I don't have any experience with it, but here are two articles about it:

First article

Second article

What other tests has your vet run? If he's just now running an ultrasound and hasn't run any of the other tests mentioned in the article, I'd ask him for referral to a specialist.

Is the other med an antibiotic?

My first thought was infection, snake bite or spider bite.

My husband is the one that takes her to the vet and unfortunately I don't always get all the details! I know they've drawn blood and they've tested the fluid from her leg. Everything keeps coming back negative, but I'm not sure what they've tested for. The vet said he didn't think it was cancer in her lymph nodes because there would be swelling in other areas as well.

I believe the 2nd med is an antibiotic. This has been ongoing for several months. The vet had us massage the area above her leg that is swollen also to see if that would affect anything. So far it has not.

If the ultrasound doesn't reveal anything, the next step will be to a specialist. So far I'm not impressed with this vet.

Please keep us updated. This is very perplexing.

I guess the good news is that there's no bad news as of yet.

Still, it's concerning.

Yes and she's not in pain, I'm grateful for that!

Have they x-rayed?

I wouldn't think an ultra sound would be very beneficial in diagnosing vascular anomilies. Course it may be different in dogs than humans. But it for sure would show a clot...do dogs get blood clots? I would think surely they could. Could it be caused from some kind of bug or spider bite?

Yes they did x-rays at her first visit several months ago which showed nothing. I also thought some type of bite but the vet thoroughly examined her leg and found no sign of a bite or lump, etc.

I'm not sure what he hopes to find on the ultrasound. Again, lack of info from hubby! I'm hoping we can get a Sat appt. so that I could go too and ask questions! I'm not sure how often the ultrasound person is there though.

Share, you may want to call the Vet to get the specific details and as mentioned above get a referral for a specialist. I hope your pup will be ok.

Finally getting the ultrasound this week! Miscommunication between the vet's office and my dh. :/

How do you know she's not in pain? You need to accompany this dog to any veterinary appointments.

She exhibits no signs of pain and the vet said she wasn't in pain. Other than a swollen leg, she acts completely normal. My parents' dog developed bone cancer late in life and her leg swelled and she was definitely in pain. I know dogs can mask pain but there's no panting, acting differently, nothing.

Well ultrasound done and dr still stumped! He has her on 3 meds now... so we'll wait and see if those help. He said he's never seen anything like this before. One thing we noticed was her leg was almost normal size that night after the ultrasound. I'm thinking maybe handling her leg (shaving it) helped massage it enough so the blood flowed better? The next morning it was swollen again, but not quite as big.

She's also lost 5 of the 10 lbs he wanted her to lose, so we're happy about that. She's definitely not in pain, no limp, nothing. She's a typical happy golden. He doesn't think her leg will need amputated, so that was good news.

We talked to her breeder and she had never heard of anything like this either.

So, we wait and see if the meds work.

I am so glad to read the ultrasound and x-rays did not show anything! Our lab had the same symptoms and it turned out to be bone cancer. He was quite a bit older than your girl (13) and everyone initially suspected arthritis, until the leg swelled up a lot. But, thankfully, that is not a possibility in her case since she had clear x-rays and ultrasound.

Aw, sorry to hear that Petra... I know bone cancer is extremely painful. :(

So far, nothing is working, the swelling is still there. She finishes up her last round of pills in a week and then the vet will have to figure out what to try next.

Thank you, we miss him a lot. Fingers crossed the vets figure out what is going on with your girl and get her back to normal soon.

Get the dog a referral to a vet school clinic. They see things reg vets don't. This has gone on way too long.

I was going to say the same thing. You need either a vet school clinic or a vet hospital with various specialists. It is expensive but will help get to the root of the issue much faster than your regular vet seems to be doing.

Thought I would give an update in case anyone else searches for this type of problem. The swelling is caused by a blocked lymph node. Why it's blocked and exactly where the blockage is, can't be determined.

We've seen 2 vets, a surgeon and an internal medicine specialist at a regional hospital. She's had various drugs, x-rays, an ultrasound and ultimately a CAT scan. We've spent thousands of dollars only to be told there's a blocked lymph node but there's nothing that can be done about it!

All 4 vets agreed, she is not in pain. I imagine she's uncomfortable lugging around her large leg but she doesn't even limp with it.

The good news was that there wasn't a tumor causing the blockage.

Occasionally her leg "springs a leak" and she gets a wet mark on her leg. She licks a lot of it. Our concern will be if she gets a cut, there's more danger of an infection so she'll have to go to the vet for antibiotics right away.

The specialist said it might even unblock on it's own.

If it should become painful in the future, then we will have to discuss removing her leg. I hope it never comes to that.

Poor baby. Thanks for posting an update.

Swelling with occasional leaking hmm sounds like lymphodema..do dogs get that?

Yes, it does...and I don't know, but I have the issue myself (lymphodema)

For those trying to follow along, try " lymphedema "

Yes that's what they call it. It's very rare in dogs, the internal medicine specialist at the hospital said they see 1 or 2 cases a year but that's only because they get people from all over the state. He also said our vet had done everything right in trying to figure out what was wrong. He said a regular vet would very rarely come across this problem.

There is a massage for LymphEdema..MLD....stands for manual LymphEdema drainage for people I wonder if it could be done on dogs? I would call the speciality Vet and look around on line. I know in people it can be very beneficial. Increasing the quality of life.

I'm not a vet, but I wouldn't see why not. I frequently massage my dogs anyway, because they enjoy it (just as I would).

Thanks Mamapinky... we have massaged her leg ourselves per the vet's instructions. It helped a bit in the beginning but now any fluid that moves out just fills back up. I have thought about trying to find a holistic vet and seeing what they say.

The MLD massage is a very special type of massage and also requires wraps afterwards. .but like I said I don't know if this type of massage works on dogs.