# Recurring Fever of Unknown Origin



## Boscorelli (Sep 25, 2010)

Hi Kathy

I hope someone of the forum recognises your dog symptoms!
The "phrase" recurrent fever of unknown origin is very well known to me as my mother has a very rare disease that includes that symptom. 

Her illness falls under the category: autoinflammatory periodic fever disorder.
In humans this includes rare diseases like MWS, Traps and Nomid. These disorders are rare, hard to diagnose as many doctors are not at all familiar with them.

I have no idea if dogs can suffer from a autoinflammatory disorder, but the fevers, white bloodcell count and rash you desrcibe sounds kind of similar as in humans.

I hope you will soon find out what is the matter with your dog .
Best wishes,
monique


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

Hi and welcome!
Unless your vet is referring to a specific autoimmune disease that causes anemia (such as immune mediated hemolytic anemia), many if not most of all autoimmune disease in both dogs AND humans do NOT cause anemia.
Are you able to take him to a large university veterinary school for an opinion?


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## Penny & Maggie's Mom (Oct 4, 2007)

Have they done all the testing for tick borne diseases????? Personally, I would get copies of his lab and get a second opinion.


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## Rainheart (Nov 28, 2010)

I would seek out some kind of specialist, which may be internal medicine or seek a vet school near you. My first thought was a tick disease while reading this, but I am not a vet (at least not yet... haha!)

Anyway, welcome to the forum and I hope that you can find an answer soon!


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## Selli-Belle (Jan 28, 2009)

Tick Borne Diseases often have false negatives. I would look at Ann McGuire's tick page.


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## Kathy163 (May 26, 2011)

Thank you for your responses. It does sound very similar to the autoinflammatory disorder that the first poster mentioned her mother had. I wonder if dogs can have that as well. Can you tell me how this was diagnosed with your mother and what the treatment is? I might mention this to my vet to see if it might be a possibility.

He has actually been tested twice for tick borne diseases. The rescue organization that we got him from had him tested as a standard test they run on all dogs before they are adopted out. This was negative. I believe it was the second time he got sick after we adopted him that the vet suggested we do a test for tick borne diseases so another test was run for this then and it was negative as well. It has been about 2 years now that he has been sick on and off so I wouldn't think that a tick disease would be causing this, especially since his tests came back negative, but I'm not a doctor so who knows. The vet mentioned testing for this again but I didn't think it was worth doing a 3rd test. His symptoms are all the same as they were the first time we tested for it and that test was negative.

I am just feeling very frustrated with this since we can't figure out what is wrong. Luckily the fever and sickness goes away very quickly once we start antibiotics but I know that it is not good for him to keep getting sick and getting on antibiotics so often. I was so discouraged that this happened again because I really thought we were done with this and had fixed the problem last time. I'm also worried about how much this will all cost in the end. We have spent a lot of money already and still don't even know what the problem is. I know taking him to a specialist is going to be very expensive but we will probably have to do that if this continues. My husband and I both really love our dog and are just worried about him. I'm also worried about whether we can afford all the testing and specialists that may go along with this. If anyone else has any other ideas, please let me know.

Thank you!


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## Dallas Gold (Dec 22, 2007)

Is there a veterinary school hospital near your location (or within a drive of a couple of hours)? If I were in your shoes I'd be pushing my vet to get us referred to a veterinary internist at a specialty clinic or veterinary school. 

Another question: did the vet get a sonogram and check out things like lymph nodes? 

I hope you get answers! We had one of those unexplained incidents with a high fever, vomiting and lethargy that was helped only by IV fluids and antibiotics (actually triple antibiotic cocktails). The following year, on the anniversary date of his previous illness, he presented with the exact same symptoms and we just couldn't believe we were in such a deja vu situation again with him. This time our vet ran a leptospirosis test that came back positive.


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## Karen519 (Aug 21, 2006)

*So sorry*

So sorry that you and your dog are going this.

I agree with Dallas Gold that a vet school might be able to help.


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## Boscorelli (Sep 25, 2010)

Hi Kathy
I googled autoinflammatoire disease in dogs and found the following website:
https://www.fetchdog.com/learn-conn...igin/D/300600/P/1:5:55:601:6103/I/AR000010073

I agree with the other members that a specialised vet/vet school might be the best place to go. To answer your question about my mother: it was a really really long road to get to the final diagnoses and included many tests. There is no cure and her current treament is experimental.
I sincerly hope a specialised vet can shed more light on what is the matter with your dog! Not knowing what is wrong is very frustrating.


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## Kathy163 (May 26, 2011)

Dallas Gold - I just went back and read your post and I am wondering if Leptospirosis could possibly be what our dog has. Our vet has never mentioned it but since you said your dog had a fever that went away with antibiotics and then came back a year later it does sound similar to what our dog has gone through. Did your vet say that this disease can cause them to have fevers that go away and come back? I tried doing some research on the internet about it and it definitely seems like it can cause fevers but I haven't been able to find whether it can cause recurring fevers that go away and then return months or years later. Usually once his fever goes away then he is fine until it comes back again, which is sometimes months later or has been as long as a year and a half before it comes back. I'm just trying to figure out if this is a possibility I should mention to our vet. Thanks for everyone's responses!


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## Dallas Gold (Dec 22, 2007)

Kathy163 said:


> Dallas Gold - I just went back and read your post and I am wondering if Leptospirosis could possibly be what our dog has. Our vet has never mentioned it but since you said your dog had a fever that went away with antibiotics and then came back a year later it does sound similar to what our dog has gone through. Did your vet say that this disease can cause them to have fevers that go away and come back? I tried doing some research on the internet about it and it definitely seems like it can cause fevers but I haven't been able to find whether it can cause recurring fevers that go away and then return months or years later. Usually once his fever goes away then he is fine until it comes back again, which is sometimes months later or has been as long as a year and a half before it comes back. I'm just trying to figure out if this is a possibility I should mention to our vet. Thanks for everyone's responses!


We didn't discuss that, but we also don't think his first illness was necessarily lepto. The second time around the vet got suspicious because I told her we recently walked him across the street from their clinic in a wooded city park trail area and the soil and leaves were moist from a recent rain. Moist soil is one of the things that helps the lepto spread. She knew that area is populated by a lot of wildlife that carry the disease and urinate on the dirt trails, spreading it, and she decided to do a test just to see if that was the culprit. It turned out it was. It's easy enough to test, though it took us a while to get the results back for some unknown reason. She already started him on the triple antibiotic treatment to cover all possible scenerios and he responded by the time we got the definitive diagnosis.


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## dswardtx (Jun 3, 2011)

Kathy - any updates? I recently saw this post but have had a similar history since 2009 with my now 4 year old golden-cyclical fever episodes with increased white count. After much testing, including what you have had done, the internal medicine vet specialist diagnosed unspecified immune disorder. My golden has been on different immunosupporessants with varying degrees of success.


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## Kathy163 (May 26, 2011)

dswardtx - 
It is very coincidental that you replied to this today! I posted this message and the same message on another message board almost a year ago and never received any responses this whole time other than the few responses I got in the beginning. Just a few days ago someone sent me a message that saw my post on the other message board. She said her dog (not a Golden) is going through the same thing mine did. Her dog has the exact same symptoms and they also haven't been able to diagnose it. It is very coincidental that you both contacted me this week so long after my original post!
My dog is doing fine now but unfortunately we never did find out what was causing these fevers. Back in May 2011 when I wrote this post was the last time he was sick. Thankfully it has not happened again but I am always worried that it will. He was two when we got him from a rescue and it seemed to happen more often in the beginning. As he has gotten older, he seems to not get the fevers as much as he did when we first got him. Since it has been close to a year since the last fever, we are hoping that he no longer has this issue.
Please keep in touch with me and let me know if you find any answers with your dog. If it ever happens again to us or I get any new information, I will post on here again.
The other lady that contacted me is having some tests run on her dog this week. She told me she would keep me informed of what happens. I'll post here if she gets any answers.
I hope your dog gets better soon! I know how frustrating it is when this keeps happening and the doctors can't seem to figure out the cause of it.


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## dswardtx (Jun 3, 2011)

*Fever unknown origin*

Kathy,
Ruger is fairly stable as far as the fevers, mild, short lived every 3-4 months. Side effects from the immunosuppressant meds are always tricky as he had a serious infection last fall. For now, he is doing well. Hope youR pup continues to do well.


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## Volbergs (Jul 3, 2012)

*Fever of unkown origin*

Our 1 year old Golden, Lucy Ricardo, has had two episodes with a high fever that has an unknown cause. She also responds to antibiotic treatment in about 3 days. She was fine for 3 weeks and then it came back. She's been on the second round of antibiotics for two weeks and seems just fine. Our vet referred us to specialists who did an ultra sound but nothing was detected. Now we are supposed to finish the antibiotics and see if the fever comes back. They also said it could be a tick-borne or fungal infection but that blood tests while she is on the antibiotics might not show anything. Has your dog recovered yet again? Does anyone else have this issue?


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## dswardtx (Jun 3, 2011)

Volbergs said:


> Our 1 year old Golden, Lucy Ricardo, has had two episodes with a high fever that has an unknown cause. She also responds to antibiotic treatment in about 3 days. She was fine for 3 weeks and then it came back. She's been on the second round of antibiotics for two weeks and seems just fine. Our vet referred us to specialists who did an ultra sound but nothing was detected. Now we are supposed to finish the antibiotics and see if the fever comes back. They also said it could be a tick-borne or fungal infection but that blood tests while she is on the antibiotics might not show anything. Has your dog recovered yet again? Does anyone else have this issue?


Volbergs
if the fever recurs, would certainly test for tick borne disease and also consider testing for Leptosporosis. There are many potential reasons for recurring fever and it becomes a matter of ruling out obvious causes and then searching for less obvious. If the antibiotics are the reason for her positive response, it points towards infection. But until you know the cause, you can't be sure the medicine made her better. Hope your girl stays well.


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## Mybelle1979 (Mar 16, 2016)

KATHY163, Our little Shiner, age 21 months is on her 3rd episode of exactly what you're describing...fever, lethargic, won't eat. Each time before she has "bounced back" after I fluids and anti biotic. Always fever of unknown origin with only some high white blood cell counts. She has had extensive blood panels by 2 vets and a separate set of tests including an ultrasound and GI biopies to try and rule out a GI issue. They ultimately found nothing but advised we switch her to hypoallergenic hydrolyzed protein prescription dog food, which we did and she has been eating it well for 2 weeks but has now in her 3rd episode of whatever this is the first time it happened she was approx 13 months, then approx 19 months, and now she's about 21 months. 
I was curious if your dog is doing well and if the episodes continued or if they ever determined the cause. I know it's a long shot, but 2 vet offices, an animal internist, and hospital are all scratching their heads. I suspect a steroid trial might be the next thing they will want to try with her, but we just don't know what to think at this point so I have turned to the Internet and your 5 year old forum is the closest thing I've found to what is going on with Shiner. 
I hope your pup is well, along with others on this forum. Hopefully someone is out there who might read this and have some feedback that might help us. Thanks in advance for reading this lengthy post. 
MRF in Richardson, TX


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## Kathy163 (May 26, 2011)

Well the good news is that our dog is 9 years old now and is doing fine. He had at least one or two more "episodes" since I last updated this. I'm still not 100% sure of what was causing the fevers but one of the last times he had this problem, my husband was looking closely at his skin while we were sitting at the vet and happened to notice a really bad rash on his back underneath his hair. The vet hadn't even noticed this, but when you started lifting up his hair you could see it. The vet ended up shaving off the hair there so we could see it better and it was a horrible rash with raised red bumps that had pus in them. We had no idea how long it had been there because his hair is so thick that you couldn't notice it unless you lifted the hair and looked closely, but we couldn't believe how bad it looked once we shaved off the hair. 

The vet drained one of the bumps and sent it to a lab and it came back positive for pseudomonas, which surprised the vet. Apparently it is usually an infection in a dog's ears, not on their skin. The vet thought this might have been the culprit all along. They treated it by giving him a strong antibiotic (cipro maybe, it's been so long I can't remember) and I believe he had to take it for something like 2 months. After that I think he might have had a fever one more time a year or two later that went away easily and then it never came back.

So I don't know if that rash on his skin is what caused it from the beginning or if that was a secondary infection to something else. But it seems like the long course of antibiotics may have helped since after that he only had one more mild case of it that was easily treated and never came back. 

So try really inspecting your dog's skin to make sure you don't see any rashes or red bumps. I know how frustrating it is for this to keep happening without being able to get any answers as to why. It also isn't cheap to see all those doctors and run so many tests! I also couldn't find much information on it either when we went through it so I'm glad you found my post. I hope you are able to figure something out soon with your dog! Sorry this was so long!


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## donnersmom (Mar 16, 2017)

did you ever figure out what was going on with your dog? I googled these symptoms as our 1.5 year old golden has something similar going on and am looking for answers as well.


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## Glynns17 (Apr 25, 2017)

Hello I am new to the forum. We are experiencing the same problem with our 7 yo Goldie. Blood tests were done, ultra sound of the kidneys, Mri's done. Everything comes back normal except her lymph glands in the stomach are somewhat enlarged. She was hospitalized at the vets office with iv antibiotics. She was there for 3 days. Then she was put on antibiotics in pill form and now she has loss of appetite, lethargic which mat be the side effects of the pills. We have spent around $7500 in a month's time. 

Still no answers.

Anyone have any other ideas that have not been mentioned?

We are worried about her not eating.


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## Cbrown32 (Nov 3, 2020)

Glynns17 said:


> Hello I am new to the forum. We are experiencing the same problem with our 7 yo Goldie. Blood tests were done, ultra sound of the kidneys, Mri's done. Everything comes back normal except her lymph glands in the stomach are somewhat enlarged. She was hospitalized at the vets office with iv antibiotics. She was there for 3 days. Then she was put on antibiotics in pill form and now she has loss of appetite, lethargic which mat be the side effects of the pills. We have spent around $7500 in a month's time.
> 
> Still no answers.
> 
> ...


Hi there, did you ever find an answer to your dog's sickness? We have a golden who is 1.5 years old, who is also experiencing "fevers of unknown origin," and swollen lymph nodes in her stomach. We also did X-Rays and Ultrasounds of her stomach and chest, and found nothing. 

The first time she got sick they put her on Clavacillin (antibiotics) for about a month, and it went away. Unfortunately she got sick again few weeks after the antibiotics finished. Now she's back on Clavacillin, with a follow-up appointment with the Internal Medicine vet today.

The only common denominator so far has been that she went swimming in the ocean 3-4 days prior to each of the two sicknesses. Obviously we won't be taking her to the beach anymore, but so far that is nothing more than a guess. They tested her for Lyme disease and Lepto as well, and said that both were negative.

Another strange symptom she's had the second time around: her tongue has been much darker than normal. Not quite purple, but a dark red.

Any help would be much appreciated!


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## rhody mom (Jun 22, 2021)

hi Kathy, not sure will you see this message or not, but i still like to try it any way.
my 1.5 year old corgi had recurring fever since she got spayed, the first fever was around last Christmas, and then it came back after 4 weeks since we finish her antibiotics medication .
White blood count was high ,hadultrasound, blood test, stool test, x-ray, all kinds of test the vet could think of. Now she is in her 4th fever within in half year.
really would like to hear back from you for more details. How did your dog doing and did it go away itself? After you treat the pesudomonas infection, did it happens again? Do you believe pseudomonas was the cause


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## Kerrym612 (3 mo ago)

dswardtx said:


> *Fever unknown origin*
> 
> Kathy,
> Ruger is fairly stable as far as the fevers, mild, short lived every 3-4 months. Side effects from the immunosuppressant meds are always tricky as he had a serious infection last fall. For now, he is doing well. Hope youR pup continues to do well.


Hi! I’m curious how you got a diagnosis? Our 18 month old standard poodle has had 4 fevers in a year and we have found no answers. I’m so desperate to get to the bottom of this. Any information you have to share would be greatly appreciated!


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## Kerrym612 (3 mo ago)

Cbrown32 said:


> Hi there, did you ever find an answer to your dog's sickness? We have a golden who is 1.5 years old, who is also experiencing "fevers of unknown origin," and swollen lymph nodes in her stomach. We also did X-Rays and Ultrasounds of her stomach and chest, and found nothing.
> 
> The first time she got sick they put her on Clavacillin (antibiotics) for about a month, and it went away. Unfortunately she got sick again few weeks after the antibiotics finished. Now she's back on Clavacillin, with a follow-up appointment with the Internal Medicine vet today.
> 
> ...


Hi! I’m curious if you ever got a diagnosis? Our 18 month old standard poodle has had 4 fevers in a year and we have found no answers. I’m so desperate to get to the bottom of this. Any information you have to share would be greatly appreciated!


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## Kerrym612 (3 mo ago)

rhody mom said:


> hi Kathy, not sure will you see this message or not, but i still like to try it any way.
> my 1.5 year old corgi had recurring fever since she got spayed, the first fever was around last Christmas, and then it came back after 4 weeks since we finish her antibiotics medication .
> White blood count was high ,hadultrasound, blood test, stool test, x-ray, all kinds of test the vet could think of. Now she is in her 4th fever within in half year.
> really would like to hear back from you for more details. How did your dog doing and did it go away itself? After you treat the pesudomonas infection, did it happens again? Do you believe pseudomonas was the cause


Hi! I’m curious if you ever got a diagnosis? Our 18 month old standard poodle has had 4 fevers in a year and we have found no answers. I’m so desperate to get to the bottom of this. Any information you have to share would be greatly appreciated!


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## Kerrym612 (3 mo ago)

dswardtx said:


> *Fever unknown origin*
> 
> Kathy,
> Ruger is fairly stable as far as the fevers, mild, short lived every 3-4 months. Side effects from the immunosuppressant meds are always tricky as he had a serious infection last fall. For now, he is doing well. Hope youR pup continues to do well.


Hi! I’m curious how you got a diagnosis? Our 18 month old standard poodle has had 4 fevers in a year and we have found no answers. I’m so desperate to get to the bottom of this. Any information you have to share would be greatly appreciated!


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