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[luvmyjacks]

  Here iw what Bosun's owner has sent me.  The dog was blind and how is recovering some sight.
  "I pulled out the file from the University of Guelph, and this is what it says:

 

Diagnosis:

Anterior iritis, right eye anterior uveitis and incomplete retinal detachment secondary to blatomycosis.

Treatments:

 Voriconazole 150 mcg vitreal injection in both eyes

Triamcinolone 2mg vitreal injection in both eyes

Atropine topically following surgery

Tobradex topically fllowing surgery

 
The procedure was performed again in 10 days.

 So......this followed as you know a recommendation by a Toronto specialist to remove his eyes.  Today, he without a doubt has a level of vision back and I would say it is improving daily and he moves around easily.  It can apparently take up to 6 months.  This was an experimental procedure, tried only on a horse previously.  I am indebted to University of Guelph, and in particular Dr. Whelan who has a passion for finding a cure and his genuine interest in Bosun was remarkable.

 The bleeding from his nose seems to be a one time event.  I delivered samples of the expolsion to the VEC.  One piece looked like body tissue to me.....but I have not heard anything.

 The concern with Bosun now is his lung.  We may have to remove a piece of one of his lung lobes.  I am hesitant to do this given that his clinical signs are very positive.  We have changed from Spornax to Fluconole to see if it might penetrate the lung better. 

[Wilson3]

thanks!! ow long has his dog been sick?

[luvmyjacks]

I'm not sure but I think the timing is close to Will's:  Mid September.  I just went to the site home page and looked at some of the new research links that Lisa has posted.  One source indicated that blindness from blasto is permanent ....... maybe this new treatment will offer some hope.  I would really resist removal of part of the lung though.  I just wish we could be sure the vets are right when they suggest something aggressive like that.

[Wilson3]

this new eye treatment sure would be wonderful sounds like it is working what are the results in horses,do you know?
yeah the lung thing is scary but it sounds like your friends vet is more open to try new things i do know it took a very looong time before wilsons lungs loked better i think 4 months before the x-rays showed improvement but then again he had so many other things going on that where getting better please keep us posted on what happens
wilson3

[evayola]

Blasto has us so scared of losing Marge especially when she is doing so awesome now. Our vet asked us what we thought about Marge's treatment plan and if we wanted to continue on the path we were going or if we wanted to up her meds hoping she would recover faster. We decided that we wanted to stay with what we are on because I am so scared of ruining a good thing. The lung lobe removal seems super scary TO ME. I am not saying that it is the wrong thing to do but I know that I would be in absolute ruins if something happened to Marge as a result of the surgery. The eye thing really sounds great though! I wonder if Marge would be a good canidate for that. But again, her eye is still intact and does not need to be removed so I wonder if it is worth the mess? She is doing amazing and I just feel like she has been on treatment FOREVER! It is now 5 months. The vet wants to xray her lungs soon and I am crossing my fingers that everything looks great!

[Jen]

Glad to hear about his sight, and also that the nosebleed has stopped.  I'd really want to give him more time on treatment (either medicine) for his lung before they took part of it out, but...I'm no vet.  His system is terribly delicate right now with treatments and all, no?  Dirt took a long time to come out of the pneumonia.
Sure happy Bosun's still with us-
jen

[luvmyjacks]

Bosun has turned the corner it seems and this week he has a follow up with the Dr who injected his eyes.  From what we can tell he is no longer blind and the tests this week will give us a more accurate figure but we are guessing he sees 60-65% now.  In this topic I have listed the exact treatment and the drug name.  In a previous post I listed it as Itraconazole.  My apologies. 
They are using the pascalite clay recommended by Wilson3 but find it hard to apply as Bosun has thick curly hair and it seems to stick to the hair rather than cover the lesions.  Wilson3 has suggested damp towels over top so we will see how that works.
So far they have avoided removing any part of the lung and Bosun's owner is being quite proactive and involved: questioning, reading etc rather than just blindly following the first advice he gets.  He will share the latest results of the eye treatment with us as soon as he is able.

[Wilson3]

what wonderful news this hopful is a brake through for furture dogs
have they or caan they shave the hair from the spots the lesions are?
wilsons bad ones the hair fell off on its own the clay needs to be touching the lesion and aa thick paste like w/warm compress

am soo happy the eye treatment is working !!! thanks for keeping us posted!!
wilson3

[luvmyjacks]

Bosun's owner thinks maybe the clay is irritating Bosuns's skin.  Did you ever find that at all?  I will tell him to try to shave or crop the hair close so the clay is covering the lesions properly. Tomorrow is the big follow up visit to the ey Doctor.  I'm so excited because I really do think this is a break through for dogs with eye involvement. 

[Wilson3]

the clay will pull out  the bad stuff it at first seemed to bother wilson in the beginning because it think it just felt weird to him but the clay after it was washed off the itchyness seemed to have stopped 24 hrs after the 1st treatment you could see a difference but the clay has to be touching the lesion with no hair inthe way in order for the clay to do what it does it is also alright if bosun eats/licks the clay after it has been on at least 1/2 the clay is totally safe to eat

please let us know what happens tomorrow at the vet
wih them luck from us
wilson3

[Wilson3]

bumping up for new pees having eye involment
wilson3

[mhitesman]

Coupla questions:
Bosun has been sick a long long time, hasn't he?  It seems he got blasto about the time Comet got blasto LAST fall (10/2007)?  Last post I heard before this one was that Bosun was blasto-free but owner feared a relapse which turned out to be kidney failure or some such thing.  His eye injections were last year too, right?  Some of this post seems to be written like the treatment just started or maybe its copy/paste ...  Can anyone shed light on this for me, please?

Marge is not a candidate for this wonderful procedure (injecting the antifungal behind the eye directly) if her retina is 100% detached.  It makes no difference that her eye is intact.  Comet was never a candidate either -- at least not by the time we got a blasto diagnosis -- as his retina was 100% detached.  Even so, we were desperately trying to save his eye (against the advice of the vet who said it can harbor fungus), but it ruptured and was removed in emergency surgery.  I would do it all the same again, but I hope neither I nor anyone else has to ever consider such choices.

I distinctly remember giving a copy of Bosun's post and the Guelph information to my optho vet last winter.  This has been a long haul for Bosun and his family too...

So, Bosun is still on blasto meds?  And Bosun's lung damage is attributable to blasto also?  What about his kidneys-- wasn't there something about kidneys a short while back?  Thanks -- if anyone can clue me in!

[gunner]

Yes, the kidney thing. 

Aparently, after much hunting on the internet, I have discovered that for some dogs, after recovering from Blasto, an evil second act can mysteriously apear, sudden on set of kidney failure.  It is often called "Blastomycosis' Second Act". 

And sadly, Gunner is in the second act.  Though she tests negative for Blasto, her kidneys are finished.  She was supposed to be dead 2 months ago.  She is still hanging in there, but I can see she is slipping.  She sleeps more, eats less, has very little desire to play anymore.  Though she still gets excited to see a cat, she doesn't chase it half as far.  She used to attack our cat all the time and maul him and leave him all slobbered and bulldog loved on, but she only takes a half hearted run at him now.  The cat misses it and rubs on her trying to encourage her but she doesn't have much interest.  She used to love to rough house with my husband for at least an hour every night.  Now she just lies on the couch and whines for him to come sit with her.  It is so heart breaking. 

I took her to the vet yesterday because she has conjunctivitus in her only eye.  He did a blood test and she is off the charts in all directions.  Some levels maxed out on the high end and some maxed out on the low end and some too low to even measure.  It was sad to see that her body is fighting as hard as it can because she is making a ton of new red blood cells, but her kidneys just won't co-operate.  The vet said he had never seen such a bad blood test in a living animal before and that it is a testament to the great care she has been getting so far.  That was small comfort. 

Frustration, anger, rage, heart-break.  After all of the thousands and thousands of dollars, the round the clock care, nothing but the best for my little homely girl and still she is slipping away.  A million what-if's.  Pointing fingers.  Pounding on the table.  Praying for miricals.  Nothing helping.  Watching the best dog I ever had, loved the most, slip away millimeter by millimeter is horrid. 

I am sorry.  It is just a really bad day for me today. 

[evayola]

I gave my vet the post about Bosun and she talked to the vet about it and yes Marge is not a candidate because she is 100% detached. It worries me every day that the eye is going to give us problems down the road but only time will tell.

joyce- you an amazing doggie mom. stay strong and we are rooting for gunner.

eva

[mhitesman]

Oh, how very very sad to be forced to live while staring in the face of the end with your precious boy.  How do you function?  It has to be gut-wrenching.  
The eye stuff -- kidney failure causing high blood pressure which is, somehow, causing conjunctivitis?  Does your vet or your research indicated what causes the secondary kidney stuff after blasto?  Blasto or meds?  What meds did Gunner take?

The WHAT IFs are really something we all struggle with forever, eh?  It's because we believe our role is to protect our dogs -- just as their role is to protect us (not always physically but emotionally too)...and we can't "fix" this.  My young dog had traumatic knee surgery one week ago tomorrow.  ...just a limp that went away and came back a few weeks later...  Seems the damage is so severe that they could not  do the TPLO (best) surgery and had to essentially tie it together with fishing line (ligaments are shredded and now gone) and hope scar tissue holds the knee together.  This is my youngest dog.  He's never been away from me even one night since 49 days old.  Now he's in Raleigh, NC -- 3 hours away.  By himself.  My dogs are -- well, WERE, field trial competitors, and they are (were) really good.  Ribbons, titles, etc.  They really had a ball, and I did too.  Comet lost his eye last Fall to blasto...but River was a rising star.  Now his bad leg will keep him out of the game forever too.  Do I really care?  No.  I have my boys, and we will find something even more fun to do..not sure what though.  River will be in Raleigh for at least 10 weeks.  I drive to see him on Saturdays with last Sat being the first.  I was afraid.  I was afraid he would get hurt because he would be so excited.  I was afraid because I would have to leave him again after the visit.  The tech sat with us, on the floor, with River for 2 hours as he was there to keep River stabilized.  When Riv saw us, he shook and shook and shook like I have never seen...for 10 minutes.  Then he buried his head in my lap and cried.  We were all crying.  I am crying now.  I keep thinking WHAT IF I had taken him for a specialist exam THE DAY OF his first limping.  WHAT IF the bed was not so high for jumping...WHAT IF I never played frisbee or threw bumpers for him...WHAT IF the creek were not his favorite place to go crashing into.  And I have a whole nuther set of WHAT IFs for Comet pertaining to the loss of his eye.

It's because we love them and part of us feels we let them down...we should have been able to fix it.  But we can't fix all things.  I don't have the answer on how to learn to let go of guilt even when it is not deserved such as these circumstances; I can't do it myself.

I found this board because of blasto, and the information on here helped to save Comet's life.  But I stay on this board because the support of other dog loving people on this board gives me the strength to feel good about loving my dogs so much and the strength to be assertive when I need to be with doctors, and it makes me feel good to be among people who feel as I do.