My dog has lymphoma. How to stop her biting painful lymph nodes?

Hi there and thank you for using pet coach to address your concern. I would recommend having a veterinarian examine this so that the most appropriate diagnostic and treatment recommendations can be made. She may need a small bandage along with an oral antibiotic and a topical ointment. If not treated this could become infected. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

I'm sorry Katie has lymphoma. Lymphoma generally is not painful. The clinical signs usually are weakness and lethargy, poor appetite, exercise intolerance and sometimes difficulty eating and breathing if the lymph nodes in the neck get very large and put pressure on the throat area. This cancer is fairly responsive to chemotherapy and the dogs often go into remission for several months depending on the drug protocol. When the cancer returns though usually the dogs decline quickly and need to be euthanized when their quality of life is poor. I hope she can maintain a good quality of life for a while longer. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for Katie.

I am so sorry to hear of Brooke’s diagnosis. Other than some good old TLC (tender loving care), I would hold off on giving any medications until you are told to do so by the oncologist, because a lot of medications may interfere with your treatment options moving forward. 20 days is an awfully long time to wait; you may want to call and ask if you can be on a list to call if they have a cancellation, or call around and see if you can get in somewhere else sooner. You can also ask your family veterinarian if they have an oncologist they can call to try to help you expedite the process. Again I’m so sorry to hear of Brooke’s diagnosis, but lymphoma does tend to respond quite well to chemotherapy, and usually the treatment is well tolerated. I wish you and Brooke the best of luck. Fight the good fight, Brooke!!

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.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. I would recommend initiating a bland diet as outlined below. If you think his lymph nodes are swollen, I would recommend having a veterinarian examine him so that the most appropriate diagnostic and treatment recommendations can be made. The lymph nodes may be enlarge due to infection and it would best to have Gene looked at sooner rather than later. I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I am sorry to hear Diesel isn’t feeling well. The prednisone is supposed to help slow the growth of the cancer but eventually it won’t be effective. Prednisone alone isn’t enough to cure him. If he is getting worse and the lymph nodes are growing it is likely the prednisone is no longer helping. I would discuss your options with the vet that diagnosed him but there isn’t much more they can do for him. I am so sorry and I hope the rest of his life is pain free. Good luck and kisses to Diesel!

Hello, thank you for using PetCoach. I'm sorry you and Pitoune are dealing with this. Please be advised that to prevent this from happening to future pets, they need to be spayed before their first heat cycle. The chance of getting mammary tumors is virtually zero when a female dog is spayed young. It is very difficult for me to tell the orientation of what is going on in this photo. I'm assuming the photo is of the abdomen since you said they are mammary tumors but again, it is hard to tell what is going on based on this one photo. You are not going to get these to clear up and will likely only get worse; they are malignant cancer. They will only stop weeping when she stops scratching them. All you can do is exactly what you are doing although I don't think you should blow dry them - it is very easy to burn the skin making it worse. Everything else you are doing is fine. I'm not sure what you are using to cover her but I suggest a recovery suit and to put a feminine maxi pad between the skin lesions and the suit to catch any discharge. This protective layer should stop her from traumatizing the area. You can also put a human baby sock on her back feet so it covers the nails so if she does scratch she cannot hurt the area. ( https://www.amazon.com/s?k=surgery+suit+small+dog&crid=ZTVVO4IRU78L&sprefix=surgery+suit+small+dog%2Caps%2C120&ref=nb_sb_noss_1 ) If they are worsening I suggest you speak to your vet about possibly increasing the dose of Prednisone. Hope this helps. Best wishes.