Sialocele - Salivary Gland Cyst

[sparrows]

I've just been informed by the vet (not our regular one - she is away) that our German Shepherd has a salivary cyst (sialocele). She has a big watery feeling lump under her jaw, on her left side. It is not painful, nor does it seem to be impacting her saliva production (no dry mouth, no problems eating or swallowing etc). Just looks funny and not right. We're unsure as to what has caused it - he said it could be a grass seed that has obstructed it, or it could be trauma to the gland/ducts which has caused it to drain into the surrounding tissue. (Both are possible - we have grass seeds in and around our area, and she did push under some of my poor fencing work last week)

According to the vet, the treatment for it is to have the saliva gland removed. He wants to refer her to a local veterinary surgery as he not performed this fiddly operation before.

Is anyone aware of any alternative treatment for this?

From my google searches, I've found that the most common treatment is to have the whole gland on that side removed. Other than that, the only other thing I can find is to have it drained. Doesn't sound like this will fix it though and will probably fill up again.

Is it possible that it is something else besides this?

If it is a grass seed, will it extract itself? She is currently on antibiotics, which seem to have brought the swelling down a little.

I just don't want to have to send her into surgery unnecessarily.

[shantiah]

I've just been informed by the vet (not our regular one - she is away) that our German Shepherd has a salivary cyst (sialocele). She has a big watery feeling lump under her jaw, on her left side. It is not painful, nor does it seem to be impacting her saliva production (no dry mouth, no problems eating or swallowing etc). Just looks funny and not right. We're unsure as to what has caused it - he said it could be a grass seed that has obstructed it, or it could be trauma to the gland/ducts which has caused it to drain into the surrounding tissue. (Both are possible - we have grass seeds in and around our area, and she did push under some of my poor fencing work last week)

According to the vet, the treatment for it is to have the saliva gland removed. He wants to refer her to a local veterinary surgery as he not performed this fiddly operation before.

Is anyone aware of any alternative treatment for this?

From my google searches, I've found that the most common treatment is to have the whole gland on that side removed. Other than that, the only other thing I can find is to have it drained. Doesn't sound like this will fix it though and will probably fill up again.

Is it possible that it is something else besides this?

If it is a grass seed, will it extract itself? She is currently on antibiotics, which seem to have brought the swelling down a little.

I just don't want to have to send her into surgery unnecessarily. :D

One of my dogs had his salivary gland removed about 2 yrs ago because of this. The surgery at the time was excellent but the condition has now appeared in the other side. I will not bother to have it done again unless essential. The vet advised me against getting it done unless it was essential (affecting breathing, eating etc) as it is an extremely dangerous operation as it is so close to the jugular vein. It was also extremely messy while healing with saliva draining literally everywhere. I never knew dogs produced so much saliva and he is only small. I know of several other dogs that have had it done (and redone) unsuccessfully so make sure your vet is very good at it if you proceed.

There are several natural treatments but I havent tried them. will have to see if I can find where I filed it away.

The best thing I have found is to take the dog off all grains (ie dry food) I was told this by another breeder and thought it was crap but have since tried it and found my boy is considerably better on raw without any grain. The difference is quite amazing.

[pebbles]

My 11yo Min Pin has a ruptured saliva gland on one side and while it looks a bit strange it doesn't worry him at all and due to his age wont be getting it operated on. My Vet. said it was a waste of time to drain it as it only fills again. Sometimes it's quite large and other times seems to go down.

[benny123]

Not sure about dogs but I had something similar myself. Huge swelling; blocked salivary gland. It was a stone (like a kidney stone-ish) of calcium. The doc removed it by pressing both sides of the duct with wooden tongue depressors. Removed the blockage and everything normal again. This was about 25 years ago.

[julesluvscavs]

Not sure about dogs but I had something similar myself. Huge swelling; blocked salivary gland. It was a stone (like a kidney stone-ish) of calcium. The doc removed it by pressing both sides of the duct with wooden tongue depressors. Removed the blockage and everything normal again. This was about 25 years ago.

I had one myself too once, mine was quite painful

The docs wanted to remove it, but i was told to chew lots of chewing gum first. It eventually burst.

Don't know what to advice in a dog's case tho ?

Edited October 16, 2007 by JulesLuvsCavs

[Golden Rules]

Not sure about dogs but I had something similar myself. Huge swelling; blocked salivary gland. It was a stone (like a kidney stone-ish) of calcium. The doc removed it by pressing both sides of the duct with wooden tongue depressors. Removed the blockage and everything normal again. This was about 25 years ago.

I had one myself too once, mine was quite painful

The docs wanted to remove it, but i was told to chew lots of chewing gum first. It eventually burst.

Don't know what to advice in a dog's case tho ?

Me three!!!!

I had mine removed and all is fine ever since, except that the other salivary gland works overtime to compensate - so sometimes you go to take a bite of something and a tiny amount of saliva squirts out of my mouth!! So fine only I notice it, thankfully!!!

Eta: Stick to wet food (ie raw ;) ) if you have your dog's salivary gland removed, it will help with unnecessary saliva production afterwards.

Edited October 16, 2007 by Duncan+Dougal

[sparrows]

Hey all!

Thanks for all the info. We've decided to take the softly softly approach. That is, to finish her course of antibiotics, and see how it goes.

The bump has gone down a bit, but is still there. It's hard to tell, because the vet shaved the area a bit to do the aspiration, so it looks a bit smaller, without all the hair there.

We had thought about asking for them to drain it and see if it heals itself.

I appreciate all your feedback. It was important to see if there was another side to this. I was not warned of any possible complications, besides the fact that the local vet wouldn't do it as it's a difficult area.

I didn't want her to have an operation if it wasn't truly necessary and also as it is quite expensive. Of course, if she really really needs it, we will pay IYKWIM.

The recommended specialist is Richard Eaton-Wells, at Stafford Heights (Pet ER) who is apparently very good. I had checked out the UQ Vet hospital also, but their rates were about the same.

Thanks for the diet info too. Both our girls (have a Sheltie as well) are on a BARF diet.....albeit supplemented by dry food (Nature's Balance from Priceless Pets), when I haven't been to the butchers and their meats are getting low... like the other week (before this lump came up), so perhaps that may have contributed to it. They've been munching on chicken frames and wings this morning. I'll have to pull my finger out and make sure I get to the butcher's more often.

Shantiah, if you happen to find your natural alternatives notes, it would be great if you could post them (or a link).

Benny, I don't think I'll be trying the tongue depresser method, eep! And Jules, I think it'll be tricky to get her to chew gum

If I can figure out how to post pics, and I get my camera back today, then I will upload a photo of her to show her lump this afternoon.

[Mbernardi]

On 10/17/2007 at 7:13 PM, sparrows said:

Hey all!

Thanks for all the info. We've decided to take the softly softly approach. That is, to finish her course of antibiotics, and see how it goes.

The bump has gone down a bit, but is still there. It's hard to tell, because the vet shaved the area a bit to do the aspiration, so it looks a bit smaller, without all the hair there.

We had thought about asking for them to drain it and see if it heals itself.

I appreciate all your feedback. It was important to see if there was another side to this. I was not warned of any possible complications, besides the fact that the local vet wouldn't do it as it's a difficult area.

I didn't want her to have an operation if it wasn't truly necessary and also as it is quite expensive. Of course, if she really really needs it, we will pay IYKWIM.

The recommended specialist is Richard Eaton-Wells, at Stafford Heights (Pet ER) who is apparently very good. I had checked out the UQ Vet hospital also, but their rates were about the same.

Thanks for the diet info too. Both our girls (have a Sheltie as well) are on a BARF diet.....albeit supplemented by dry food (Nature's Balance from Priceless Pets), when I haven't been to the butchers and their meats are getting low... like the other week (before this lump came up), so perhaps that may have contributed to it. They've been munching on chicken frames and wings this morning. I'll have to pull my finger out and make sure I get to the butcher's more often.

Shantiah, if you happen to find your natural alternatives notes, it would be great if you could post them (or a link).

Benny, I don't think I'll be trying the tongue depresser method, eep! And Jules, I think it'll be tricky to get her to chew gum

If I can figure out how to post pics, and I get my camera back today, then I will upload a photo of her to show her lump this afternoon.

Going through the exact situation with my puppy. I know your last post was over 10 yrs ago but would love to know how it all turned out. Thank you