications, this would have helped his fever subside. There are many other medical causes of fever in dogs aside from tick borne diseases which should be explored and ruled out with Bruno's veterinarian. I hope this helps and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

Maxi certainly sounds quite sick, but I am glad to hear that she is eating and drinking normally. As I'm sure your vet discussed, tick borne diseases are one of the more common causes of a fever of unknown origin (FUO). However, FUOs can also be caused by other infectious diseases (toxoplasmosis, Bartonella, Brucella, mycoplasma, fungal diseases, etc.) as well as immune-mediated or cancerous causes. To answer your question, yes, you will need to do some more diagnostics to get to the bottom of this issue. Different causes of the FUO will require different treatments. Maxi's vet will be able to guide you as to their next tier of diagnostic testing based upon their clinical suspicions. I hope that all goes well!

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