Boxer with open mouth!

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heidiho

heidiho

Super Boxer
I had this happen with my last Boxer. The vet said it could be some sort of trauma caused be his collar "choking" him, or brain tumor or cancer. The trauma could have been caused by him getting hung up on something when I wasn't looking. Anyway, I was giving some anti-inflammatories to help with any internal swelling. The vet said it would take about a month to improve or maybe longer. Sure enough right at 28 days I woke up one morning and his jaw was back to where it should be. It was tough though. Had to mush his food so he could eat it and give him water from a water bottle so the water would stay in his mouth and he could swallow. He lost a lot of weight during this month too. Pretty strange.

They said if the drugs didn't work they would recommend me taking him to Washington State Vet College for tests. Luckily I didn't have to do that.

You may want to get a third opinion from a vet not associated with your current vet.

Good Luck
 
W

Winnie Poo

Boxer Pal
Update

Well, went to the vet today. Prognosis not good for winnie, they reckon liver cancer and a secondary brain tumour. The basis for this diagnosis is a poor liver result in her blood tests last week. I'm still not sure......the timeline doesn't really fit as her 1st blood tests about a month ago only showed up an infection of some sort and there was no mention of impaired liver function. She has shown none of the symptoms associated with liver damage i.e. poor appetite, vimiting, runny poo etc. The initiating syptoms were her head tilt and mouth hang. I.e. the event that my vets consider to be "Secondary" actually showed up 1st. Anyhow if they're right he gives Winnie weeks rather than months and he says there is not really anything that can be done other than continuing a low level steroid dose and monitoring her condition. Apparently all 3 vets in the practise have now discussed Winnie together and this is their collective conclusion. I still think it smacks a bit of trying to come up with a plausible explanation of her symptoms and this is all they can come up with. I have found other cases on the web where dogs have had poor liver results associated with inner ear vestibular infections with very similar symptoms. It looks like I either go elsewhere for another opinion and doubt 3 vets from my practise who have cared for Winnie since she was a pup, or I take their advice and hope they're wrong and Winnie soldiers on for a while longer than their prognosis..........
 
DannyB

DannyB

Super Boxer
Weeeeeeellllll.... steroids can change some of the liver values on the test panels.... Hopefully your vets did consider this in their discussions. The rapid loss of muscle mass on her head that you described earlier sounds consistent with a loss of innervation to an area - so it is still possible that she either had trauma to one or more of the cranial nerves or that there is a tumor growing in the area. It sounds like the steroids are more palliative than curative, but if they're keeping her comfortable I'd consider keeping her on them. Don't lose confidence in your vets - they may be absolutely correct or Winnie may have something that hasn't cropped up in their experience before. If you want more information I suspect you're going to need to pursue an MRI or CT scan of her head. I wish you and Winnie all the best.
 
W

Winnie Poo

Boxer Pal
Thanks everyone for your replies....

Danny B - very interested in your post. I asked my vet directly yesterday if being on/coming off the steroids could have adversly affected the liver count and he said no. Going by your post it looks like you have a fairly solid understanding on these things and I have seen some other info on the net saying the same thing...The head mass loss also intrigues me a lot, this happened within about a week of the onset of initial mouth hang so it was quite a fast process of muscle loss.

Winnie seems to be improving at the moment and we reduced her steriods down to 10mg per day as of Saturday with a further reduction down to 5mg planned for Thursday. I propose to monitor her through this time and then depending on progress or regress go back to the vet for a further set of blood analysis to see what that tells us. If none of this is conclusive then I think we'll be heading down to Glasgow for an MRI to establish once and for all whether or not there is a tumour or not.

Hopefully she'll still be around to wear her Santa hat and garland this year :D
 
W

Winnie Poo

Boxer Pal
Winnie's gone

Just to let all who read my posts and replied to me when I was looking for info during Winnie's illness that unfortunately Winnie had to be put to sleep today. In the end her Liver went v. fast and I had to get the vet to put her to sleep before she started suffering. She died in my arms, very sad but it's how she would have wanted to go.

Sorry not to have more festive cheer but....
 
P

Poohsmom

Banned
I'm so sorry for your loss. After reading all your posts,I was hoping that by some miracle,winnie would pull through. You gave her the greatest gift of all,no more suffering.
I'll be keeping you in my thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.

Godspeed sweet Winnie. angelicon Run free at the bridge.

Sue and the kids,Pooh,Bownser,Dozer & Cissy
Buddy & DUsty,romping at the bridge
 
Jan

Jan

Reasonable Moderator
Staff member
I am so sorry! Run free at the Rainbow Bridge sweet girl. Godspeed Winnie! angelicon
 
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