Abcesses - recurring

[Montana]

My daughter's Springer has recurring abcesses. The are always in the same spot (along his back just forward of the hindquarters). Our vet has drained them 4 times now, put the dog on antibiotics, etc. but they keep coming back. The last two times he had her inject an antiseptic into the incision daily for 4 days after he drained the abcess. Now he has another one.. They are quite large... Probably 6 or 7 inches long, 3 or 4 inces wide and a couple inches high.. I asked the vet about taking an x-ray to see if there is something embedded under the skin that causes the abcesses to keep coming back, but he doesn't think anything would show up so he hasn't done x-rays. Has anyone else had a dog with this problem? Any suggestions?

[Sharon]

I'm not a vet but one of my dogs has recurring inter digital cysts - meets the definition of an abscess. I'm normally very tradition, but have found laser therapy ( in the vet's office) to be very effective. Have you had a culture tested?

"An abscess is an infection that opens up into a pus-filled pocket. Abcesses commonly occur on the skin as the result of a puncture wound and can also occur in the mouth at the base of a tooth.

the pus inside the abscess is an accumulation of dead bacteria and dead white blood cells which the body releases to inhibit bacterial growth. The body forms a pocket so the bacteria and resulting infection do not spread to the rest of the body.

If all goes well, the body will fight off the infection and the body will gradually absorb the pus, leaving the abscess to heal on its own. If the body is not able to clean up the infection, the pus will continue to accumulate, putting pressure on the skin and eventually the abscess will rupture. Sometimes, the abscess will continue draining but will not heal (this is called a fistula). " quote

[MonsterDad]

I had a Lab years back that this happened to. After the second time I had the vet operate and remove the whole thing. There was a benign cyst in there that kept getting infected. It never happened again after that. It was on his chest right where he laid down. He slept on very hard surfaces in the warm months no matter what bedding was there.

[marysburg]

Montana, do a search on this forum 'big lump on her side'. It is about a Brittany who suffered the consequences of a grass awn infection. You could also google 'mean seeds' and print it to show your vet. It made a big impression on our vet when we were worried about a nocardia infection on one of our dogs. She treated the dog with the drug protocol described in the mean seeds article and the dog is fine. Good luck with you daughter's dog. Hope it makes a full recovery.

[Montana]

Thanks all for the suggestions.. I"ll look into them.

[dog dr]

Montana, do a search on this forum 'big lump on her side'. It is about a Brittany who suffered the consequences of a grass awn infection. You could also google 'mean seeds' and print it to show your vet. It made a big impression on our vet when we were worried about a nocardia infection on one of our dogs. She treated the dog with the drug protocol described in the mean seeds article and the dog is fine. Good luck with you daughter's dog. Hope it makes a full recovery.

good advice, sounds like a grass awn or some other foreign body to me.

[DudeRN]

I had never heard of a grass awn before -- I thought maybe it was supposed to be 'grass lawn', but still didn't make any sense. you learn something new every day. scary

[Montana]

My daughter took him in for a second opinion from a different vet. She mentioned the grass awn possibility, etc. The vet gave him a thorough examination and ended up opening up the abscess completely (like an 8 inch incision) and cleaned everything out. She said there was a lot of scar tissue and a layer of gel like matter. She found nothing embedded. She stitched him back up, put him on atibiotics and now he's wearing a cone for 2 weeks. Hopefully this will be the last issue with it. He's acting much better..... Back to his old energetic self even with the cone on. It doesn't seem to bother him much....

[Montana]

Well, we thought we had everything taken care of. After the last visit to the vet he was doing well....acting like his old self, but over the weekend the abscess (actually two of them) returned, so he's back at the vet. I'm no vet, obviously, but after doing more research online everything points toward a grass awn infection to me. The vet x-rayed him and sent a culture off to the lab yesterday, so maybe we can get to the bottom of this. Very frustrating.... He's not just a hunting dog (are any???), he was daughter's dog before they started their family so we all know how that goes..... I believe this is the fifth time they've had him to the vet......

[jimbo&rooster]

I had the same thing happen. Grass awns won't necessarily show on XRay. My dog started with a lump had it drained and got on antibiotics, reoccurred a couple weeks later. Ultimately had to put him down. The awn was taking the infection every where it traveled through his body

[BMURPH]

For the ones who have not seen it here is a link to an article regarding Nocardia, Actinomycosis and speargrass infections by Drs Mcinteer and Mills which might be helpful.

http://clubs.akc.org/brit/VetArticles/N ... d-Dogs.pdf

[edb]

Sounds like a weed seed infection. I would suggest calling Dr McInteer in Nebraska. His son now runs the practice and will tell you what to do exactly to save your dog. Get the treatment protocol from him and insist your vet follows it. He saved my dog last year and yours needs the high doses of antibiotics immediately. You won't find anything by exrays and most vets don't treat it aggressive enough.

[shags]

Here is some good info
http://www.meanseeds.com

Look under "resources" to view Dr McInteer's article on nocardia.

[Montana]

Update... Ted was referred to Dr. Scherr in Great Falls. He reviewed the x-rays, did some 3-D imaging and determined the grass awn infection had migrated to the vertebrae. He did Surgery on Ted last Friday. The infection had entered the lower part of 3 vertebrae, but the vet said he was able to shave off the infected portion. He also removed some dead tissue around the vertebrae. I'm not up on all of the technical jargon, but dye was also infected to see if anything showed up. The affected tissue (bone, etc.) was biopsied and sent to the lab.. Results should be back tomorrow, but they didn't expect to see anything other than the infection from the "Mean Seed". A drain was put in and he is on heavy duty antibiotics. He'll be there until at least next week some time. Dr. Scherr said he deals with these grass awn infections quite frequently and more often than not they migrate to the spinal cord. He expects Ted to make a full recovery... He's doing well since the surgery.

I asked if there was anything we could do to prevent this from happening again or with my other dogs. He said there no....it's pretty much luck of the draw, so to speak. I've had gundogs since 1973 and have hunted them in every kind of cover imaginable and I've never had a dog with a problem from the mean seeds. I currently have 6 Springers and a Setter and hunt them 4 or 5 times a week in the fall and they are out and about all year long... go figure.