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Hi all. Thanks so much for all of you writing in to this site, it has opened our eyes to so many other people out there that are going through the same type of sadness as my husband and I. Here's our story.

We got Sadie, a female lab x when she was 2 months old, but have been there practically since she was born. We were so pumped to finally bring her home. She received all of her vacinations and got fixed when she was 6 months old. All was good. Until one day she became listless and not wanting to do anything. Went on the net and surfed. She was showing all the signs and symptoms of Lyme disease. Sure enough she came back positive and was on 2 months of doxicycline. She popped right back up. After her 2 months, about 3 days later she got really sick and we freaked out, we thought she was going to die. She was showing all the signs again but worse!! Well, non to happy with my vet, we couldn't get to see the vet for another 2 days, well by then Sadie was her old self again and the vet said to just keep an eye on her.
Well 3 weeks passed and then Sadie started not wanting to eat, we practically had to force her to eat. Well called the vet again and again couldn't see her for a week. We tried everything, even forcing her to eat. Then I bought some wet food and she seemed to enjoy that and ate it for maybe a day and a night. We noticed she was also losing weight, but still very active and wanting to run and play, so we thought maybe she was being fussy. That was on the Friday. Then Friday night we practically had to force her to eat again. By Saturday morning she was vomiting and snubbing her food, not wanting to eat. We had also noticed that when we went to bed that night that she was breathing a little heavier almost wheezing. Well, that was it, that day we brought her to see a new vet and we relayed all her past history to them and they said she was really dehydrated and would need to stay the night on IV. They ran the blood tests and a biocam. All came back good. She was alittle anemic, but they weren't overly concerned. Her liver and heart and kidneys were good and strong. They figured that she ahd a relapse eith the lyme disease and we filled out the presciption and brought her home. Well over the next 2 days, things got worse. She was still snubbing her food and anything, even water she would throw right back up. Brought her back to the same vet and she agreed with me that no way was this lyme disease so we decided to dig further. They took an abdominal x-ray thinking maybe she had something stuck in her intestines, well they captured a piece of her lung and said ohoh. They took a whole chest xray and she had the snow-blizzard effect in all cavities of her lungs. The vet came and talked to me and asked where we lived and where we travel. We live in southern Manitoba right beside a river. She told me she was really confident that this was fungal pneumonia but would have to take some blood and send it off to the states for testing. Sadie didn't have any other signs other than the loss of appetite, weight loss and a small cough at the beginning of the week but had long disappeared by the time we went the first time to see the vet. So we left Sadie there at the vets with an IV going. The next day, Wednesday, the vet called and stated Sadie had developped a few open sores on her one paw, and they were able to test it and bingo definately blastomycosis. The vet was confident that Sadie was young and her organs were strong that she should be able to beat this. They figured she was immuno suppressed from her lyme disease and that was why she caught it. They admitted to seeing a few cases but was still something very rare.
Well, today is Friday and my husband and I are going out of our minds. She still hasn't eaten anything and over the 2 week she has lost 15 pounds! she was 70, now is 55. We live an hour away from her and we both are working which has made it even harder not being able to be by her side. But the vet and her co-workers (there are 8 vets total at this clinic) that Sadie will pull through. We are sick out of our minds and are trying to stay positive, but it;s so hard. My husband will go tomorrow and stay with her and I'm going Monday (I have to work). But has anyone had a situation like this? How was the outcome? We don't want to lose her but we also don't want her to suffer, she's our baby girl. Any encouragement and advise would so be appreciated!
Thanks for listening,CLS

[evayola]

Hi. I am first of all really sorry about Sadie. I am not sure if you read our story about Marge. A lot of the things you described happened to us as well. Marge's chest xray was also a huge snowstorm effect and you couldn't see anything in it. You couldn't see her heart or ribs. It was crazy. We too were sooooo scared when marge was first diagnosed. She is our child to us and couldn't imagine life without her. Marge lost an extreme amount of weight at first. She lost 10 lbs in less than one week. When we first found out we decided to do a fast kill which was the wrong thing for her. She got worse. She wouldn't eat period or drink or get up or anything at all. The worst thing is that when we attacked the blasto so fast it was on the run and spread to her eye and she is now blind in that one eye but she IS getting better so we gotta take the good with the bad. We backed off her meds a bit and it is working great. The first two weeks are going to be the hardest that you will have to deal with. Marge was limping so bad that we didn't want her walking up and down our stairs so we moved our lives into our living room on the main floor so she could be with us when we slept. It was very important for Marge that she have our emotional support. She is such a sensitive dog and I think that if we would have done anything less she wouldn't still be with us. She really needed that bond with us to help her get better. We tried everything we could to get her to eat. We gave her frozen pedialyte so that she would get enough fluids and then we asked the vet if we could give her the iv fluids at home and we did. Every other day we had to do fluids but I am so glad we did. She is on fluconozole 300 mg a day. We tried itroconozole but she didn't do as well. Her tummy can't handle the powder inside the capsules. The fluconozole is in tablet form which we belive is much easier on her stomach. If you look on the site Jen recommends going through pet health pharmacies in AZ which worked wonders for Dirtbike but I ordered the meds and Marge was refusing all food when I gave them to her. She couldn't handle them. I have a whole months worth just sitting here. We grilled chicken breasts for her and hamburgers. We have given her all the human food you can think of because we wanted anything in her stomach and her to gain weight. Always stay strong because Sadie needs that and just tell yourself that she will make it. We never gave Marge the option of giving up. We always told ourselves that she is going to fight it and make it. We are in our 4th month of treatment and we redid xrays about a month ago and her blasto has cleared about 75%! We could see her heart and ribs and we almost cried we were so happy. So not all stories end bad. Wilson's is another story that I would check out for sure. The vet said that Marge has about 4-5 months of treatment left which is fine by me as long as she prevails in the end. If you met Marge today you would NEVER know that she is sick with this horrible disease. She does absolutely get very winded after playing and running but she is playing and running and being happy. I wish you all the best. If you need anything please contact me. I know it is so hard. I will pray for you all!
Eva

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Hi. Thanks so much for all your good blessings and I'm so  glad Marge is doing better! My husband went to see her today and he said it broke his heart to see her, so skinny and all. But she still wagged her tail and gave him kisses. He was able to take her out for a while and just walk and relax with her, which I'm sure made her happy. As mentioned we live an hour away which makes it harder beacause we definately would be beside her the whole step, but we need to work The vets are all still extremely hopeful, it is still only in her lungs with a few lesions on one paw,and as far as tests show it hasn't spread anywhere else. Happy about that. But she still won't eat. They were going to cook up some hamburger today and she if she would take a bit of that. I'm going Monday to see her, so I'll ask if its o.k to at least try some pedialyte, anything to help. She has been able to keep most of the meds down, but they are really concerned that she won't eat. That is their main goal right now. They also stated that they have seen dogs way worse than Sadie and they bounced back. Were still trying to be positive, but as someone who's seen how and what this disease does, it's really hard. My husband asked if they felt she was suffering at all, cause we don't want that, and they assured us that she has become one of their own pets and they are all rooting for her. They have all our cell numbers and home numbers should anything go down hill, but they are not near that point yet.
I have read everyones story and its such a relief that there are good stories out there, but they still make me cry, because this is just one ugly disease for a loved on to go through. Thanks again for the support and WOOHOO good for Marge. I'll keep you posted on what happens Monday. CLS

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So my husband and I went to see Sadie yesterday, she is sooo thin, but still alert and wagged her tail when we called her. We ended up talking with her vet and they are really concerned about her weight. So, we had decided to put a feeding tube into her stomach through her abdominal wall. Well later that day the vet called back and said the surgeon thought Sadie was too weak and the anestetic would be too hard on her and she may not make the surgery so she diidn't want to do it.  Then the vet who is taking care of Sadie said that she was able to force feed her 2 half bottles of baby food and she kept it down! So they're going to continue feeding her and hopefully she'll start to eat a little on her own. They have to give Sadie an anti-nausea because she wants to vomit up everything she is fed. Anyone else have this problem? They took test again on Friday and all came back good, it still hasn't spread elsewhere, and her she actually only had one sore on her paw and it's healing well. Her liver and kidney's are all still good. Her white blood count is only slightly elevated and her fever has been gone since the day we brought her in last Tuesday.
I'm going to see her again today and help feed her, wish me luck. Let all of you know how it went. CLS

[evayola]

Yea I am so glad that she kept some food down. that is awesome! I know with Marge it was such a battle getting her to eat. We bought one of every canned food to see what she liked. If she liked something it would only be for a few days and then refuse food again. She will get her appetite back soon. It is really hard on them (the meds). Marge vomited her food up three times total since she has been sick. One of things that helped was a paste that comes in a tube called NutriCal. It is super super high in calories and fat and it is beef flavored and we would rub in on Marge's legs because her reaction was to lick it off and she really liked it. What meds do they have her on? I am soooo happy that she ate. I have been telling my boyfriend about Sadie because my heart goes out to anyone who has had to deal with blasto. Good luck today! I wish you nothing but the best.
Eva

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Hi. Sadie was able to keep milk mixed with a protein powder down today!! When I first saw her she jumped up and came right to me. I was so happy. She was on IV still so I had to calm her down and then we just sat together and she slept. Then later on we went outside, she just loves being outside, she barked at the horses and walked. I was able to feed her some of the milk and she went to the bowl herself and lapped some up. So, good sign. Sadie is on itraconozole, pill form, they look like contact-c and I'm not sure the anti-nausea med she's on. I'm going back tomorrow and will spend the day with her and hopefully help her eat some more. She's still so full of life. She's not ready to give up and we aren't either. Thank you so much for writing back, you don't know how much we need your support. This is such a nasty disease. BUT WE WILL BEAT IT.CLS