Hello,
I saw your article on hygromas - swollen pouches around the elbows on dogs. It says larger breeds usually get it and normally in their youth. It also said something about benign tumors in older dogs females over the age of 12. My dog isn't exactly overweight, she's pretty muscular. She's a black lab mix (has a little shepherd in her). She'll be 10 on Memorial Day.
I just noticed it today but her elbow by the padding is all swollen on her left side. When she walks it kind of jiggles, there are a lot of hard surfaces here, but I'm keeping her on carpet on her blanket that she has (thick knitted blanket). When inspecting it, it looked like a possible bite. She doesn't like me touching it (I made sure to wash my hands first) but she doesn't whimper or yelp. When touching it, its kind of squishy, the problem area appears to be in front of the elbow but the puffiness goes around up to the top on the back of the elbow. Does that sound like hygroma to you?
I won't be able to take her to the vet until next week - what should I do to reduce her swelling and puffiness? Also I noticed she hasn't been cleaning it but it seems a little wet and I thought I detected a bite on the pad (the bite appearing smooth and round like when a person scratches at a mosquito bite and there were two dots in it but looked too spread out to be any spider around here). She hasn't been acting sick or even like its bothering her, but it's pretty noticeable and its all of a sudden.
As for constant trauma, we have a pit bull mix here that bites her (not hard) elbows when she gets jealous of basically any attention. I'm starting to think that the pit may have done something wrong. Should I ice it or apply heat? I saw someone had written 2000mg of Vit C for 21 days then reducing it to 1000mg of vit C for the next seven days but I don't want to give my dog anything too strong for her body or without knowing anything about it.
I'm sorry if this has been confusing and I'm prepared to answer any questions about this necessary to clarify, I just want to make sure she is absolutely comfortable and to get the swelling to subside a little bit. I tried iceing it earlier and she acted like she didn't want to be touched. Thank you. - Jonathan
Hello Jonathan,
I was away over the weekend so you have probably had your dog to the vet by now and know what the problem was. However, I would not have been able to help much as there were quite a few possibilities offered as the cause of the injury, and all requiring different treatments.
If your other dog has bitten her, or perhaps a rat or such animal then she is likely to have a poisoned leg or an abscess which would require antibiotics. Or it could possibly have been a snake if there were two bite marks some distance apart. It may have been a less poisonous one, but could still cause some problems or infection. However, if it is a spider or insect bite of some sort then the remedy would usually be antihistamines for such an allergic reaction.
As you say it could be a hygroma, or a cyst of some kind, or quite a few other possibilities, in which case she would probably need rest, a bed right away from concrete, and any medications the vet prescribed.
It would be impossible to give an accurate diagnosis without viewing the injury, even for a trained veterinarian. The best possible action is to take her to the vet as soon as possible ... if the leg is poisoned by infection any delay could see the poison spreading and perhaps becoming a case of blood poisoning instead of a simple elbow infection. And if it was an abscess it may burst and your dog wouild inevitably lick the site, again possibly causing further infection.
The dose of vitamin C you mentioned does sound rather large, even for a human. Vitamin C excess does just leave the body in urine and it is the healing vitamin, but again without diagnosis it could make things worse, especially if she does have infection or poison of some sort and her kidneys are trying to cope with that overload. I do hope she has by now been diagnosed and is on her way to recovery? I would love to hear how she is doing. - Ed
Hello,
Well the swelling has gone down a lot, I haven't been able to get her to the vet as yet but we don't have snakes in this area and if we did they aren't poisonous. So, she's acting full of fun and healthy and I was going to send pictures of the wound, but she's black and has a very shiny coat so it would be hard to see. I've kept her off hard surfaces and she's doing a lot better. I think it was because of her age and the other dog here might have bitten her too hard causing the joint to swell up. I had a vet tech friend take a look, and the verdict was that it didn't look like much more than the damage from the other dog playing too rough, and to keep them separate for a week until the swelling goes down. - Jonathan
Hello Jonathon,
I am glad to hear she is on the mend – it does sound as if it was just a bit of rough play on the part of your other dog. Thanks for letting me know all is ok with her. - Ed
