Blasto has finally caught up to us. After spending twenty years in the Lake Of The Woods area the disease has found our 2y/o Westie Miller. I have known a few other dogs over the years that picked up Blasto but we had been fortunate to avoid it until now. Our last Westie went 11 years in the LOTW area without picking up this disease. I believe that the wet spring/summer that we had this year was a major contributing factor. Both of our neighbours dogs less than 200 feet from our cottage contracted Blasto as well ...they are recovering quite well. In the Kenora area on Lake of the Woods there is heightened awareness of this disease. It is rare for cases of Blasto to go misdiagnosed because of this. Our Miller hasnt been out to the Lake since September but only started showing signs of sickness about 3 weeks ago. Symptoms started with decreased appetite and on/off weakness. As we struggled to figure out why he wasnt interested in his food, he developed Lesions the size of golf balls along his back and left side. Immediately I was thinking Blasto and we took him to our Vet who has treated many cases of this disease. It was confirmed and we started treatment a week ago. His lymph nodes were also swollen and he was running a temp. We have just finished loading Sporanox and we are giving him something for pain. His eyes have been draining puss but his vision is ok. His lesions are opening and draining heavily...he now has one on his nose that has caused nasal narrowing. It is so sad to see him like this...it breaks our hearts. However, there are some positives ... He has been eating/drinking well and there doesnt appear to be any lung involvement at this point. We are hopeful that he will pull through. The 3rd day of Sporanox loading was the worst so far and today he showed us that he has some energy. We are ready for the battle and owe it to Miller to fight with him to beat this.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 04:36:12 +0000