Richard
Elite Member
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2000
- Messages
- 4,997
- Location
- Knoxville, TN
- Tractor
- International 1066 Full sized JCB Loader/Backhoe and a John Deere 430 to mow with
For those who might remember, after some unfortunate events, my wife had a dream. In the dream we had a new dog named Otis so the quest to find Otis began.
We found him at the shelter and long story short, within 2 days of getting him home we discovered he had parvo.
Here is a picture of Otis as that puppy.
He is estimated to be 1 ½ years old now perhaps a bit younger. About last October he had a terrible bout of coughing and dry heaves. Took him to vet and he showed no symptoms. Seemed the symptoms were a bit “seasonal” to the time of day. He’d have them more at night and in the mornings. He also seemed to not be getting a full breath.
Took back to vet, of course he showed NO symptoms. I asked the vet how much to kennel Otis for several days.
It only took about 1 ½ days before the vet saw the symptoms. Seems Otis had contracted Blasto Mycosis. As I understand it (and in layman’s terms) I guess it’s fair to say he had a fungus infection inside his lungs. Evidently humans get this also, typically farmer types who might chew on straw being more likely. It IS lethal and evidently as ugly as parvo is, this is just as lethal if left untreated AND unlike parvo which is pretty quick to kill, this is a miserable tormented death.
The Vet said the good news was he wasn’t 100% sure. He based his diagnosis on the x-ray he took and if his guess was accurate, we caught it very early. Seems Blasto Mycosis has a characteristic x-ray signature of little bright spots all over the lungs. I’d liken it to seeing Christmas tree lit in HEAVY fog where you can’t see the lights, just faint dots of brightness. Otis wasn't yet showing that specific pattern of dots because of it being early.
Anyway the vet told me the bad news was the medication was almost $5.00 a pill and Otis would have to take that for 60 days as I recall. Evidently there are SOME people in the world that will not pay that and either let their dogs be put down or worse… let them suffer.
I didn’t flinch. I told the vet that if I had just got done paying $1,200 for one WEEK for parvo, that $300 was a no brainer for 60 days.
Otis is now 100% back in good health. He’s faced a deadly disease twice now and BOTH times, he has my wife to thank for saving his life.
/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
We found him at the shelter and long story short, within 2 days of getting him home we discovered he had parvo.
Here is a picture of Otis as that puppy.
He is estimated to be 1 ½ years old now perhaps a bit younger. About last October he had a terrible bout of coughing and dry heaves. Took him to vet and he showed no symptoms. Seemed the symptoms were a bit “seasonal” to the time of day. He’d have them more at night and in the mornings. He also seemed to not be getting a full breath.
Took back to vet, of course he showed NO symptoms. I asked the vet how much to kennel Otis for several days.
It only took about 1 ½ days before the vet saw the symptoms. Seems Otis had contracted Blasto Mycosis. As I understand it (and in layman’s terms) I guess it’s fair to say he had a fungus infection inside his lungs. Evidently humans get this also, typically farmer types who might chew on straw being more likely. It IS lethal and evidently as ugly as parvo is, this is just as lethal if left untreated AND unlike parvo which is pretty quick to kill, this is a miserable tormented death.
The Vet said the good news was he wasn’t 100% sure. He based his diagnosis on the x-ray he took and if his guess was accurate, we caught it very early. Seems Blasto Mycosis has a characteristic x-ray signature of little bright spots all over the lungs. I’d liken it to seeing Christmas tree lit in HEAVY fog where you can’t see the lights, just faint dots of brightness. Otis wasn't yet showing that specific pattern of dots because of it being early.
Anyway the vet told me the bad news was the medication was almost $5.00 a pill and Otis would have to take that for 60 days as I recall. Evidently there are SOME people in the world that will not pay that and either let their dogs be put down or worse… let them suffer.
I didn’t flinch. I told the vet that if I had just got done paying $1,200 for one WEEK for parvo, that $300 was a no brainer for 60 days.
Otis is now 100% back in good health. He’s faced a deadly disease twice now and BOTH times, he has my wife to thank for saving his life.
/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif