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Anyone have experience with Brain Tumors?

5K views 36 replies 12 participants last post by  LeosMom 
#1 ·
Hi All -

So I've still got a few unanswered questions going on with Leo...and the terrifying thought of a brain tumor crossed my mind last night. Basically...he is extremely restless & anxious, and I still can't figure out why he is pawing at his face. I thought I solved that mystery when he chipped a tooth, and that maybe it was a toothache, but the vet didn't seem to think anything in mouth looked concerning. Otherwise, he is eating, playing, etc...its just this anxiety, it's like he is always trying to tell me something, he always wants something, but nothing satisfies him.

Have any of you had any experience with brain tumors? What were the symptoms? Any info you can provide would be great.

Thanks!
 
#2 ·
To provide some more info...these are the symptoms that have me really concerned, and seem to be the only issues that have not gone away throughout everything else he's had going on this year.

Pawing at his face
Swallowing hard
Breathing heavy thru his nose
and more recently....very anxious/restless, and over the past couple days almost whiny. Like he keeps doing this whimpering type sound that he's always done when he wants something...which with him is usually more like a a lot of breathing out of his nose (almost like he's sniffling), he hasn't actually yelped or cried.

I read that these can all be symptoms of brain tumors....granted, there seem to be bigger & more common symptoms like seizures, loss of balance, etc...which he does not have.

If anyone has anything they can share, I'd really appreciate it.
 
#5 ·
I had a horse with a brain Timor. He was pretty normal sometimes he would pace a little worse then most horses but no indication anything was wrong until he started to lash out and attack people. They found it on autopsy,
Years later I suffered a brain injury and we didn't really no what was wrong until multiple MRI s

It doesn't really answer your question I know but my point is sometimes you just don't know what is wrong with the brain. He could be in pain from a brain Tumour or it could be a tooth ache it's impossible to diagnose just by those symptoms.


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#6 ·
Thanks so much for the info. I've never seen foxtails here....my backyard is all desert landscaping, so I definitely don't have any of them back there.

I gave him some tramadol about an hour ago, and he finally just fell asleep which is good. He's been so restless and uncomfortable all morning.

The reason my mind goes to brain tumor...is one, because he is an almost 8 year old boxer....but more so because of the fact that he clearly seems uncomfortable in his face, when he's pawing at it all the time. Then the heavy breathing....I thought maybe a tumor could be applying pressure in the nasal cavity or something. Then when I read yesterday that frequent whimpering & behavior changes (so restless/anxious in his case) are also signs of brain tumors...i started to really worry. But you are all right....these are such vague symptoms and could be a sign of anything. His bloodwork last week came back immaculate as always....which is great, but also gives no insight.

He has had pancreatitis in the past....he typically wouldn't eat, and would do that arched back stance the 2 times he had it, and I haven't seen any of that recently. Plus he's been eating like crazy. (oh - that was something I also read...that with brain tumors they can develop compulsions, like frequent eating/drinking)

I don't really know what to do at this point. I've had him checked out a million times, and he's on a ton of medications for other stuff....which we thought some of these symptoms were related to those conditions, but while everything else has subsided since he started those meds, these few random symptoms remain. And his discomfort seems to have increased quite a bit the past few days.

Does anyone know if they can see tumors in the nasal cavity/skull thru an xray? I already had them x-ray his throat/esophagus about a month or so ago just in case something was going on in the lymphnodes, etc, that contributed to the heavy swallowing motions, but all looked crystal clear there. Part of me is tempted to call the vet and ask if they can do a quick x-ray today...
 
#8 ·
I would not think brain tumor in his case. I would, however, be thinking something could be going on in his sinus cavity or with his teeth.

I would video him doing the behaviors you mention to see if they are related to something a vet could help with or to see if they are behavioral.

Hope he is ok.
 
#9 ·
Thanks guys! When the vet examined his teeth the other day she thought all looked really good...except the one area in the back where he had been chewing a ton and chipped his tooth slightly...but for whatever reason she didn't seem to think it was something that would be bothering him.

I'm thinking the sinus cavity too....what I don't know is how they determine what could be going on in there. Do xrays give any insight into the sinus cavity? Or would other imaging be required there too?
 
#10 ·
I know you have desert landscaping but do you have grasses?

A boxer owner I know said that yrs ago one dog he had, with similar symptoms to yours, went though months of tests only to find a grass seed had germinated in his nose.

Tramadol works on pain, it's finding the source of the pain.
 
#11 ·
Interesting.....I don't have any grass in my yard. All rocks and then some plants, like hibiscus and lantanas...but anything is a possibility at this point.

I'm minutes from heading to emergency vet....already called them twice. Just torn on whether or not I go, or if I think he'll be ok through the night and just take him to my regular vet in the morning, since they actually know him and I trust them (not to mention its a fraction of the cost). He's whining like crazy, acting like he is terrified of something, but I can't figure out what. But if I get up to take him out or give him a treat, he seems to snap out of it. It's so strange. I gave him tramadol again about an hour or so ago....but I'm not seeing any improvement this time around. So I don't know if that means he's not actually in pain, or he's in so much pain that the tramadol isn't working....
 
#13 ·
Thank you - I really appreciate that. He seems to have settled a little, at least to where I feel ok about waiting until morning and going to my regular vet. I really hope I can get some clarity....this has been such a roller coaster, going on since Feb. I just want to know what is going on with him once and for all so I can give him some comfort. Poor thing....it breaks my heart like nothing else. :(
 
#15 ·
I hadn't thought of that.....does anyone know what the signs would typically be? He's been whiny almost non-stop...so not sure if it would last that long/be that frequent? We go to the vet in about 20 minutes...

He didn't eat his breakfast which has me concerned....he'd been eating like crazy up until today. He's been really gassy too...so I'm going to have them to a pancreatitis test when I'm there just in case.
 
#18 ·
So the vet appt was ok....she examined him head to toe. I asked her straight up...if in a normal situation where all of these other things that he's been dealing with weren't going on, would she suggest a CT scan just based on the symptoms I've been worried about (anxiety/whimpering, swallowing hard, pawing at the face, breathing heavy thru nose, etc), and she said no. She said typically with brain tumors or anything going on up there...they hit like a mac truck...and in many cases completely change the personality of the dog. Not really seeing that here...so that gave me some comfort.

She couldn't find any real signs of pain when she examined him....but she thought he did potentially seem a little tender in the belly, so she took some blood for a pancreatitis test, will know results tomorrow. She also wanted to re-run his valley fever titer since we drew blood anyway...just to see, has it maybe gotten worse? We haven't run that in a while...so will be good to know on that either way. Valley fever can also get into the brain...so that could be a possibility as well.

As far as the pawing at the face...she said it could be the tooth, and she looked really closely at all the folds/wrinkles on his adorable face and noticed some dermatitis in there, which she said could be extremely itchy...and another potential cause of him pawing at his face. She gave me some pointers on how to soothe that a bit...so we'll see if that helps.

As for the restlessness/anxiety...we talked about this Thyroid again. About a month ago, his T4 was a little high (he went on Thryoid meds several mos ago, his T4 was EXTREMELY low back then....but he showed no symptoms). We took his dose down about a month ago, as they said the high T4 could cause anxiety...but when I had his T4 re-checked last week, the level was normal. Since he's still really anxious...she said she just wanted to try something, and asked me not to give him the thyroid med for the next 4-5 days...just to see if that helps. Considering he showed absolutely zero symptoms of low thyroid before the meds.....maybe something funky is happening there. So we'll see if that makes any difference. (and honestly...it wasn't long after starting the thryoid meds did he start getting a little restless/anxious...fingers crossed I guess!)

So, very long story short...I will know on the pancreatitis tomorrow and the valley fever in a few days....and I am feeling a little better on the brain tumor paranoia...which is good.

Thanks to everyone for the ongoing support and interest!
 
#21 ·
So just got the test results from the vet...his valley fever titer has gone to "low/negative", which is really good....so at least I know that's improved. Pancreatitis was negative.

Over the past few days, he is just acting like he is absolutely terrified of something...it's so strange. He's eating if I mix in some wet food....if I distract him he acts fairly normal, but when he's just laying around he just is so anxious and fearful. Pain meds aren't making any difference...so I'm not sure he's really in pain. I work from home...so nothing could have happened at the house that freaked him out...and it's just me & him here, it's so bizarre. We haven't slept in 2 nights.

I did some reading yesterday....and actually saw a blog post from a few years back talking about Soloxine (which he has been on for low thyroid). Oddly enough....several people, specifically those who had Boxers, said they noticed a lot of anxiety, the hard swallowing, and pawing at the face with soloxine...and ended up taking their dogs off of it. So I am just hoping that stopping the soloxine will do the trick here. We're also tapering his prednisone down just in case that is the culprit, although he's on a pretty low dose as is, so she doesn't think that's the culprit.

She suggested I go get this all natural calming remedy called "Rescue Remedy", and also a DAP Plug-in (she said that is similar to like a Glade plugin, but releases calming pheromones for dogs). Lastly she said I could maybe also try a Thunder Jacket. Anyone have any experience with any of these items?

I'm really hoping its juts a product of the meds and making those adjustments straightens things out....vet said to give it about a week.
 
#22 ·
Hope its just a side effect of his meds and he feels better soon.

Some info on Soloxine:

The effects of levothyroxine sodium therapy are slow in being manifested. Overdosage of any thyroid drug may produce the signs and symptoms of thyrotoxicosis including, but not limited to: polydipsia, polyuria, polyphagia, reduced heat tolerance and hyperactivity or personality change. Administer with caution to animals with clinically significant heart disease, hypertension or other complications for which a sharply increased metabolic rate might prove hazardous.
I had to look up some of the terms so I'll share that too

polydipsia - excessive thirst
polyurea - excessive urination
polyphagia - excess hunger / increased appetite

Hope that helps you a bit.

:)
 
#23 ·
Thanks so much! I've been doing a lot of research on all of the meds he is on. The soloxine seems like the most likely one...but we shall see. Something that makes me question the theory that its related to any of the meds, is the fact that his anxiety gets much worse in the evenings. The past few days between 5 to 7:30ish, it escalates and becomes really extreme. Just seems so odd....and I'd think if it were a side effect of medication it would be fairly consistent through out the day...but who knows. I can't really think of any other explanation why it would be worse in the early evenings either...so I guess only time will tell.
 
#25 · (Edited)
He gets his meds around 9:00am and 9pm...that's why i kind of think that early evening is kind of an odd time if its related to the meds. Granted, he's been on these for a little while and the vet said the soloxine will take a while to get out of his system...

The last time he had the soloxine was Wed morning.
 
#26 ·
Poor dog, I wonder what's going on. Have they done a complete tick borne disease panel recently? Years ago my Boxer tested low-positive for E.canis so they tested him again two weeks later. The titer was a little higher, but still only in the "exposure" range. He would leak urine, and was acting confused in the evening. We went ahead and gave him Doxycycline and the symptoms went away. The TBD symptoms can be very confusing.

I wonder what would happen if he was sleeping overnight in another location. It may be worth a trip to a hotel that takes dogs. Could it be an environmental thing that's spooking him.
 
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