Nasal Aspergillus????

[threedogmom]

Hello everyone.

I am new to this forum, but I've been reading it a lot and I feel that maybe somebody can shed some light.

One of my Beagles took sick back around March 10th of this year, YES, that dang long ago! It started out with a cough, cough, cough, hack sequence we'd hear from him, this was all. On March 17th my dad passed away and I was just caught up in all that for a while. Once the funeral was over, I realized that our Beagle was still doing this coughing, then hacking bit so I took him to the vet. To make a LONG story short (as he's been ill for six months now) after many vet visits, a penicillan injection, blood draws (cultures) steroid shot, chest ex-ray, three different drugs and two "snot" cultures, it was finally confirmed he had nasal aspergillus. My vet has been in business for 25 years and he'd only seen one other dog with this, a police dog. He had to get out the medical books and look it up and try to find treatment. In the end, my Beagle was put on Ketoconazole twice a day. At first, he was throwing it up, then I slacked off the dose and started feeding a TUMS with each dose...slowly we worked up to full dose, then we ran out. I just got more today and am back on the full dose, but he just is NOT getting better. He has days where he seems better, but then the snotty discharge and sneezing and "inverted sneezes" will start back up, he's also doing some cough, cough, cough, hack sequences too.

We are just at our wits end. We have researched on line and I have found that this is rare and hard to treat in dogs. I'm just not sure what to do anymore and it's very painful to watch our Beagle go through this for days, weeks and months on end. He does not seem unhappy, nor has it affected his appetite. He still loves to run and play with toys, etc. Oh, to top it off, a month ago he suffered a cruciate tear and now needs surgery to repair IT! I'm not wanting to put him under the knife while he still has this fungus in his nasal cavity, but that is just NOT going away, so we are now worried he'd be lame in that leg, if we put off surgery too much longer.

Has ANYBODY had any experience with this ailment or do you know of anybody who has? I'm just out of answers on how to treat our puppy and our vet is so unfamiliar with this nasal aspergillus and has just prescribed what vet medical books have mentioned.

I'd appreciate any information/help anybody can give me at this point on nasal aspergillus!

Thank you SO much!

[Aescleah]

i am so sorry you have been thru all this. i wish i could help you but i know nothing about this condition. i hope it works out for the best

kind regards
Ashley

[fairlight]

I'm so sorry about your dog. It's late at night. Give it another 12 hours or so and you will probably get some answers from people in our forum. Hang in there....I know someone will be able to identify with you. By the way....welcome.

[micki]

Is there a university vet hospital near you? Maybe they would be a better choice to treat this.I know I would be heading to University of Pennsylvania veternariay(sp) school for a thorough check

[weezyNollie]

We have seen a couple at my hospital. We treat them with nasal trephenation and antifungal treatments.

It sounds quite horrible. But you drill two holes in the sinus cavity and flush out the cavity for 10 minutes. Then after that you put antifungal treatment in the cavity for another 5-10 minutes.

You can also do an infusion through the mouth and up through the cavity, or through the nares, using clotrimazole.

Both require anesthesia, and may need to be repeated.

You should try going to an internal medicine specialist or surgeon. They will probably have more experience with this sort of thing, and know how to perform these procedures.

Also wanted to mention, ketoconazole is not the usual antifungal oral treatment at our hospital. We prescribe itraconazole and fluconazole.

[saluki-sue]

Weezy could her vet do the antifungal treatment during the surgery for the ACL? If they could the poor pup would only have to be put under once.

The only thing I can add is if what your vet is doing isn't working and not that you don't trust or like your vet. But if his treatments aren't working, then go to a new vet for a second oppinion. It never hurts to get a fresh take on an old problem.

Good luck, keep us posted

[foxylady]

intersting to read as i have a dog that suffers from bronchitis and have noticed recently she has a discharge from one nostril.

[weezyNollie]

Originally Posted by saluki-sue

Weezy could her vet do the antifungal treatment during the surgery for the ACL? If they could the poor pup would only have to be put under once.

Possibly? Depends on the surgeon. You would want someone who has experience doing this, or is familiar with the procedure. You don't want to drilling into the frontal sinus (near the brain) if they don't know what they are doing.

Also, some surgeons don't like to do more than one procedure that are so unrelated just due to recoveries of both.

But its worth a try to ask about it?