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My dog has swollen lymph nodes. Are fungal medications safe for her?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Beagle | Female | unspayed | 26 lbs

My 5 year old beagle has swollen lymph nodes. Vet has treated for infection and done a 3 day course of pancur. She is well apart from this and vet said it is inflammatory and may be a fungal infection. I'm a bit wary of treating her with systemic fungal medications as I've heard it is hard on dogs and what if it's not a fungal infection? Will the drugs harm her?

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Susan England-Foster

Veterinarian

Published on July 8th, 2017

If witchy does have enlarged lymph nodes I would recommend doing a fine needle aspirate of the lymph node. This is where a vet places a small needle into the lymph node and looks at the cells under a microscope. This will tell you why the lymph node is enlarged. The most common causes are viral, bacterial, fungal, inflammation or cancer. I would not recommend using systemic strong anti-fungals without a diagnosis of fungal disease due to the affect on the liver. Hopefully between blood work ,x-rays and aspirate you can get a better idea of why Witchy is having big lymph nodes and start proper treatment.

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    Answered By Sara Farmer, DVM

    Veterinarian

    Published on

    Different antifungal medications can have different side effects so it's difficult to say whether or not the drug will harm her without knowing which one will be used. You may want to ask your veterinarian if there are tests that could be sent out to the lab to confirm a diagnosis of fungal disease before starting medication if you're concerned.

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