Hey Bellas mom,
Let me start with, SHE IS STILL ALIVE, and doing rather well.
We have a 1 year old Siberian Husky that has had blasto since around October we think. We live in NH and it is not endemic to this area, but did travel a bit in into southern QC and New York and Maine where there are isolated pockets. She wasnt actually diagnosed with it until Mid November after a long run of antibiotics and vet visits. They thought it was kennel cough or some other form of upper respiratory infection. It is really hard to say how long she actually had it for, the incubation period varies so much with this it is really difficult to say when or where she got it. That being said, I have read that sometimes a compromised immune system can be related to a blasto infection. So, there is a chance your dog has basically had this for a while, but not really had any ill effects until now. I was pretty angry at my vet as well that this was not caught since we are not that far from "endemic" areas, they should have at least asked us if we traveled with her at all. Ours was realized when they looked at her X-rays and saw the classic snow storm pattern of blasto. Also said it could be cancer.
They did a tracheal wash, to confirm the organism was in her lungs. It was. MiraVista antigen test of urine will confirm the presence of blasto or not within the system and you will know for sure. It has been a long, long expensive road and we are still treating her with Itraconozole every day, and probably will be for a few more months at least. It got really rough for there for bit, but she is alive and acts pretty normal for the most part. Back to the vet for another antigen test and blood work in a couple weeks, hopefully will update with clear results but not getting my hopes up. Long story short, Vet's commonly miss this. One article I read said around 50% of cases are misdiagnosed, so dont be too hard on them I guess. Wait for the Urine test to confirm and you can start treating. Good luck and keep your head up!
