Casey's Story

We got Casey in April. He was not overly active but it was hard to tell whether that was just him or what. There were no signs of illness in June. Later he was having some issues breathing and an ear infection brought him to the vet where she heard a rattle in his lungs and a bacterial infection was found in his ears. Meds for ear and lungs (x-ray showed 2nd lobe had pneumonia) were given. The other symptom that he developed out of the blue was a limp with his left back paw. About 1 week later he got a sore in his nose and I brought him back and they took a swab of the inner nose which didn’t show anything. Antibiotics were given and the vet asked me to keep an eye on the sore and if it changed to come back. I went back a week later because it was a bit bigger and they put him under for a biopsy since they thought it was cancer. More meds to prevent infection were given. When the test came back it was the blasto fungus so Casey was put on another med for 3 months. He had to have blood drawn for liver enzymes and had the test run again for liver in 2 weeks. BOTTOM LINE, if a swab had been taken of his throat back at the pneumonia stage we might have prevented a lot of visits. This is totally new to dogs and I guess the vets aren't looking for this. It DOES NOT show up in blood work so the vets need to do a swabbing of the throat or as we found out thru the biopsy of the nose sore.