Maverick is a 4-year-old male golden retriever who was rescued by Golden Retriever Rescue and was fostered by Jane, one of our technicians at Southpointe. Maverick is a wonderful dog who has been diagnosed with multiple minor health problems since coming into the rescue. He has had surgery to correct entropion (eyelids rolling inwards). He has had multiple ear infections, an anal gland infection, an allergic reaction to an unknown allergen and finally an acute swelling in the area of his right hock. All of this occurred within the first five months of being fostered. Still, Maverick won over the hearts of his new foster family and they decided to adopt him.

Maverick
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When his new mom noticed the swelling on his leg, she brought him in to have it checked. On exam, a firm swelling was palpated over the area of his right hock (ankle). Radiographs were taken to further evaluate and to determine if this involved bone or the joint. The radiographs revealed this to be a mass-like lesion which did not involve bone or the joint. An incidental (not related to the problem) finding of multiple small round metallic foreign bodies was also made at this time. You can see these on the radiograph as very bright white round circular opacities. There were a total of 15 in this leg and these are most likely buckshot from a shotgun. More buckshot has been found in multiple other areas of his body since taking this radiograph.

Since this appeared to some kind of a mass, an aspirate was taken to try to determine what it might be. An aspirate involves using a needle and syringe to try and collect a sample of the cells in the area. These are then placed on a slide, stained and viewed under the microscope. This will often help us narrow down what type of lesion we are dealing with. The most common rule-outs for these type of lesions are abscesses, cysts, cancerous and non-cancerous tumors, hematomas (a swelling full of blood…often due to trauma) or granulomas (usually resulting from a wound).

Maverick X-ray
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Maverick’s aspirate was very unusual. It contained red blood cells, too-numerous-to-count white blood cells…mostly neutrophils with some macrophages. It also contained what appeared to be sections of segmented worms. Since this was highly suspect for some type of parasitic larval migrans, the slide was sent to a pathologist for their review. The pathologist confirmed that this was a parasite called dracunculus.

Dogs most commonly become infected by dracunculus by ingesting crayfish. The parasite then migrates through the body and forms a cyst somewhere. This usually happens on the leg as in Maverick's case. Once the female parasite matures, she waits for the leg to become wet. She then will puncture out through the skin of the dog and release her eggs into the water.

Maverick X-ray
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Once we were aware of what this growth was, a decision was made to take Maverick to surgery to remove it. An incision was made over the edge of the swelling and the cyst was dissected out from the surrounding tissue. There was a long worm inside the cyst. After removal the incision was closed with suture. Maverick healed nicely and the swelling did not return.

Maverick Swollen Leg
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Maverick Swollen Leg
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