Nicole-
It's been a year since our dog Charlie (great name!) was diagnosed with blasto and I just happened to log on and notice your dog Charlie is just beginning diagnosis and treatment. By the way, you made a great choice in deciding to treat Charlie. I wanted to extend to you the link to a journal we kept for our Charlie that might give you some help. The site itself is kind of corny, but we found it was nice to keep a record of what we were doing for Charlie (vet visits, meds, side effects, symptoms, resources, etc.) so that our family could check in and we could share it with our vet so they could keep track of Charlie (and it was also kind of therapeutic for us).
http://www.dogster.com/dogs/983671 There are several photos of Charlie pre-blasto, and one of when he was sick. It's pretty obvious which photo was taken during his illness.
As for Charlie's diet, we made sure to feed him dog food that was very high in protein and fat and grain-free, which is why we used Solid Gold's Barking at the Moon, but there are many other high-quality dog foods that are similar. The high fat and protein aids in the absorption of the itraconazole. Especially if you go with the compounded formula of itra. We didn't do compounded, because a U of M veterinarian told us that results with the compounded form are less dependable, so we went with the beaded form of itra. The beads are there to also help aid in digestion. (In short, we learned that itraconazole is not easily absorbed by the stomach, hence a high-fat diet when taking it.) We stayed away from any sugars or grains because fungi feeds on them. At the very start, though, Charlie wouldn't eat anything except brats or bacon (people food), but we were fine with this since it was something giving him nourishment. We began force-feeding him his Solid Gold dog food though by adding water and turning it into mush which we would need two of us to do. One of us would open Charlie's mouth while the other would take small handfuls of food and put it in the back of his throat, then closing his mouth and forcing it shut until he swallowed. It sounds horrible, and eventually Charlie got used to it, and it became a system, but it was the only way we could get him to stay nourished and strong. He went from 100 pounds to about 82 pounds when he was first diagnosed, so keeping as much energy in him as possible was our big concern at the start. We would wrap the itraconazole capsules in the last handful of wet food and give him lots of praise when it was all done. He always loved that part!
As for his diagnosis, we were lucky that we took him in to the vet when we did. They did a tracheal wash, a chest x-ray, and bloodwork. Mostly from the tracheal wash they diagnosed the blasto. We received the results two days later and immediately bought itraconazole at a Target pharmacy for a very pricey amount. We bought just enough to cover a two-week span and then looked online for a cheaper alternative. We originally bought the itra through Road Runner Pharmacy, but realized it was compounded when we got it. So we ended up buying through another pharmacy online called planetdrugsdirect.com. (To be very honest, we were very hesitant about buying through this site, but the customer service rep was very friendly and we had no problems with them. We figured the risk was worth the difference in savings.) We faxed in the vet's prescription and ordered the Sporanox (itraconazole) generic version. I believe it took a week or a little less to receive the pills, so just be sure you have enough on hand until they come in.
Sorry this is quite the novel. Feel free to read our Charlie's diary on Dogster for more help:
http://www.dogster.com/dogs/983671/diary/my_diaryI hope that your Charlie gets through this and gets back to his regular self! Keep us updated
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Topic: adding more to diet (Read 677 times)