One month, and finally some answers
Back on October 7th was when we first took Junebug in to the vet for her swollen glands. We are now on our 5th course of antibiotics, the third one of Baytril. She has had her glands aspirated, blood work done, a heartworm/lyme disease test, and last Friday, a biopsy was taken of the glands and a full tick panel was ordered.
We haven’t heard back about the tick panel yet, but the biopsy came back with what’s essentially the best case scenario, given the situation. It is most definitely an infection. Turns out it’s an infection of the salivary glands (not swollen lymph nodes, as we had thought). There’s the possibility there is a puncture somewhere that we haven’t been able to detect.
This all makes quite a bit of sense considering it started with some sort of insect sting or bite. Still, when your dog has swelling around her throat for over a month, you start to get paranoid about cancer and other worst case scenarios.
Also, for our month of tests and drugs, we’re now up to a cost of about $1,300. It is all worth it to know that she is going to be fine.
In the meantime, though, she’s in a cone for a couple of weeks due to the stitches from the biopsy. She is a combination of pitiful (see picture below) and hilarious. It really accentuates her waddling run; she still wants to jump on everything and try to get into her normal hidey holes (like under my desk, or her crate) which aren’t really big enough to accommodate the Cone of Shame.
