What caused my dog's swelling, anemia, and lump? Tick fever or cancer?

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.

To be sure and get a diagnosis, I would have Scooby checked out by a vet. Tick bites can cause a local reaction, sometimes it shows up as a small pimple or a scab, but rarely something the size I would call a lump. Tick fever itself does not usually cause lumps in the skin. Other possible causes for a lump in this area include a lipoma (fatty tumor), seroma from trauma, an abscess, or another type of tumor.

Tick fever is one option, but because of the reddish discharge from the penis i would also suspect prostate cancer (common in unneutered dogs his age). this needs to be ruled out before continuing with the treatment.

Hello. I am so sorry to hear about Isis. An enlarged spleen along with nose-bleeds could be due to many different disorders including tick-borne diseases that attack the red cells. Other causes could be rat bait, an auto-immune disease called "Immune mediated thrombocytopenia" or "Immune mediated hemolytic anemia" which is when the immune system attacks the platelets or the red cells. These can also occur together which can cause bleeding. Also, any severe infection can result in "DIC" or "Disseminated intravascular coagulation" which can result in bleeding. Other causes could be a congenital clotting disorder. With the fever a tick-bourne disease or an auto-immune disease are most likely. Without doing other blood tests it would be impossible to know for sure. I am so sorry about Isis. All of these diseases are unfortunately very serious and hard to treat.

I'm sorry to hear that Kirou has not been feeling well. The swelling on her muzzle is certainly quite prominent. Lameness that shifts between different legs and joints is most commonly caused by tick-borne diseases (such as lyme disease), but could also be due to immune-mediated or other infectious diseases. At this point, Kirou should go back to her vet for a recheck and some diagnostic testing. Blood tests are available to determine if tick borne diseases are present. If extra fluid is palpable in any of her joints, the vet may need to draw out a sample for analysis. Biopsies may also be needed of the lesions on her muzzle. Kirou's clinical signs are a bit unusual and will require some testing to get to the bottom of the issue. I hope that she's on the mend soon!

I'm so sorry for your loss! It it's so hard when you lose a pet that young. It's hard to know for sure what happened with Duck but with very low white cell counts I would be concerned about infection in his bone marrow such as a tickborne disease or even potentially cancer. The only way to truly know what caused his passing would be a post more exam similar to an autopsy of people. However from my experience many times we still don't get an exact answer. Please know from what I can tell this is not anything you did or did not do or any indication of anything lacking on your part.

Themise kesion are very suspicious of where a ticj may have been attached due to the inflammation and swelling and the target lesions. Lyme disease is transmitted by 1 type of Tick but there are other Tick disease caused by different types id ticks. With that degree of inflammation I would have your vet check those area and do lab work. It will check for Tick borne diseases and check for any changes in the blood from the illness if positive.