I have been looking for information on my dog and finally found this website. My dog is a german shepard/rottweiler mix and is 4 years old. He has been really sick the past 5 months and over a thousand dollars latter the vet finally found what was wrong with him. I will try to make this as short as possible. Jack had a bladder infection and tested positive for heartworms.(he was on heartguard but I took him off during winter months..)they thought that was what was making him so sick. His xrays and blood work came back and his heart looked good.They said it was just mild and put him on clavamox...for three months for the bladder infection. He never responded hardly at all with the medicine. Then he developed a horrible eye infection which they said it was pink eye and put him on an antibiotioc and gave him pain medicine....three weeks later his eye was so swollen they gave him predisone and his prostate was swollen three times the normal size. They finally did more blood work and said he had histoplasmosis...and gave him 0 percent chance of survival. They told me that I should go ahead and put him to sleep because the infection had spread and I refused...I wanted to try one week of the fungal medication and see if he responded. It has been two months and he has gained nearly 15 pounds and almost back to normal....except his eye is still so swollen after 3 months of predisone. They want to remove it now and I really was hoping that it would get better. They want to put him back on heartguard and I am afraid to allow that because he is finally recovering but still has 2-3 months of the fungal medicine left. He is going back for another recheck next week and I believe he is getting another uti infection. I m waiting for the vet to call to see if we should give him more of the fluconazole....(he is on 200 mg) He is still not acting sick he just has a really bad odor again. I hope by joining I will be able to get some information if anyone has ever went through something like this. I can really use some advice. Thanks!

Hi Tammy, and welcome to the forum. I don't have any advice, but you have my sympathies for the horrendous ordeal you and your dog have been going through! Congratulations to you for your willpower and endurance, for sticking it out and not giving up. I hope all of your patience pays off, and that your dog makes a full recovery soon.

I feel for you guys! Have you by any chance tried another vet?

Thanks for your messages. Everyone in my family loves Jack so much (even the cat would sit with him when he was sick) I have thought about getting a different vet several times. I have put so much money into the xrays and blood work and I can't do it again. I called another vet and they said that I would have to redo all of the xrays and blood work. They will not except my vet's test results or xrays. I have read up on histoplasmosis and all of the websites that I have seen say that it is usually mild if caught early, and the fungal infection is really hard for the doctors to see in blood work. Jack was being treated and had so many blood and urine samples they could not figure out what was going on.They kept thinking he had worms even though they said they could not find any.....He was treated for worms two different times. He is their "mystery" dog....that is what his vet calls him. The only reason why they found the infection is because it went to his prostate and eyes. That is the last stages of the disease. They were able to get a sample through the prostate area....and then sent it to UT vet school and they thought it was a rare form of cancer but now they changed their minds because he is recovering with fungal medicine. He has had it rough....but he is really loved by my family especially my nine year old daughter.

Originally Posted by Tammy A.

I have been looking for information on my dog and finally found this website. My dog is a german shepard/rottweiler mix and is 4 years old. He has been really sick the past 5 months and over a thousand dollars latter the vet finally found what was wrong with him. I will try to make this as short as possible. Jack had a bladder infection and tested positive for heartworms.(he was on heartguard but I took him off during winter months..)they thought that was what was making him so sick. His xrays and blood work came back and his heart looked good.They said it was just mild and put him on clavamox...for three months for the bladder infection. He never responded hardly at all with the medicine. Then he developed a horrible eye infection which they said it was pink eye and put him on an antibiotioc and gave him pain medicine....three weeks later his eye was so swollen they gave him predisone and his prostate was swollen three times the normal size. They finally did more blood work and said he had histoplasmosis...and gave him 0 percent chance of survival. They told me that I should go ahead and put him to sleep because the infection had spread and I refused...I wanted to try one week of the fungal medication and see if he responded. It has been two months and he has gained nearly 15 pounds and almost back to normal....except his eye is still so swollen after 3 months of predisone. They want to remove it now and I really was hoping that it would get better. They want to put him back on heartguard and I am afraid to allow that because he is finally recovering but still has 2-3 months of the fungal medicine left. He is going back for another recheck next week and I believe he is getting another uti infection. I m waiting for the vet to call to see if we should give him more of the fluconazole....(he is on 200 mg) He is still not acting sick he just has a really bad odor again. I hope by joining I will be able to get some information if anyone has ever went through something like this. I can really use some advice. Thanks!

welcome and thanks :to i-l-d.

I don't understand why they would not use another vets x-rays. You mentioned that they did find him positive for heartworm? Was that treated? Heartworm can cause kidney failure as well. I would still take to the dog to a specialist if you have any close by or another vet. This vet could be slowing milking the heck out of you.

[wishbone]

That so terribly sad Jack suffering those kind of infections and swollen eyes for months. All I can say he's been on many medicines and might be conflicting with the medications to cure such sickness yet worsen other pain. At first I would question the vet of his capacity to see what's really the problem/s, I just wondering it takes several months. Hope they are not after the money... You really some other vet's advice (more expert vet), you already have the information about Jack's sickness...

Jack was tested for heartworms and is considered a mild positive. They wanted to wait at first to put him back on the heartguard because of his kidney infection. The arsenic found in the heartguard is suppose to be really bad for dogs if they have any kind of infection especially a bladder infection. Because the medicine was not clearing the infection they started doing all kinds of tests and was consulting with the vet school at UT. Supposedly the fungal infection (histoplasmosis) can be really hard to detect even with all of the blood work they did. When the infection had spread through most of his major organs is when they were able to take a blood sample directly from his prostate area. They really are not concerned much at this point about the heartworms. They say that they are not causing him any problems right now...because he is gaining weight, and almost back to normal.(I just pray that it will not get any worse right now) I talked with one of the vets yesterday at the clinic....(his vet is out on medical leave right now) and she put him on Clavamox for his possible kidney infection...I had some left over so at least I did not have to buy those. As for the question about milking me for money. I honestly believe you are right....I did not realize how sick Jack would get. I thought it was just an infection making him sick and a month of antibiotics and then put back on heartguard for the mild heartworm infection and everything would be back to normal. Jack just got worse after they put him on all of the wrong type of medicines. You just don't even realize how upset and mad I am that his eye is so swollen and he could lose it. I try not to think about it. If they would have found the infection in May then all of this would be over right now and he would not have got as sick as he was.I try not to blame them because everything that I have seen on websites says that sometimes the infection can not always be detected. I really want to go to a good holistic vet once Jack gets off of the fluconazole. The money I spent for vet bills was put back for my daughter. Now I have to start all over again saving and it is hard because I am a single mom. I can't afford right now to redo all of the xrays....I called seven different vet clinics and they all said the same thing ..xrays and blood work. I guess it is all about money..l am just going to try to give Jack the best life possible. If he gets sick like that again I will have no choice but to...I don't even want to say it.

Hi, Thanks to everyone who posted. I tried to post earlier this week and my post never did show up. I will try to make this post shorter and see what happens. I tried several different vets and each one told me that they would have to have a complete xray and blood work. That this is just what they do. I do believe that I was took advantage of (money wise) I have become very cautious when it comes to tests and stuff now. I also know I can not blame the vet completely for what has happened. Histoplasmosis can be very hard to diagnose even when they take blood samples and then it looks like cancer sometimes.At one point my vet was consulting with UT vet school and they diagnosed him with a rare cancer . It was not until I refused to put him to sleep and put him on fluconazole that they changed their opinion (about the "rare cancer")I was even asked to donate his body for research....Jack is doing good right now. He took 7 days of clavamox for a slight uti infection and according to them he has another 3 months on fluconazole. I don't know what is going to happen from here. The only thing I know is that we will try to keep him happy for as long as we can. He may not make it through this again if he gets as sick as he was. I can not afford for him to relapse I don't even want to think about what will happen. I just don't have the extra money right now.I have been trying to feed him a good diet (he is very picky with food) and I have been reading about garlic being good for patients with histoplasmosis. I don't know. My vet says not to give him garlic but so far they have been wrong about alot of things. I will keep researching it.....

That is a good idea (to keep researching). I kn ow alot of folks believe in the health benefits of ProBiotics. They also have them for dogs. From what I have read garlic in small doses doesn't harm your dog. I have read much today about putting a dollop of yogurt everyday on the dogs food. I think someone on here said they did that with their dogs too. I can't remember who. I would definately go ahead and try the yogurt if I was you since yogurt is good for fighting fungus. Keep us informed on how itis going.

Hi Splinters ...I forgot to mention about the heartworms. You asked in one post if the heartworms may be causing a problem...with the kidneys. According to the xrays Jack is considered a mild positive. His heart on xray looks good. They said that they are really not concerned about the heartworms because he has took so much antibiotics that this keeps heartworms weak. We also have kept him inside under exercise restriction so as not to make his heart have to work so hard. They said (vets) under any other circumstances Jack would have been put on Heartguard and that would have been that, but because of his other infections the heartguard would put him under to much stress. The heartworms were supposedly sterilized with a round of Doxy. I don't know if that is true I am just hoping that they are right. He does not seem to have any symptoms and according to their calculations he has been positive for about a year and 1/2 with no symptoms of coughing. Heartworms live on average 2 years. They think he may not even need to have nothing more then heartguard. They wanted to go ahead and give him heartguard but I wanted to wait at least another month to make sure his organs(kidneys) could handle the arsenic.

Hey Tammy, welcome. I have just joined as well.

I read your thread about Jack with concern and must say he is a very lucky dog to have you on his side and care so very much. However, I am also feeling uneasy about the way your vet is responding or treating him. I am not an expert and therefore cannot say much or give a diagnosis but I do believe you need another vet's opinion. It almost seems to me that this one looks at Jack as an interesting case rather than a beautiful dog who needs to be cured and live a healthy happy life. If he has taken x-rays they should be yours to keep since you have paid for them, that is the case even among humans as I have recently found out. As for the blood work I think you are at least eligible to have the test results copied. If the " new" vet insists on taken them new I would wonder why? Is the lab that analyzed them before untrustworthy or what is his reasoning other than charging you. Ask questions and do not accept answers that make no sense to you. Seems to me you have done more for Jack than all the others so far. Do shop around for some other vets till you feel comfortable. You got nothing to loose but only to gain. I do feel for you and Jack and hope so much he will get better.

Hi Pauli,
Thanks for posting and welcome to the site. I am going to take Jack to another vet next week. I have to go and get the xrays from the other vet clinic though. I just hope they don't fight me on this. The past five months have been a nightmare for Jack and everyone in my family. My nine year old daughter will not let Jack out of her sight when she is home.I never really knew how attached we all were to Jack until he got so sick. I am so glad that I found this website at least now I can get honest opinions about what to do with my pets. I would ask advice from my mom and brothers and they would not tell me...they are afraid that something will happen and I would blame them. I would not blame them, but I can understand why they feel this way. Bye...