Valley Fever - My Yorkie
 

Hi Everyone!

This is my first time on this Forum. I own a wonderful Yorkie, and his name is "Sammy". Sammy was born on May 3, 2003. He lives with my husand and myself, plus a female 7yr old Lab, Cheyenne, and two cats, Tobie and Jewels.

I have had Sammy since he was 7 weeks old. I bring him to work everyday. I am a counselor for women in recovery from alcohol and drugs. I work on site where they live. some have children. Sammy has become a wonderful "Therapy Dog" for everyone.

Sammy became ill almost two weeks ago. At first we thought he had kennel cough, but after blood work and an x-ray, the vet believes he has valley fever. It is very common in Arizona where we live. My lab had it 6 yrs ago. She is fine today.

The vet placed Sammy on fluconozole (spelling), a steriod pill (helps coughing an apetite) and an antibiotic. I also go to a holistic animal store and picked up some concentrated drops from them. He seems to be better the last two days, but probably a lot of that is from the steriod pill.

Any comments or treatments that any of you might have would be greatly appreciated. I've never had such a wonderful, intelligent, sweet dog..and a very special little companion.....

Thank you for your comments.

First of all Hi and Welcome to yorkietalk. I am sorry Sammy is sick! I am not familar with Valley fever or heard of it on here. What is it?

You might want to do some research on the use of steroids in toy dogs. I can remember reading a bit about it, but not enough to recall the details. It may have referred to the chronic use of steroids. There can be side effects and some can be quite serious.

welcome to yorkietalk! never heard of this condition sorry. wish i could be more help.

Welcome to YT. I'm sorry I can't help you with this but I bet some will be able to
come up with an answer.

welcome to YT!! i'm sorry about your baby. i've never heard of it but i will keep her in my thoughts. keep us posted on how she's doing.

Heard of it but
 

mostly about its affects on humans and their treatment, I do know that it can become chronic from what I have read, sure hope for a full recovery for your baby.

Hi Jody..I am in Phoenix, and I am familiar with flouconizol (sp as well). I am not sure if there are any other treatments.. but if you have any questions, I would get a second oponion. Valley fever can be serious. It is different on differnt dogs.

Thanks for you response. I guess I had valley fever in the 70's when I first moved here to Tucson, Az. It acts like flu in humans. Some people get very ill and others, like myself, probably thought I had a bad cold or flu....Sammy is doing better, thanks to both prescription medication and holistic meds....Glad to see him my chipper now!

Thanks for you response. Valley Fever is found in humans and the symptoms are cold/flu like. I live in Tucson, Arizona and it is very common here. In fact, I must have had it in the 70's because it shows as scarring on my lung - nothing serious, thank goodness!

Dogs and some cats get it as well. It develops as a resperatory illness. Animals get it from burrowing in dirt and particles in the air too....of course, yorkies love to "sniff" and burrow! The southwestern part of the U.S. has more cases of it. So Sammy was a candidate just as my lab was. Syptoms in animals are coughing, listless, no appetite. Sammy is doing better thanks to prescription meds and hollistic meds...he is getting back to his "fiesty self" thank goodness!

Have a great day

Jody

Welcome to YT. I'm very sorry about your dog. I hope everything works out ok.

Welcome! I hope Sammy feels better soon! :rose:

valley fever
 

Greetings;
We live in Casa Grande and have a Yorkie about 5 lbs. she has been sick for about 3 weeks. We did 2 weeks of antibiotics for fever, chills, mild cough, lethargy. We wanted to wait after the antibiotic to see if she perked up since it seemed to upset her stomach.

Now she has all the symptoms of valley fever; a knot on her hip under the skin, occassional hacky cough, flem, "goopy" eyes, loss of appetite and lethargy.

We are taking her back to the vet. The research I have done says Flucanazole is the treatment of choice as an anti-fungal. My question is How much did all the tests cost? Blood work, xrays, IV's? The vets around here are very eager to run an enormous amount of test for EVERY symptom. I took in once and the diagnosis was constipation-treated with a $5 laxative but $480 test later including an IV in the office.

Hope your guys is feeling better.

Sending get well wishes to your Sammy from my Sammy!:animal-pa

WElcome to YT. Hope your little guy gets better fast.