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[willysmom]

I received an e-mail asking how things were going with my Golden Retriever Willy.  I am posting my response below for all to see.  Keep your faith, insist on testing and if  your vet won't listen, go somewhere else. I actually copied some of the information on this forum and took it to my vet last week. She was happy to receive it.


Quote from: luvmyjacks on October 10, 2007, 11:18:10 AM

I have checked and not seen anything recent from you. Can you share your progress with us? We need some happy endings and if we can't have that at least we might have some new information to add that will help others. Hope your reply is the former.
Regards, Lee
Luvmyjacks:
Hary, Will & Sadie




willysmom on Today at 12:37:57 PM

Thank you so much for you interest. Well, Willy is doing pretty good right now. He had been diagnosed in January, 2006 with Blasto which settled in his testicles. He was on Itracazonole for 3 months. When his labs looked good, we stopped the meds. Wrong thing to do. In Fall, 2006, he became ill again. The vet we were using had sold her business to someone else. That Vet (new vet) did not think he had blasto, even when I insisted that she check for it. This went on for several months and he was on NO treatment. She did give him some antibiotics as she thought it was a lung infection. Well, yes it was, it was Blasto again. The vet suddenly passed away and the original vet took over. She did testing and yes, he tested positive. This time it was definitely in the lungs. She immediately began treatment.

She switched him to flucanozole. He is doing pretty good. But, if he ate anything and I mean anything other than canned dog food, he would hack, cough and throw up for sometimes 24 hours. He would be lethargic and the vomit was the most horrible smell in the world. At the onset of these episodes, he would hack and spit up phlegm or mucus. Then the stomach contents would come up.  And his breath was always bad.

The veterinarian called me to tell me she has a new vet in her office who is very aggressive and she wanted our dog to be seen by her. We did so and the new vet has changed the dosage of flucanozole and advised that he should be on Canadae, Innova or any good natural dog food.  We were giving Willy canned Iams.  I tried some dry Iams and he threw up. He actually starts to get congestion in his chest, aspirates and then throws up. Then I bought some "natural" from one of the pet chain stores.  She said she hates to hear about people using the low-end food, such as the Iams. I always thought it was good for him. She then said to stay away from the chain store "naturals". She added high doses of Mega 3 to his diet.  Her feeling is that his immune system is weakened from the blasto and he now has allergies. I told her I am thinking a wheat allergy and she thinks corn. He really is doing well, plays and seems pretty normal. The neighbor's dog is in season and he is going crazy.  But yesterday he must have gotten something out of the ordinary as he had another episode last night. I think, and this is awful, that he ate some cat feces. We have a male cat who sometimes goes where he shouldn't and I believe the dog got that. This morning he was perky again.  And, with the new Canadae we have him on, his breath is not horrible like it was.

We feel very fortunate to have him. After the first episode and then the relapse, well I think he is a lucky dog. I truly feel bad for those who lose their dogs. We lost a German Shepherd about 5 years ago.  In hindsight, we realize she had many of the Blasto symptoms but the vet we had at that time had no idea what was wrong with her.  We certainly knew nothing about Blasto.  She vomitted a lot and just got so weak and lost so much weight that we ended up putting her to sleep.  I must add that we live in the country and have a creek. I suspect that is where he picked it up.

When I went to the pet store (small private store) to pick up the Canadae, the girl asked me what the symptoms were as a co-worker's dog is ill and they can't figure out what is wrong. I told her and I truly feel there is not enough knowledge about this for the vets or information for the public. This website has been very helpful to me as I am the one who gave the vet the info on the Canadae and Innova, etc.

I have passed the site along to others and gave it to the vet. Hopefully we can help others.

Thank you for your interest.

willysmom

[Jen]

   Glad to hear that Willy is still with us!  I'm always surprised at the reluctance of vets to even TRY diagnosing Blasto.  On DB's 1st visiit, the vet listened to her lungs, saw one sore, and said, "I'm going to rule out heartworms, but I'm sure it's blastomycosis".  It took him less than 10 minutes to get a positive test result.  (Dr. Dell @ Northwood Veterinary Hospital, Anderson, IN)
   DB was on Itra the next day, overnighted from Pet Health Pharmacies in AZ.  I can't praise these 2 places enough; I really don't believe we'd have her with us if not for quick diagnostics and affordable medicine. I still feel a bit guilty at how little we've spent compared to others, but money doesn't seem to make much difference in the face of Blasto. 
   I've kept a supply of Itra in the fridge, and we watch every snort, hack, hitch, mis-step, etc. always worried of a relapse.  I had a scare last week when I saw several small black spots on her...it was tar that was spilled from our roof job.  Whew! 
Good luck, and best wishes-
jen

[mhitesman]

So happy to hear about Willy.  There seems to be a big preponderence of golden retrievers who suffer allergies and auto immune ailments, I have learned.  My Comet is also a golden who always seemed to have a little something going on -- hot spot, ear infection, conjunctivitis, ear hematoma, bad teeth, etc.  I put our animals on Canidae dog food when the dog food scare came about and I learned that there is nothing good about wheat, corn, or gluten in dog food.  Like you, we thought we had been feeding a high quality food already ....NOT.  I buy the Canidae, when it is on FREE SHIPPING, from time to time, at www.heartypet.com.  It is actually cheaper than the low quality junk we had been feeding.  I also supplement with Missing Link Omega 3/6 Plus.  We have not had any little allergic ailment since switching ...of course we havae the  blasto.

I am curious...you say you keep some Itra in the refrigerator...do you have a liquid form or something?

[Wilson3]

that is the food i use a lot also
it is really a good food for the price
i think there are so many goldens with blasto though cause that is what most peole own,that or labs