Fever of Unknown Origin in Dogs

[AH HOLY]

My 9mo lab started acting lethargic, weak, not wanting to eat, etc last week. Got her to the vet Wednesday with a cough and fever of 105.5. We did bloodwork (high white count), xrays of chest (clear), shot to break fever... doc put her on 2 antibiotics and gave fluids... go back Thursday and she still has fever, so we give more fluids and another shot.


She doesn’t bounce back over weekend so I take her back yesterday for IV fluids and they give another shot, but the direct fluids seem to make a difference. I take her back this am to follow up and we decide to leave her for the day. More fluids... but low grade fever stays and she still looks uncomfortable.

The doc is referring me to a Neurologist in the morning, because she isn’t seeing anything with bloodwork or xrays.

Has anyone ever has a dog with a prolonged fever? She mentioned meningitis, but that seems like a stretch.

[Duck cutter]

Coronavirus

[Griffin]

Yep. What he said. Think about it. Started in China where they eat dogs.

[Tha Dick]

Paging cat doc......

[AH HOLY]

I wish it was the Coronavirus.

Dropped her off at the Emergency Vet today, so they could refer her to the neurologist tomorrow. The Dr. at this clinic seems to think meningitis is a good possibility.

Hopefully we will have answers tomorrow with the best possible outcome.

[ColumbiaCornbread]

Are they doing a spinal tap?

[AH HOLY]

Should have mentioned: MRI and Spinal tap tomorrow.

[YoungBuckTX]

Dang bud, hate to hear this. I hope you decided on getting that pet insurance... We had a similar event last year with Mags, but she also had a very swollen foot. Best guess was an oyster cut infection while hunting her on the coast.

[Coot_Commander]

Hope all is well,keep us updated please.

[abarill]

Is she lame? Did they tap joints? Fever of unknown origin (FUO) can be frustrating despite extensive work-ups. Not knowing anything about the case, I would’ve taken her to an internal medicine specialist, then neuro if needed. Doesn’t sound like she is neurologic.

Keep us posted, PM me if you’d prefer.
-Bo

[AH HOLY]

We did get the pet insurance. Ill follow up with the true savings after it’s all said and done.

She just went under anesthesia for the MRI and Tap. I spoke with the Neurologist this morning and she seems to think it’s meningitis as well. If so, we expect the MRI to be negative and answers on the spinal fluid tomorrow, but will start a steroid today.

We are hoping it’s SRMA, which is treatable with steroids. We should have a better idea of what’s going on this afternoon/tomorrow.

[AH HOLY]

Is she lame? Did they tap joints? Fever of unknown origin (FUO) can be frustrating despite extensive work-ups. Not knowing anything about the case, I would’ve taken her to an internal medicine specialist, then neuro if needed. Doesn’t sound like she is neurologic.

Keep us posted, PM me if you’d prefer.
-Bo

Lame in the sense she was sleeping/resting 90% of the time unless I was making her get up and move around. She didn’t present a limp or stiffness. She wasn’t showing pain in joints/muscles. She started showing neck stiffness Monday and it has gotten worse, where she carries here head low, but has no real mobility.

It went from presenting like pneumonia last Tuesday to Meningitis this week. Clear xrays, checked the long bones on xrays, bloodwork clear the 2nd time as well.

[AH HOLY]

Got the dog home Friday afternoon and you’d never know she had anything wrong with her. We are waiting on the final spinal tap results still, but given the normal MRI and response to steroids, the Neurologist is pretty confident that she has SRMA(steroid responsive meningitis)

[abarill]

Glad to hear she improved with the steroids. Fingers crossed for SRMA, usually CSF has crazy high neutrophil count and is obvious. The fever and increased peripheral white count are consistent with it too.