2 month milestone

We made it 2 months with this blastomycosis diagnosis. I can't believe it has been 2 months .. but mostly I cannot believe how well my puppy is doing. If you didn't know she was sick was ever sick you would not know that she was ever hanging by a thread 8 weekends ago. She eats like a champ every meal with no special food, she has played/tugged with every toy she owns, and is loving wrestling with anyone who will play with her. She's back to going to doggie daycare 1-2x a week and today we even went to her training class (where she excelled yet again!). We go back to the vet in ~2 weeks and I'll update more then with the game plan to start monitoring her antigen #'s to get her off the meds!

Thank you all for the crossed paws and dew claws -- we needed all of them!

Weeks 7 & 8: Vacay, Shiny Coats & Playful Pups

This past week I've been out of town, thus the lack of updates. Xena stayed with her bestie Stella and had a blast. She's gotten A LOT of her spunk back and continues to look healthier every day.

Pics are worth more than my words, so here they are:

Week 6: Blood Test, Weight Gain & Mountain Air

knows this is the gravel road to the park

Day 36:  As we start week 6 of this craziness, we got the results of her blood tests back today to make sure that she is getting enough of the anti-fungal meds absorbed into her bloodstream. They looked great!! She needs to score between a 3 - 10 ug/ml and Xena's were 9! This means that I can stop second guessing every limp, sneeze, and whine and have some piece of mind to know that her body is taking in every bit of the meds and not rejecting them and letting this blastomycosis fungus keep growing. HUGE weight lifted. The vet said they don't need to see her back for 4 weeks. At that point they will recheck her liver/kidney (more blood tests) and do a full exam (maybe new chest xrays at that point). So what did we do to celebrate the news? I took Xena to the park for a full 20 minutes were she chased, rolled and frolicked then stopped at Chic-fil-a and got her some grilled chicken nuggets to add to her dinner :)

trying to take a puppy selfie & i got an ear full of kisses on camera

Day 37:  Xena gained another lb this week! She's up to 58.4lbs as of today. She was ~65lbs before all of this.

Day 38, 39, 40 & 41:

Made it up to Xena's favorite place this weekend -- the cabin. She had quite an adventure on Friday night with my family and their friends at the new brewery in downtown blue ridge. She's also allowed at most every place in the city, so she joined us for dinner on the patio of a newer restaurant there too. All that excitement was enough to wipe her out for the entire next day. Between the sleep, the fresh mountain air, and getting to frolic for a few minutes here and there at her will outdoors, she is a happy pup tonight!

Week 5: Vet, Meds & Parks

Day 29: Well, we've survived a month of this disease. It has not been pretty, easy, cheap, nor anything short of stressful. That being said, our pup seems to be getting an appetite back, playing a little more every day, and starting to get used to the medication (aka poison). She still wakes me up 1-4x a night to go out to the bathroom (mostly due to the new food), has some limp in her front leg when the swelling increases from the lesions draining, needs 20 hrs of sleep a day, and needs lots of love -- which I'm happy to oblige. Tomorrow we go back to the internal medicine vet for a weight check and a blood draw to check the levels of medication in her system to be sure she's getting the right dosage. Double dew claws crossed that goes well!

THIRTY DAYS ... That's right, now on day 30 ...

Seriously this hasn't been fun. I'm doing my best to not complain about going broke or the lack of sleep I get every night because Xena's way more important that both of those. Today's she's limping .. at least this morning she was not using her front left leg (same one as always) at all and tonight she's using it more but not like she was the past 2 weeks. Two of her three lesions are healed and I wonder if she's just about to open up another one on that leg. Gave her some pain meds tonight to help her out a little (waited until after the blood draw). So we went to vet today for the blood draw for the miravista lab check to make sure she's getting the amount of meds she needs in system. For the medicine that she's on we want a score of 3-10ug/ml. (if you really want the details the chart is here at this link).  We won't have the results for a couple of days even though they are overnight mailing it to Indiana. So start thinking numbers that range from 3-10 ... seriously. BUT, the vet was SO HAPPY to see the silly side of Xena today. She was wagging her tail and doing circles with the butt lean to be petted and taking treats and giving high fives.

Day 31: Today is my favorite day so far. I got home from work around 5pm. It's now 9pm. For the past 4 hours Xena has been by my side playing, eating, being silly, begging for my dinner, etc., etc., etc. This is the most 'normal' she has been since we started all of this. I know we will still have some ups and downs but if this is the start to the 2nd month of this crappy disease, then well .. I'll take it. (Also, her limp is gone today completely ... AND she at a TON of dog food today!)

Day 32, 33, & 34: I love weekends. Mainly because it's me and the pupster hanging out doing whatever it is that we feel we need to get done. This weekend was a lazy one. It was great. Xena went up to her training classes to just socialize for 20 minutes with all the other super amazing dogs they have there. She did well. Jogged a little with one or two of them for a few steps, got to sniff around a little bit, and got a little love from the owners/trainers. After 15 minutes you could tell she was tired, but man was she happy! Then today I took her to the park this evening. It has been raining here and I was hoping it would be empty so she could just walk around and sniff and get out of the house. Turns out they added some agility equipment and sod to the sorry excuse they used to call a dog park in Sandy Springs. Xena loved it. The A-Frame they built there is very low, but she kept playing queen of the mountain and it was adorable. (we were there for 15 minutes total). Blasto be damned, Xena had a good weekend. (then she got a bath ... and you would think for as much as she loves water she wouldnt mind .. but sheesh!)


















Day 35:  Another long day of sleep for the pupster (mainly because I work long days on Mondays). She's still having to pee a ton. All the time. I think at this point its just water going straight through her. Going to try giving her a little vitamin C and maybe trying to get a little more acidity into her diet the next couple of days to see if that helps some. Her bodies working overtime to process these meds .. at least it better be. Get her blood work back tomorrow. BUT, in the mean time we will keep on playing with our toys! We played tug for a good 5 minutes tonight!

Week 4: Skinny, Blasto Lesions, Eye Update & Foods

Day 22:

Tonight officially puts us into the start of the 4th week against this crappy thing. Tomorrow we are going to stop by the vet just to weigh Xena (I swear she's put back on at least 1lb ...) The vet called today to check on us and said she talked to the head blasto vet in TN again about Xena and that he recommends a blood panel to be sure shes getting the right amount of the meds into her bloodstream just to be sure she's on the right kind. (There are 2 different types of meds for this and sometimes the generic might not work as well). No big deal, its just $200 bucks and more blood draws for the puppy ... UGH. She does seem a little off today -- not eating as well, more tired -- but it might also be that its the first time she's had her pain meds in a few days too. (Gave it to her so she'd sleep instead of lick her lesions all day while no one was home to watch her).

last night (top) and 20 hrs later (bottom)

In other news, her lesions do look better even after just 1 night of the pascalite clay. She doesn't like when I put it on her, but she's loves to try to lick it off (it's safe for consumption).



















Day 23:  Xena gained 1.5lbs back today!! Then came home and ate enough food for 1.5 days worth of meals. ((Tonight we will just stick with the positives since neither Xena nor myself are happy about somebody leaving to go back to Texas tomorrow)).

protesting him leaving with snuggles

Day 24: Today Xena played! It was short and sweet but it was completely her! When I got home from work I was greeted by puppy howls, mouthing/wrestling and flailing limbs while rolling in the dog bed for 3-4 minutes. Then she came out of the room and went and picked up a toy to play tug with!!! I haven't seen this in a month from her.

breakfast in bed anyone? 

Day 25: Another trip to the vet for a follow up eye appointment. Good news -- Xena has officially gained 2.2 of her 10lbs she's lost! Her eye looks well according to him, she can't see out of it, but it's normalizing in shape, clarity and viscosity. He also did not say the 'R' word at all while we were there -- removal (enucleation). I know that this is not still off the table since Blasto can hide anywhere and the eye socket is not a super great place to get meds into for total recovery, but still .. he never said it. (And he has at every visit prior to our blastomycosis diagnosis). But hey, we gained 2.2 lbs in 10 days AND the eye specialist didn't charge us a penny for our visit today -- whew!




Day 26:

eating kibble -- the stare down for more

skinnnnny girl 

WE FINALLY GOT SOME DOG FOOD SHE WILL EAT!!!

Thanks to City Dog Market in Buckhead, GA for all their help today. Xena actually ate dog food for dinner tonight.

 If you have never been to check them out before, I highly recommend it -- even if it's just for a toy or for a friendly face to pet your puppy. I don't even know if I ever got the girls name, but she was great. Not over the top, shove info in your face about different foods. She asked all the appropriate questions about what my dogs needs where and what she was on before and then opened 3 bags of samples for us to try. Xena ate 2 of the 3 of them no problem and kept asking for more. The 2 she liked were made by Fromm Family . She loved the pork and applesauce as well as the duck and sweet potatoes, so I bought a 5 lb bag of each to just be sure. When we got home she ate a 1/2 cup of each of them. She left 5 pieces of kibble in the bowl of the duck so I offered her the pork one for dinner and she ate another cup of it! This is great. Her body needs some normalcy with it's meals not to mention all of the nutrition that's meant for my 4 legged pup that is in the Fromm kibble.


Day 27:

Today's a day for sleeping for this pup. She's been herself today, just with really long naps in between. She's eating average today too. She ate 1 cup of kibble at 5 am, 1 1/4 cups at 8am, 1/2 cup at 4pm and I'm hoping to get her to eat a little more before bed tonight... but since she's taken the anti fungal meds already not sure how that will go over. She's supposed to be eating 3.5 cups a day of food so we've met that  -- she was eating 4 cups a day before all of this and she was never gaining weight then either (but she also wasn't sleeping like this ...)














Day 28:

What a way to end week 4 -- tonight Xena hung out on the couch and was up and down and playful almost all night during the period that she's normally comatose and asleep during her post-meds meal. She's been on this poison for a month now and it finally seems like it doesn't completely shut her down for the first time tonight.

Week 3: Losing More LBs, Steak & BFFs.

And so begins the 3rd week of this blastomycosis infestation on our puppy....


Day 16:

Today has been an interesting day. This morning Xena would not eat anything. Came home from work at 1pm and we went to our follow up vet appointment. She was running a fever there, has lost 2 more lbs (10 total now) and had blood work done. Her blood work came back already tonight and her liver and kidneys are doing well and there was nothing else (fortunately) out of the norm for her blood work since they know she's fighting off this infection. Got home and she ate 8oz of wet dog food and 1/2 a cup of dog food. Two hours later she ate 1/2 a steak, 1/2lb of carved turkey and a bunch of blue buffalo dog treats (that were hiding her meds). So of course everyday has its ups and downs ... ups of the day is that she's eating well at this moment ...   today's downs... shes's now sneezing blood, which is really kind of difficult to clean up... it's only from 1 nostril, so it's not a GI issue. Means its either a lesion in her nose or just a really irritated nasal passage. Poor girl, she can't catch a break.

clean plate club

joined me on the couch for the first time in 2 weeks

Day 17:

Finally, a day with nothing new popping up. Nose bleeds lessened (hasn't had one tonight), ate a TON for dinner, took all her meds no problem. AND she has company. My friends great dane is staying with us for the next few days. Stella is Xena's best friend and nothing makes her more happy than to snuggle up with Stella. I know that calm is key right now and fortunately Stella can snuggle with the best of them for hours on end! My dog is a happy one tonight.

yes, Xena is asleep 

happiest I've seen my puppy in 2 weeks 

Day 18:

1 guess as to which of the 4 eyes is blind due to blastomycosis ... 

Xena's 'dad' came in to town today. Both Xena and I could not be happier to have him back from Texas for the week. Still on the food roller coaster, but showing more and more signs of wanting to play -- just wears her out fast. Two minutes of jumping on dad is at least equivalent to a 60 min nap right now. Today's battle is the bathroom issue -- poor girl just can't digest anything the right way and it's taking a toll on her stomach... and my floor while I was at work ...



Day 19:

Today is the best Xena has eaten yet. Ate 1/2 a pound of a beef/lamb/blueberry dog food mix this this morning, napped, then spiked a fever this afternoon, but it broke in about an hour then she wolfed down a 1lb steak and 1/4 cup of dog food. Bathroom habits are much improved due to the quantity of food she is eating today, which is great because it really couldn't have gotten any worse from yesterday.


Day 20:

I say this with my fingers crossed that I am not jinxing Xena and myself -- but today was the 2nd day in a row that nothing new popped up but that things actually just showed improvement. I know that there will still be many ups/downs but still ... 48 hrs ... nose bleeds are gone, bathroom habits are 'normalizing', she's eaten more than her recommended food amount the past 2 days, she's showing more interest in just about everything, and breaking fevers quicker. She's still sleeping A TON (which her body needs it) and still looks like a skeleton, but the ups are outweighing the downs right now. Side note: salmon flavored cream cheese is her latest kick -- i can mix just about anything in it and she'll woof it down. :)

sleeping puppy ... it's a beauceron thing :)

1.1 lbs steak .. only 3/4s of what she ate for dinner!

<3

Day 21:

Of course ..  a new lesion. This one is small and right next to the other two. Tonight our pascalite powder came in and I'll be trying a little paste on them to help draw out the infection and close them faster!