Dear husky lovers and owners, thank you so much for your love and support of my dogs and the blog! I'm happy to see my pups bringing joy to so many other people!
Unfortunately, tragedy has befallen our family at the start of this year.
On January the 2nd I noticed Canela was very lethargic, she wasn’t eating as much as she usually does. We booked the earliest appointment with our vet that we could, they saw her on January the 5th. She came in with a fever, a small skin lesion had developed just the day before, her left eye was looking red and irritated.
They prescribed her antibiotics, an anti-inflammatory and some pain meds. Initially she was perkier, the pain meds were helping– but she wasn’t getting better, her condition was worsening. She wouldn’t open her left eye, her right eye started to look red, the lesion on her leg was swelling and two more were starting to appear. We brought her to an emergency pet clinic on the 9th.
After several expensive tests Canela was diagnosed with a bad case of Blastomycosis, a systemic fungal infection that was causing her a lot of pain. The disease progressed rapidly, she had several bad skin lesions, her lungs were coated with spores, she could barely stand and her left eye was looking even worse by the time we had gotten her to the emergency clinic.
She was hospitalized so they could treat her, the internal medicine specialist told us we needed to be prepared because there was a significant chance she wouldn’t survive. I was absolutely devastated. Nothing could have prepared me for this to happen to my ten month old puppy.
She was a very strong, brave girl; the first 48 hours were the hardest, she needed oxygen and IV fluids but once they started giving her the first few doses of the antifungal we really started to see her improve.
She was discharged yesterday on January the 12th, she’s doing much better and she’s able to walk again but she’s lost the ability to see in both of her eyes.
We took her to an ophthalmologist yesterday, there’s a possibility her sight may return in her right eye when the inflammation goes down but her left eye is permanently blind, it may even need to be surgically removed if there’s enough granuloma but it’s too early to tell.
Nothing in this world means as much to me as my dogs, I’m just so relieved to have her home and alive whether or not she can see. I’ll keep you guys updated on her condition, please send all your hope and well wishes our way!
