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[FrankS]

My 5 year old Morkie (Sonny) yorkie/maltese mix, began acting lazy several weeks ago, 2 weeks ago, I heard a rattle in his breathing, he felt warm, I took him to my vet, he advised me that Sonny had an upper respiratory viral infection, gave him antibiotics and a cortizone shot, that night he was as normal as ever, 3 days later, on Friday, he was having a hard time breathing, took him back to Bloomingdale Hosp where they admiited him, put him on an IV, and by Sunday they called and said he was better, I could pick him up Monday.

Monday morning, I was shown xrays from Saturday and from Monday, his lungs were worse and they advised me to take him to Arboretum View Critical Care in Downers Grove, Il, where he was admitted thru the ER, the Dr looked at the xrays and advised me it was either cancer or a fungal disease, 4 hours later they sent him home and advised that it was Blasto and are waiting full confirmation and bring him back Tues, I did, I had to pick up Itraconazole from Walgreens, he was in ICU for 4 days, he has the infection in his lungs, no where else. He was sent home on Friday, just layed there, Sunday he acted normal, Monday back to lameness, took him back for bloodwork, his liver enzymes were up, as his white blood cells, I was told to give him antibiotics because he has an infection and to lower the Itraconazole doze, all together he lost 4 lbs he is 12 lbs now but is trying to act normal. I am very confused and don't know if I am doing the right thing.    Frank

[evayola]

Hi Franks. I am actually just a hop skip and a jump away from you. We live in Aurora and my boyfriends parents live in bloomingdale and go to your same vet. Small world and very odd seeing this out here. I actually had never heard of blasto til marge got it. All that I can tell you is to be very very strong and pray for Sonny and it will get worse before it gets better! I think you are doing the right thing by sticking with Sonny. You can look at Marge's story and see everything that we went through. Marge lost 12 lbs in one week and her collar was so loose on her that her foot got caught in it walking down the stairs and she fell the whole way down and marge wouldn't get up for days and we would have to beg her and beg her to go outside because moving a 130 lb dog is not easy at all. Sonny is lucky that he doesn't have it anywhere else. Marge has bone, eye, some skin, and lung involvement and I will tell you that she is doing so awesome right now. We decided to take the treatment slow because when we hit the blasto hard it was on the run and that is when it spread to her eye which is blind now. At first we were treating what we thought was a bone infection with antibiotics. Crazy. I will be thinking of Sonny and praying for him because I know how crazy hard it is. Just stay strong for him!
Eva

[FrankS]

Hi Eva, Thanks for the info, I will pray for Marge too! It's funny that not too many pet owners have ever heard of Blasto, I live in a new construction area and I was told that many cases are from newly dug up ground. I contacted the DuPage Health Dept and the lady I spoke with was surprised to hear about this, I told her it was also a human disease, she contacted her supervisors, they said all they could do is open up a file, this was their first case ever reported to them, that there is no precautions that can be taken. I also warned all my neighbors with dogs.
   Today Sonny seemed much better, it is very difficult to give him the liquid form of Itraconazole, he is very hard to hold his mouth open so I put it in his food, I hope I am doing the right thing! I hide his pills in small pieces of cheese, no problem there.
    What hospital was Marge treated at, Bloomingdale Hosp sent me to Arboretum View because they said they couldn't handle Blasto. AV is a very expensive place and the doctors are very cold people, every morning when Sonny was in ICU, I would get a call from them and the first thing they would tell me is " how much my bill was as of that day" which I was very upset about, the doctors never talk to you, their Techs tell you what is going on but they cannot answer any questions. It seems all they care about is the MONEY!!    Frank

[Jen]

Frank, wishing you the best with Sonny. Pet Health Pharmacy is the best for medications. We couldn't have afforded DB's treatment without them.
jen

[luvmyjacks]

I'm close to the same stage you are by a few days.  Will has been in the ICU now for 7 days and had signs of blasto only in his lungs and showed signs of slight lameness.  The one thing I see as a trend now is that with the Itra treatment he seems to have a fever on and off, on and off. If he has it he won't eat and is on IV, when it goes away he is still nauseous from the Itra but he will pick at a few teaspoons of home cooked lean meat.  The posts on this forum are incredibly helpful and if I read something new I run it by the vet.  Even though I have Will in a brand new emergency hospital I am shocked at how little everyone really knows about Blasto.  By the time you become an expert your dog has been on treatment for ages it seems.  Let me know your daily progress.  Every bit of information will help one of us.

[evayola]

Frank,
I am treating Marge at my regular vet's office which is in Aurora. (Orchard Rd Animal Hospital) Luckily my vet knows all sorts of people that she can consult with. A woman that she knows is a blasto specialist and it was her guidance that got Marge back on her feet. It was at a point where we thought Marge was leaving us. We had her in the vets office and all of us were balling our eyes out just looking at her. It was horrible and something that I never want to do again. We were told to go to the St Charles emergency center if it was after our vets hours. We have a vca hospital right by our house and they too are the coldest people. Marge's blind eye looked like it was going to burst out of her socket one day and we were freaking out so we took her to vca and they left us in the waiting room for 2 hours and then came back with a quote for almost $500 just for staining and checking pressures. Their end suggestion was to remove the eye. What idiots they were because I talked to my regular vet the next day and she sent to me the St Charles emergency center where there is an optomologist and he said that we will never take the eye out and put her on more meds and now her eye looks BEAUTIFUL! It is still blind but looks good cosmetically. If you want info on my vet or the one in St Charles let me know. I think you are doing the right thing.

[CLS]

Hi. Even though my dog Sadie didn't make it through tjid horrible disease, we stayed positive right up to the end. Sadie too never left the hospital after she was admited. She was losing weight way too fast and needed the IV therapy. One thing to keep happy about is that your Sonny is eating!! Sadie stopped eating and no matter what we tried she would throw it back up.She weighed 70 pounds on the day she went to the vet and less then 40 pounds when she passed 2 weeks later. We intended to bring her home after 2 weeks in the hospital,hoping that being home would raise her spirits and start to eat, but she never made it through the weekend. Our hearts still ache for her. We hate this disease, she deserved more, she was only 10 months old. One thing make sure Sonny gets all the love from the vets when you can't be there. We had AMAZING people involved with Sadie at the vet clinic that everyone was in tears when Sadie passed. And keep strong. There are amazing people and stories on this website, and my husband and I were grateful to be able to express anything and have others understand. All the very best and good luck. I will pray for Sonny.
CLS

[FrankS]

Hi CLS, Jen, Eva, Luvmyjacks,
   I really want to thank all of you for helping me thru this, CLS, I am so very sorry about Sadie, my heart goes out to you, Jen, thank you for your advice about the pharmacy, Eva I hope that Marge is getting better, and luvmyjacks, my prayers are with Will, I want to thank all of you for your kind and encouraging words. All my friends think I am crazy for feeling the way I do, but unless you are a pet lover, and you spend as much time as I have with Sonny, no one understands.
   One time, all my in-laws were at my house and they were getting upset with my Sonny, I told them " this is Sonny's house, he lives here, and you are our guests"  , that didn't go over too well, but that is how I felt. Sonny seems to be doing a little better, still can't breath very well but I am taking it one day at a time. Again thank all of you for your prayers and kind words and I too will pray for each and everyone of you.     Frank

[FrankS]

This happened so fast, he was diagnozed on 9/17, spent 4 days in oxygen, sent home, treated with itraconozole, but he only had it in one lung, no other symtoms, he had a fever all this time, he dropped down to 12 pounds from 16, not too bad, when he came home he ate like there was no tomorrow, 9/24 he went for a check up, he was given more antibiotics for his 105 fever, he had some kind of infection, his liver enzmes were a little high but was blamed on the too high of dozes of itraconozole, I was told to not give him any for 2 days then drop his doze to 2.8mil, 9/26 he was as normal as can be, then he started just laying around, I expected that, he tried being his old self, not leaving my side, playing a little, but his lungs were not getting better, I was happy when I made it past the 10 day mark, on Friday 9/28 he wouldn't eat nor could I get him to take the meds, my family and I even tried to hold him down, he actually bit me for the 1st time ever. Saturday he was less active, that night he could hardly breath, Sunday he was just lying on the chair, not moving, not drinking water, barely could lift his head, yesterday, I stayed at his side all day, again no water or food or meds, he could barely stand up, I called the Dr. I told him that his urine was like syrup and all red, he said he would problably have to go back to ICU, put thru the same as before, but no guarantees, my family cried all day, we couildn't put him thru this again, last night we all went to the Vet, my Sonny just looked at us, it seemed that he actually had tears in his eyes, the Vet said he has never seen this Blasto only in the lungs, no where else in his body but he was fighting to breath, so we made the heart breaking decision to let him go, I held him in my arms as he took his last breath, my heart is broken, I feel so empty, you see, I was home with him 24 hours a day and he was my life, I hope he forgives me for what I have done, I feel so guilty not knowing if I did the right thing.

[CLS]

Oh, I'm so sorry about Sonny Sadie passed September 15th and my husband and I still cry. Sadie passed on her own at the vets but we felt so quilty forever not being there to hold her that night. Remember he loved you and this is one ugly horrible disease. My prayers are with you and your family.CLS