Dr Doug - ever seen a case of Valley Fever? -- update!
Short version of the story...we were supposed to be traveling this weekend but I came down with the flu Wednesday. So we were at home Saturday morning when Diva started coughing, gagging, and wheezing. Took her in to the vet (on emergency hour rates), they did a blood panel and Xrays. Vet calls me back, shows me the X rays, and says he thinks it's Valley Fever, but needs to send another blood sample out for a titer to confirm. Says if the lesions we see on the X ray are not Valley Fever it's probably cancer. Blood panel came back normal, including a normal white cell count.
Vet sends us home with some antifungals to get a leg up if it's Valley Fever, some antibiotics in case it's an infection without the raised blood count --which he said was pretty unlikely, and some carprofen to try to make her more comfortable and bring her fever down (103)
Now I took Diva to the clinic I always take her to, but because it was 7am on a Saturday she saw the vet on call, not our regular vet. No worries, it happened to be "the old guy", 35+ years practicing in the area. He's seen his share of Valley Fever cases, commented how it was a lucky thing we were not traveling, as a vet outside the endemic area probably wouldnt' have seen a case before.
Diva slept most of Saturday, but by mid-day she was breathing normally and not in any obvious distress. By Sunday evening if I hadn't seen how sick she was, or seen the X ray, I wouldn't believe she had been sick. She was a little quiet today, but comfortable.
My understanding, which could be wrong, is that the antifungals take 5-7 days to start working. Which means that if any of the meds were helping her feel better, it was the Baytril. Except her blood count showed no infection.
We probably won't get our titer back till the end of the week. If it's positive, it's a lengthy treatment, but doable. If it's negative, and she's still doing OK, I'm not sure if I want to ask for another set of X-rays before we do anything else or not.
Vet sends us home with some antifungals to get a leg up if it's Valley Fever, some antibiotics in case it's an infection without the raised blood count --which he said was pretty unlikely, and some carprofen to try to make her more comfortable and bring her fever down (103)
Now I took Diva to the clinic I always take her to, but because it was 7am on a Saturday she saw the vet on call, not our regular vet. No worries, it happened to be "the old guy", 35+ years practicing in the area. He's seen his share of Valley Fever cases, commented how it was a lucky thing we were not traveling, as a vet outside the endemic area probably wouldnt' have seen a case before.
Diva slept most of Saturday, but by mid-day she was breathing normally and not in any obvious distress. By Sunday evening if I hadn't seen how sick she was, or seen the X ray, I wouldn't believe she had been sick. She was a little quiet today, but comfortable.
My understanding, which could be wrong, is that the antifungals take 5-7 days to start working. Which means that if any of the meds were helping her feel better, it was the Baytril. Except her blood count showed no infection.
We probably won't get our titer back till the end of the week. If it's positive, it's a lengthy treatment, but doable. If it's negative, and she's still doing OK, I'm not sure if I want to ask for another set of X-rays before we do anything else or not.
