Kalecho

My girl Echo has something that I've never seen before, the puppies are almost 12 weeks old now and she still has two mammary glands next to each other that are filled. I can't get it to drain even with a warm compress, I had her to the vet about two weeks ago, they aspirated a bloody fluid out, the vet said she wasn't concerned about cancer or anything like that, she thought that we might be dealing with a late mastitis even though the mammary glands are soft and not hot. She's been on Clavamox and a non steroidal anti-inflammatory, she has no fever, she feels great, the mammary glands are not hot to the touch and still soft they just look filled. Has anyone seen anything like this? I put in a call to the vet that saw her, waiting for a call back. I'm thinking about getting a second opinion. I've seen mastitis but nothing like this so long after drying up. Any ideas?

Like A Boxer

bump

poor Echo

Someone has to have seen this!

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workingk9s

I don't know, but I'll give my 2 cents (I only know about bacteria disclaimer).

Mastitis is an infection of the mammary gland. The "itis" refers to inflammation of the tissue. It could be caused by a number of things, one of them being bacteria. If it clears up with the clavamox (broad spectrum coverage), then you can say it was likely due to bacterial infection.

When they aspirated it, did the fluid look clear and red tinged, or cloudy and red tinged? Bacteria can also cause cloudiness of the fluid.

Another possibility (out of my area though), is trauma. If somehow the skin was pulled away from the muscle, the space in between will fill fluid.

That is all I can say, I hope she gets better.

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Erynn
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Kalecho

Thanks for your input, I think you have something there, Trauma! She had nine puppies pulling and pulling on those teats and I weaned them totally pretty late, I just felt so bad for her, she kept sneaking back in with the pups and I figured, ok, what can it hurt one more time to drain the milk out and make her feel more comfortable? I probably did that for too long a time. Maybe the fluid will eventually go away? The blood that was aspirated looked clear to me, the vet did say though that she saw some bacteria. But isn't there always some bacteria in that area? I don't know, but the glands are cool to the touch and nice and soft, just fluid filled. Thank you for your answer, I won't worry as much now, I like the trauma theory, and I bet that's what it is, now to figure out how to get rid of the fluid permanently, I want to take her back showing again!

DLS

I have had a bitch with mastitis in the past. The affected mammary gland was very hot, hard and swollen. Warm compresses did the trick. {she too, was sneaking back in to the pups pen to feed them {13 pups!}after they were weaned! I also had a Dobergirl with cancer of a mammary gland, the breast was narly and lumpy with a clear red fluid. We removed the gland, we lost her a couple of years later, the cancer spread to her lungs. Your girls condition sounds a little different, I agree that trauma might be causing her problem. I would think that given time the mammary gland should return to normal. Warm compresses may help reduce the fluid retention. Let us know how it goes.

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RedFawnRising

Y'know, this will sound kinda out there, and I do not know how you feel about herbal/holistic things, but raw cabbage is well-known to help with mammary inflammation things.


I'm not sure what the ingredient is that makes it work, but it has a drawing effect.

We've used it on horses with pseudo-pregnancies, and also on dogs. It has to be raw cabbage and you can either bandage on a poultice if she will tolerate the bandage and leave it be, or you can goop the raw cabbage up in the food processor and apply the mash to her teats--yep, messy, but it works.

Vet wrap works great for a "cabbage bra" if you decide to try this.

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