Trying to diagnose my dog's problem

I have a 9 year old dog, a Samoyed mix has always been my best guess. She's
highly athletic and despite her years and it's not evident that she's
getting an slower. About 6 months ago, she developed some swelling on her
left leg at the middle joint (knee?). I was very concerned and made
arrangements to have her seen by the director of the county animal shelter
who is a veterinarian (Boise, Idaho). He said it was probably just fluid
and recommended leaving it alone. It's now enlarged to the point where it's
discoloring (purple) and there are many individual pockets. She feels no
pain and still runs like the wind. But I'm sure it itches from the
stretching of the skin and she can't really lay comfortably on her left
side.

I just can't bear it any more but I also can't afford what her vet wants for
just taking a look. Before anyone jumps to the thought that I'm an unfit
owner, I lost my job by layoff a year ago and money is more than tight. But
if it comes down to it, and I expect it will very soon, I'll sell anything I
have to get her any help she needs. But that's not going to help her today.
I spoke with a neighbor who saw it and he said his dog had the same thing.
He said he punctured it and squeezed everything out and that I should do the
same thing. Well I tried today. I sterilized a leather needle and tried to
do it. As hard as it was mentally, I did manage to get one good poke with
the needle and got some good flow. It appears to be a mixture of blood and
a brownish fluid. My pokes only seemed to cause bleeding but it quickly
stopped and clotted. I tried to push and squeeze and everything else I
could, but it's still there.

So my question to everyone here is to find out which newsgroup might be
appropriate to try to get more information. I want to post a link to some
pictures but I don't want to distress anyone either. I really am trying to
help her in the best way I can. This is just my first step. I don't have
confidence in either of the 2 paths I've taken so far and I just want to get
this taken care of. My long time vet office was very unsympathetic to my
situation and told me it'll be at least $100 for the initial visit if they
do nothing. Far more if they do. They wouldn't even look at her.

Any tips, advice, or encouragement? More appropriate news group perhaps?

Thanks for any help at all!
Russ

"Russ M." <acid_maltxspam RemoveThis @yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:2hfbikFciiv4U1@uni-berlin.de...
> I have a 9 year old dog, a Samoyed mix has always been my best guess.
She's
> highly athletic and despite her years and it's not evident that she's
> getting an slower. About 6 months ago, she developed some swelling on her
> left leg at the middle joint (knee?). I was very concerned and made
> arrangements to have her seen by the director of the county animal shelter
> who is a veterinarian (Boise, Idaho). He said it was probably just fluid
> and recommended leaving it alone. It's now enlarged to the point where
it's
> discoloring (purple) and there are many individual pockets. She feels no
> pain and still runs like the wind. But I'm sure it itches from the
> stretching of the skin and she can't really lay comfortably on her left
> side.
>
> I just can't bear it any more but I also can't afford what her vet wants
for
> just taking a look. Before anyone jumps to the thought that I'm an unfit
> owner, I lost my job by layoff a year ago and money is more than tight.
But
> if it comes down to it, and I expect it will very soon, I'll sell anything
I
> have to get her any help she needs. But that's not going to help her
today.
> I spoke with a neighbor who saw it and he said his dog had the same thing.
> He said he punctured it and squeezed everything out and that I should do
the
> same thing. Well I tried today. I sterilized a leather needle and tried
to
> do it. As hard as it was mentally, I did manage to get one good poke with
> the needle and got some good flow. It appears to be a mixture of blood
and
> a brownish fluid. My pokes only seemed to cause bleeding but it quickly
> stopped and clotted. I tried to push and squeeze and everything else I
> could, but it's still there.
>
> So my question to everyone here is to find out which newsgroup might be
> appropriate to try to get more information. I want to post a link to some
> pictures but I don't want to distress anyone either. I really am trying
to
> help her in the best way I can. This is just my first step. I don't have
> confidence in either of the 2 paths I've taken so far and I just want to
get
> this taken care of. My long time vet office was very unsympathetic to my
> situation and told me it'll be at least $100 for the initial visit if they
> do nothing. Far more if they do. They wouldn't even look at her.
>
> Any tips, advice, or encouragement? More appropriate news group perhaps?
>
> Thanks for any help at all!
> Russ
>
>

Find another vet. Poking sharp objects willy nilly into an animal when you
have no knowledge of anatomy is curel experimentation and can lead to worse
problems. Plenty of vets are out there who'll work with someone who needs
to pay on a plan or who is willing to work cleaning kennels to pay for their
animals needs. You just haven't made enough phone calls.