Fighting Blastos!

This post was written last week, but better late than never!

I had realized this morning that I had not written in quite a while so, I sat down to start and nothing came. The good thing about my job is that you never know what will walk through the door and sure enough an idea for a blog post walked in first thing this morning. 

The day after a holiday is always busy, especially when the holiday is on a Monday. Over the years we have learned to expect these busy times and schedule accordingly. We had many calls, from my cat is lethargic to my dog is vomiting, even a ferret with a wounded ear. There was one call that seemed fairly routine...a smaller cattle dog had been seen Friday for limping, today she is no better and her left eye is hazed over. The owner just wanted her looked over. When I read the appointment, I immediately had a sneaking suspicion of what this particular furry friend was fighting. On presentation she was happy and alert. She was a timid girl but only wanted to give kisses as I examined her. Her left eye was definitely hazy and the whites of her eyes were red and inflamed. She was also limping on her right front and her carpus (Wrist in human terms) seemed swollen. I went over my findings with the her owner and we agreed upon more diagnostics. Along with my assistants we were able to shoot and x-ray of her chest, get a urine sample and drain a small amount of fluid from her front leg. When looking at the fluid under the microscope I could seem some dark purple organisms, some of which were budding from each other.  I knew right away my suspicion was right! This little girl is fighting Blastomycosis. More commonly called Blasto, is a fungal organism which most commonly affects bone , eyes, lungs, lymph nodes and skin .  I sent off a test to confirm the diagnosis and ultimately she went home on antifungal medication. 

I hope this little girl does just fine but she has an uphill battle ahead of her. Unfortunately there is nothing we have that prevents this nasty fungal disease. These organisms are out in the environment. Not every dog exposed will get the disease and severity can differ between patients. I would never encourage owners to keep their pets inside just on the chance that they may contract this fungal disease, but it is something that we at least on a yearly basis. I hope this post can shed light on a disease we as veterinarians see but is not as widely know with owners.

Over that course of the next several weeks/ months we will keep in close contact with the owner and how our furry little friend is doing.