Two weeks ago when Trisha and I, oh and the chocolate monster, were at the vet, the Dr. asked how much KoKo had been coughing. We knew it had been a lot less, but we didn’t know how much less.
We’ve been really aware since that last appointment and I am proud to report the coughing has really subsided.
I’ll talk about some of her other symptoms over the next few days.
As she becomes healthy it is becoming more challenging to post on a daily basis - mainly because there isn’t a ton of a change - I will spend some time adding information that I have learned about blastomycosis that may help others.
KoKo had a number of lesions. Some of them were pretty “gross” and looked like they would hurt though I have seen much worse online. KoKo’s were wide spread – on her lip, chest, back, legs, feet, and head. The majority were on her feet.
The most visible lesion was on her ankle and it is pictured below. Sorry it is not very clear. It seemed to linger the longest. Likely because it would rub often when she sat or lay around. The vet cauterized it (picture of it when cauterized is below as well) at on November 11th but a few days later it looked irritated and raw again. Over the course of the past few days it appears to have begun healing up. It is now scabbing over. I haven’t’ notices as many lesions, they seem to be healing and disappearing.
When I do notice a lesion, I pull the scab (and the hair that comes with it) and leave it to dry out (at the recommendation of my vet).
I didn’t use any topical creams or cover the lesions but I did ask KoKo not to lick - she is a real good listener 
I’ve been posting a little less, it’s mainly becuase there is less to report as she is doing so well. KoKo’s energy is way up and she is doing very well. As a matter of a fact she officially seems like herself. 
There was one characteristic that seemed to be lacking and that was her whining. When KoKo is really excited (usually in the car or prior to a walk) she whines. Though I used to find it terribly annoying in the car it was like music to my ears this weekend when she got all excited and began whining in the car. Trisha proclaimed – “she is back” and I must agree that I concur.
We are back to the vet in two weeks (we were last there Nov. 11th). It will be interesting to see how she progresses over the next two weeks. Really the only visible symptoms are her lesions and I believe new ones stopped forming in the past few days - we are just waiting for the newest ones to heal.
Don’t worry grandma the energy levels have returned 
KoKo is doing. I think she just had an off day or two, was chilling out while I was busy on the computer, or was missing Trisha. Regardless, she is doing well again.
I did a lump check today - I can only find two and we (the vet and I) think one is her lymph node. The other one is about the size of a water bottle lid. To think, she was littered with tennis ball sized lumps just a few ago. Her lesions are still around and I am not sure if they are getting better. Many are healing but it’s tough to keep track of them there a re quite a few and they are under few. I pick the scabs and let them dry out at the recommendation of the vet.
KoKo, Trisha, and I went PARTYING last night - more on that later.
KoKo seems to be very tired – exhaustion may be dramatic but she is tired. The ride out to the vet is a big day though. I think 6ish hours in the car and then all the sights, sounds, and scents of the vet is enough to tire most healthy dogs.
I did take her for nice walk the evening of the vet as well (Tuesday the 11th). Yesterday, Wednesday, she was tired and slept most of the evening while I took care of some work.
I’m thinking she is just tired from the walk and vet visit. She does have a tenancy to relax/sleep while I am on the computer – which I was for most of the night.
Though I am not too worried about it – it’s still on the mind a fair amount.
KoKo had another great checkup at the vet today. It has been a week since she went down to the “regular” dosage of 200mg 1 times daily so it was nice to see the continued improvement.
Our next checkup isn’t for 3 weeks which will likely seem like an eternity as we have been making the trip once a week since diagnosis.
We are very happy to have a few weeks off before making the trek though - we have spent nearly 30 hours travelling to and from/visiting the vet in the past 3 weeks (since diagnosis) and it’s tiring with work and what not.
On the way home I had the extreme displeasure of a sick dog. Yep she threw-up in the Jeep - all over the carpet. I stopped at a gas station and gave her a quick drink in the jeep and then took off. I am guessing that I should have given her a couple of minutes. Oh well, if this is our biggest problem, life is pretty good.
Well, KoKo is looking at me with “those take me for a walk eyes” so I’ve got to roll.
So KoKo is doing good. Another great day! We are off to the vet tomorrow for another checkup. All in all she has had a great week and best of all this last week has been on regular dosage instead of double dosage - she was put on 2 pills a day last week.
Not much more to report - constant, consistent, progress.
Oh - one thing, KoKo’s new high quality, high protein food has her ”tooting” a little more often than not/normal. It’s not that pleasant but it will get better or will get more used to it. :) She is getting extra food due to her illness so that’s probably where the issue is really coming from.
Trisha came home with a nice BIG surprise for KoKo today. KoKo is now the proud (and spoiled) owner of a brand new Harry Barker Designer Bed.
What a lucky girl and what an awesome product. We have been searching for a decent bed for a while but everything has been small and flimsy - suitable for a smaller dog - but at 85ish lbs KoKo requires something with sufficient padding. Enter Harry Barker.
Ironically we were checking out the Harry Barker website and it states the bed is anti-fungal :D. Wouldn’t the world be a wonderful place if a bed could rid a dog of fungal infections such as blasto. I guess a good nights sleep is part of the treatment plan!
Thanks Trisha!
When I adopted KoKo she was an outside dog who got little exercise and ate Kirkland food.
Upon adoption she became an indoor dog, was put on Nutro Natural Choice, and started to get some exercise. KoKo lost about 15 lbs and her coat changed in short order.
She has always had a fair amount of eye “goop”. I haven’t worried about it too much but I have found myself wiping her eyes frequently.
I happy to report that KoKo’s new grain free food has cleared up this minor annoyance. It’s kind of nice!
KoKo continues to do well and our household/life is pretty much back to normal.
KoKo is now joining us on short outings to the store and joining us outside when we are taking out the garbage and grabbing the groceries.
Her energy is high, as a matter of a fact when my mom stopped by today she was basically romping around puppy full of excitement, running and bringing toys and just being her big goofy self.
She is now ready for walks so I think Trisha and I will do our Sunday routine – take a nice big glass of red wine and go for a stroll with the pooch.
Here are some pictures of KoKo from the weekend – chillin in bed 
KoKo recently switched to a high quality grain free food.
We made this choice when we learned more about dog food and realized that dogs are not mean to eat grains. I also learned that blasto “feeds” on sugars so I figured going to a good food that is grain free would be smart.
The new food got me thinking about KoKo’s treats. Her primary treat has been “Waggin Train Jerky Tenders”. The label states 100% Chicken Breast as far ingredients go but after doing some Googleing I found out that they are made in China where the chickens are injected with melamine and other chemicals. There have been recalls on the treats and some pet owners have lost their dogs when to batches of treats containing the wrong combination of chemicals which crystallized in their dogs’ kidney after ingestion.
This of course caused me to search for a suitable treat. Though there are several good dog food options that are easy to source on the internet I couldn’t find anything as conclusive on dog treats. Bully Sticks received rave reviews, so I will begin feeding them to KoKo, but I also needed a “quick, easy chew” treat we could give KoKo before bed and whenever else our spoiled girl gives us “that look”.
I decided I’d take a stab at making my own treats. I have baked treats periodically using one of the infamous “blended” liver and wheat germ recipes. I decided however that I wanted to go “wheat” and “carb” free at least until her blasto treatment is done.
The solution was to my problem was to try and dehydrate some beef liver (with garlic powder) in the over. Though it worked okay I had a hard time justifying keeping my over on for 12 hours with the door open (I like a cold house).
I ran out and grabbed a food dehydrator and bough some pre-sliced beef (steak), a roast, some beef liver, and some and fresh garlic. Ground the garlic, rubbed it on the beef and threw it in the dehydrator making a cheap, preservative free, healthy dog treat for KoKo. Yeah, she is spoiled.
I’ll be sure to dehydrate Trisha some fruit tomorrow before she catches onto the fact that KoKo is eating better than us
Below are some pictures the “oven baked beef liver” (lower quality as they were taken with my phone) as well as the Beef (steak) which worked out great in the dehydrator and only took about 2 hours.
KoKo spoke up yesterday. KoKo has a thing for anyone who touches the mailbox. It really is very weird. When friends and family come over she is silent, when the pizza man comes over she is silent, when kids come trick or treating she is silent, when canvassers stop by she is silent, but when the mailman or someone with fliers makes a delivery - she goes ballistic.
I’ve tried to break her of this habit but my attempts have proven unsuccessful. I find it hard to teach her “not to do things bad things” but very easy to teach her “how to do good things”. For example i can teach her to rollover or to carry an egg in her mouth to Trisha but I’ve always had difficulty breaking habits such as her aggressive behaviour towards the mailman etc. Oh well, she is in the house anyway - it’s just a little annoying. By the way she has met the mailman if I let her out she just sniffs him all happily. I think it just annoys her that she never gets to say hi.
Yesterday someone came by with the fliers and KoKo went crazy - barking extremely loud and banging into the window. Her voice is almost back to where it was and her little flip out was indication of high energy levels. I was happy to hear it this time
So Trisha, KoKo, and I got all loaded up into the Jeep for another visit to the vet.
If you’ve been keeping track you’ll know that this was our fourth visit in just over two weeks (17 days)..
1) Animal hospital on Sunday Oct 19th
2) Veterinarian Clinic on Monday 20th for confirmed diagnosis
3) Follow-up on Monday the 27th
4) This visit - another follow-up
I’ll start by saying everything is going EXCELLENT! I’ll elaborate for you here.
KoKo’s progress has been remarkable. In matter of weeks she has gone from a dog that couldn’t get out of bed on her own to that crazy lab that everyone knows and loves. Yesterday, at the vet, in the waiting room, an older gentleman with a gorgeous 9 year old lab asked me, “How old is KoKo… two?”. That was music to my ears. KoKo is almost 6 but everyone seems to assume that she is 2. His guess was based on KoKo’s level of excitement and her general look of health. When she was sick(er) she looked and acted like a 10 year old lab. She seems more like herself to me and everyone else.
Anyway, on to the vet visit - The doctor was really happy with KoKo’s progress. She still has a few lumps and a few skin lesions but they are getting way better.
Here is the rest of the weather report – all of this is very good :
• lymph nodes are no longer swollen
• eyes look great
• lungs sound great
• temperature was 39.1*
• energy is high
• appetite is good
• her weight is stable
After listening to KoKo breath the doc was very happy with the sound of KoKo’s lungs. All of the positive news was so exciting that I had to ask her “you would tell me if it sounded bad right” she confirmed “of course”.
Exciting
Later on I explained that it is so unfortunate that KoKo is sick but at the same time I feel so lucky that she is so doing well and that it is almost exciting to wake up and see her improvement on a daily basis. I then stated “I am trying not to get my hopes up too high as I know how evil blasto is”. The doctor said that I was probably at a point it treatment where it is safe for me to get my hopes up. This was very exciting news!
Shocking
She also mentioned that she has been a vet in the area for 16 years and over the past 8 years she has seen 60-90 cases per year (they told her she might see 1 in her lifetime when she was in school) and she’s yet to see a dog with as many lumps, lesions, and symptoms as KoKo. She was very impressed with KoKo’s resilience.
The Dose/Plan
KoKo graduated to the next phase of treatment. 2 pills once a day. I am to monitor KoKo and if I am concerned about anything call the vet. She is scheduled for a follow-up next Tuesday (November 11th) and if all looks good she will stay on 2 pill a day routine (she was on 4 pills a day to start) and require less frequent visits.
What an excellent day.
When I first started this site I mentioned that KoKo had a cough.
It took me a week to really worry about it and then a couple of more days to make a vet appointment. The reality is that KoKo has been so healthy I thought little of it.
If you have been following along you’ll know that I never ended up making it to my scheduled vet appointment because KoKo got so sick I had to take her to the animal hospital.
When she was diagnosed I wrestled with the fact that I had not taken her to the vet sooner. Maybe she could have been put on meds earlier and started the healing process sooner.
As I learned more about blastomycosis and the all too frequent misdiagnosis that other pets receive I realize that not rushing to the vet may have been the best thing that I did (by some odd fluke of course).
Commonly dogs arrive at the vet with one or two minor symptoms and kennel cough or another flu like issue is assumed. The dog is often put on antibiotics which seem to suppress the symptoms and help the dog feel better, mean while the blasto is continuing to get worse and no one is aware.
This cycle continues and the dog gets misdiagnosed again and again. Finally weeks or months later blasto is considered, the tests are run, and the dog is put on a correct treatment plan.
Maybe, just maybe, KoKo’s “wasted week” with the cough saved weeks or months of incorrect treatment and actually set us on the correct path sooner than running to the vet when KoKo’s cough initially showed-up could have.
Who knows? It doesn’t really matter, what happens over the coming days, weeks, and months is what really matters at this point. This was just something I was thinking about and thought was post worthy.
Of course I am NOT recommending anyone wait to take their pet to the vet if it’s sick
I am starting to sound like a broken record – I don’t want to keep repeating myself. No news is good news, though it may not be sexy for some to read, I am sure all dog lovers are happy to hear that KoKo is doing well.
Monday was another great day. We have nothing unusual to report. It’s probably worth noting that she loves her new food. On top of loving her food, her appetite is strong, she no longer requires the addition of yogurt to her food (and I am pretty sure she would eat her old food with out yogurt as well). I did throw out all of KoKo’s old food and all of her treats (more on the treats later) today.
She is becoming her old ravenous self.
Tommorow is a big day, we are back to the vet.
KoKo went on her first car ride since last Monday’s veterinarian visit. We went to dinner at Grandma’s (my mom). She got to see my brother, mom, sister and her husband, and my sisters dog Bella.
It was an exciting outing for KoKo. Her energy was high, she played tug-a-war with Bella, ran around the yard, and sniffed and dug at the deck (there is a rabbit living under the deck and it drives KoKo bonkers).
Here are a few pictures of her playing with Bella as well as the sore on her lip which looks to be healing.
KoKo had a great weekend. Nothing really unusual or negative to report.
Her symtoms are consistent - perhaps improving ever so slightly.
I grabbed 60 Sporanox (itraconazole) for $248.00 at Costco which is the cheapest I’ve found. That is a 15 day supply as long as she continues on double dosage.
My brother-in-law Garett was kind enough to take this. Something happened with the sound - sorry 
It shows how well she was doing 3 after starting sporanox. Thanks G.
KoKo is excited to see all the kiddies and is having another great day. Her lesions look like they are healing. Her ears are looking great. Her spirits are up. She threw-up after breakfast but that’s no biggie. It took some yogurt to get her to eat.
For dinner she got some Orijen mixed with her old food and “wolfed it down”.
Here are some pictures and videos and pictures playing with Marco the Monkey (my friends adorable 2 year old son). I think these demonstrate her energy.
