What to do for a senior dog's chronic bloody nose when antibiotics fail?

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Yes, a CT scan would be the next diagnostic for something like this. This is very important as I am afraid this could either be a nasal cancer or possibly a severe nasal fungal infection. A CT scan helps to distinguish these conditions and a biopsy will help confirm it. Rhinoscopy is needed in some cases to better visualize the nasal cavity after the CT scan is done. Good luck and have a great day!

I think you need to get a second opinion from another vet, preferably one who has a rhinoscope and can actually look into your dog's upper respiratory passages. By examining the nasal passages with a rhinoscope one will be able to see whether there is a tumor present or more plant debris or foreign material that may need to be removed and so stop the constant infections and bleeding. Your vet may be able to refer you to a relevant clinic.

Poor Mazie! A fungal infection like aspergillosis is certainly one possible cause of persistent sneezing and nosebleeds that are not resolved with antibiotics. Other possibilities would include a nasal foreign body, or a nasal tumor. I would recommend talking to your veterinarian about the next steps from here to try and get a diagnosis. In many cases, referral to a specialist for rhinoscopy and a CT scan is needed to determine the problem.

Antibiotics are very important medications and should not be used without a confirmed diagnosis of a bacterial infection which is likely to be sensitive to them and they should never be used randomly. Bacterial infection is a very rare cause of nose bleeds, foreign bodies, fungal infections, tumours and bleeding disorders would be much more common

This must be really frustrating for you! Since four different antibiotics did not improve Skye's condition, I would think that her nasal discharge is either not due to bacterial causes or is a highly antibiotic resistant bacterium. Other causes of nasal discharge can include fungal infections, viruses, masses in the nasal cavity, presence of foreign material (I once saw carpet fibers cause nasal issues!), etc. Unfortunately, I don't think there are any at home remedies that will help Skye. At this point, I would recommend having your vet recheck her and consider x-rays or a nasal culture as the next diagnostic steps.

Given that the antibiotics are not working, I would speak to your vet about further testing on Mya. It could be caused by allergies, and blood tests and intradermal skin tests can be done to see if that is causing her symptoms. It does need to be diagnosed so that she can be successfully treated to relieve her symptoms.

If you haven't already tried it I would recommend a trial of antibiotics and antihistamines to rule out allergies and infection in the nose. If you have already done this then it may be time to refer to an internal medicine specialist since your vet has already done a thorough work up and could not determine the cause of the problem. The specialist could do a CT scan of the head/nose or a scope of the nose (where they look up the nose with a special camera) to see what exactly is going on.