Mysterious Swelling

So, at 3:30 this morning (I'm a night owl, so I feed my dog before I go to bed around 4:30) I fed my dog and got ready to take her outside. She wouldn't come to me, which is very odd, so I got her leash and coaxed her up from her bed.

To make a long story short, she couldn't walk. At the time, I thought she was partially paralyzed because she wouldn't even stand and became labored when she moved. After finally getting her to get up, I noticed that she was favoring her right back leg and that it was really swollen.

She's a tad on the heavy side, so that's why she wasn't able to hop on one back leg at first, she was too scared to try.

I finally got her up and in the car around 8 this morning and headed to the vet. I called not long after I left and explained the situation. Unfortunately neither of my vets could see her until after noon, so I had to take her back home and try to get her back in the house.

I slept for a few hours and then headed to the vet around 1.

The vet that I saw today was older and very hard to understand, but he did lots of tests on her. They X-rayed her leg, which didn't show any breaks for fractures. He drew fluid from the area and also did a skin scrap.

When he came out to talk to me and my sister, he basically told us he didn't know what it was. He said, and I quote, "I'm going to be honest with you, I don't know what it is." He said that he didn't know what the fluid was that he drew out and that she probably needed to see a specialist, which we don't have in the area.

She did fall in a hole, well she stumbled, day before yesterday. He said that it could have strained her leg or something along those lines, but he didn't know.

As of right now she's in Metacam and two different antibiotics. I have to call him Wednesday to let him know how's she's doing.

Personally, I think she pulled something. My mom thinks it's a snake bite. She got bit by a snake once before on her neck and exhibited the same behavior, but I don't know.

Does anyone have ANY idea what this could be?

In case anyone needs to know, she's a 10 year old german shepherd. She had her wellness check in May, along with her shots. She's also on Heartgard and Nexgard.

So sorry about this worst situation that you facing right now. I don't really know what is that unless your vet figured out about her real situation, I pray for her hope this is not serious situation, and can be treated without any surgeries keep us update you and your dog are always in my thoughts.

Well if he's certain the swelling is fluid then it sounds like a sprain, rest and ice it and see what happens. Did he draw some fluid off to send for testing? Never heard of being referred to a specialist for this, specialist in what if he has no clue what's wrong.

It's not just fluid, her leg is swollen. It's actually quite hard. When he suggested a specialist that was super far from us, I actually asked if he could send a sample. He was like, "Of what, we have a few different things." I was obviously thinking the mystery fluid! Not the skin scrape or X-ray. I wish we would have got to se Dr. Falch instead of him.

Milla's leg did swell up a bit more last night, but I think it was because she was up on it so much and laid on it a lot. It seems to have gone down a tiny bit. Her fever went from 105 to 103 and then to 102 before I went to bed. It's 103.1 now, which is a tad high. She's eating (mostly meat, of course) and drinking water. She seemed to feel a lot better last night, thank god. I just with the dang swelling would start going down.

I have seen something similar in one of my older Papillons, but I really hope its not the same. Soso's leg became very hard to bend and was hard and solid to touch. It turned out to be a tumour near a lymph gland at the top of the leg which was preventing fluid returning from the leg to the body. As Soso was 16 with heart and breathing problems, operating was not an option and this was the end of the road for her.
What did help a little was taking 5 mins every hour to do a bit of gentle massage and movement of the leg to encourage the fluid build-up to reduce.
I really hope this isn't what your girl has, but the massage and gentle movement should help anyway.
Best wishes for your girl