Swollen tonsils...no explanation??

[shelldom]

Hi everyone,
Cali has had a strange coughing/hacking almost hairball sounding situation going on for about a month. She also sneezes occasionally but both the hacking and sneezing have lessened recently. We took her to the vet anyway, and he just mentioned that her tonsils were pretty big but he had no diagnosis. I realize its difficult sometimes, but I'm very worried about it worsening or the possibility of her infecting my mom's vaccinated but senior dogs. Has anyone else dealt with this? Should we take her to see another vet?

 

[BarbV]

I would want a diagnosis. If your current vet can't give you one, then, yeah, another opinion. Swollen rounsils, or swollen hypo gland? Yeah, I know I'm super sensitive about this...everything to me is a red flag for hypotyrodidsm.

 

[corbinam]

I agree with Barb. I've never heard of this before in dogs, but I would be very skeptical of a vet who says "I don't know" but doesn't feel the need to pursue it further when they are obvious symptoms of a problem.

I'd be seeking a second opinion.

 

[Justicemom]

The most common reason for swollen tonsils are infection or inflammation in the mouth, throat, secondary to dental disease. Dog tonsils are usually hidden away in little crypts(pockets) you can only see them if they are enlarged. Think of them as glands in a person something is causing a immune response.

Justice has chronically enlarged tonsils. I did a bacterial culture and culture out to be strep, staph and pastuerella bacteria. Not terriblly uncommon bacteria in the mouth of a dog. They were sensitive to Clamavox 3 weeks of antibiotics and the tonsils were about back to normal.

But that didn't tell the whole story. It reoccured again and again secondary to this time stomatitis(inflammation of the mouth). After alot of detective work and I mean observation I came to the conclusion it maybe due to allergies. I still don't know what but it is some kind of grain. I know because I eliminated all grains and everything the stomatitis, tonsilitis and everything cleared up immediately.

I also know he has allergric bronchitis to some pollens in the fall. The tonsils swell and he coughs. I diagnosed the bronchitis with chest radiographs. Dawn A. saw that when I was at her house in SC as Justice started coughing(too early in the year for it here so it was sudden onset). I noticed the same thing the one time I took him to Florida. Cleared up when I got home. Seems he just has a very senstive respiratory system. He has never had any other signs of allergies.

So bottom line is something in causing a immune reaction in Cali upper airways or mouth. It can be anything. Bacterial, viral, fungal, allergic, anything. Diagnostics are helpful to rule out things but enlarged tonsils is such a vague sign you could be looking at anything.

 

[BarbV]

Bacca's long list of issues started with one side of his mouth and throat swelling up suddenly one morning, with no warning. Since then, I have a dog with hypothyrodism and a possible liver shunt.

Dont' take this lightly. Get a second opinion, if you vet is not prepared to do further testing.

My tuppence worth!

 

[shelldom]

Thanks for the replies everyone! I'm going to take her to see another vet on Monday, so hopefully we can get a better idea of what is going on. The only strange thing that factors in is that one of our cats has had a strange sneeze lately also. Our regular vet ruled out kennel cough since Cali had no signs of it until a few weeks after we had her...I think I will probably keep Cali away from my moms house with the older dogs until all of this has cleared up in the meantime.