Dog With Respiratory Illness - Page 1

I have an 8 year old retriever mix who was recently diagnosed with Valley Fever by the vet, but I have my doubts.

A brief history. Generally healthy, overweight dog who is not exposed to other dogs who abruptly 1 day became sick with symptoms of cough/dry heaving, decreased appetite/not eating at all, laying around all day, labored breathing.

We thought it was kennel cough and gave her 10 days of Amoxicillin w/o benefit.

Took her to the vet 1 wk ago who thought history sounded like Valley Fever, gave her fluids, drew blood work, started Fluconazole for Valley Fever and broad spectrum antibiotics to cover for bacterial infection -> Augmentin and Cipro. Labwork showed elevated white count, elevated immune globulin, nml hemoglobin/hematocrit, low TSH, low albumin. Cocci titers showed negative IgM and weakly positive (1:4) IgG.

Overall, dog is not getting any better after 3 total wks of illness, and 1 wk into Fluconazole and antibiotic treatment and continues to cough/shortness of breath, only eats literally few pieces of dog food when given by hand, sleeps all day. I got fluids from vet and have been giving subcutaneously 1 L each day x 2 days now.

I have a feeling that Valley Fever is a misdiagnosis, but vet says has seen Valley Fever even with negative titers. Also says chest xray may not show much since Valley Fever could look like other diseases like cancer, and we are already treating for pneumonia.

Any ideas on what could be going and what I should do next?

Thanks in advance!

If you feel the diagnosis is in error, then I suggest you seek a second opinion ASAP. But bear in mind that in general, the prognosis for Valley Fever in dogs is guarded at best, and grave at worst; it requires a lengthy course of treatment, and although resolution of the condition with the fluconazole treatment regimen is cited at 90%, that means there's about 10% of the treated patients who do not respond successfully to the protocol.  If you really are in doubt of the diagnosis, however, and have a veterinary school within driving distance, that would probably be your best choice for a second opinion--ask your vet for a referral to there, and I'm sure he'll give you one.

Personally, I would not consider a lack of improvement after 1 week of treatment for Valley Fever to be a failure of the therapy, however, especially since you don't indicate the dog has gotten worse (have you been monitoring his temperature, BTW? Would be a good idea to check it at least once daily, even better to do so twice a day).  Loss of appetite is a reported side effect of fluconazole, so you may have to do some experimenting to find foods that are tempting enough--and of significant nutritional value as well--that he'll eat a bit more of it than his usual dog food.  Scrambled eggs, cottage cheese, white meat chicken are all foods with high bioavailability (meaning their composition is such that most of the product can be utilized by the body).  Fluconazole, as with many medications, is also hepatotoxic, so it would be a good idea to provide some support for the liver via milk thistle extract supplementation, since an 8 year old dog's liver can probably use a little help.

Valley Fever is an expensive illness to treat, and it sucks that there's really nothing one can do to prevent it short of moving away from the areas where the organism is endemic.  I'm sorry your dog is so sick, and hope that he begins to show signs of improvement soon.

 If your dog is not getting any better you might want to check out another vet.  Don't let anyone take advantage of you especially if they don't even know what is going on with your family member.

Hexe is right on .  One thing with dogs is that they get possitive learning through food- " I sit , I get a treat" .. ahh momment right ? Well they also get negitive learning through food " I eat dog food X, I get tummy ache , Its not good for me so I won't eat it" . They may not realize its the pills that are actualy making them feel queezy to there tummy, they figure it was whatever they ate.  Switch bland foods, cheeses, and even deboned KFC if you have to.

Ask your doctor about Zithromax , its a 10 day treatment, 1 time a day. Its not as rough on the tummy.

Whisper

Kimmelot, unless you know of a recent study to the contrary, Zithromax is not an effective treatment for Valley Fever...it's an antibiotic, not an antifungal, so if the diagnosis is correct, Zithromax isn't an option.