My four legged child...

Last Monday, Jacob and I noticed that our Black lab, Balan (Bay-lynn), had a strange place on her hindquarters. It was kinda like a bite or maybe a rash, and it obviously was irritating her because she was gnawing at it. Jacob held her down while I searched her thick coat and we found two other places that felt like wounds. They had very think scabs on them like they were old, but we had never seen them before, so that was really perplexing. We cleaned them with alcohol and decided to watch and see for a day or so if they were getting worse. Well on Tuesday the place on her hindquarters had been gnawed so much that she had a hairless patch about the size of an orange. Since Jacob was leaving, I promised him that I would take her to the vet soon. I made an appointment and took her in Thursday ( of course the only time they had available was smack in the middle of nap time). After about 10 mi of the discussing the possibilities, I remembered that Balan had been to the farm the week before and had come back covered in mud and manure (lovely!). The vet said he needed to shave her and and get a scrape of the wounds and look at in under a microscope...about ten minutes later he brought her back looking like this. After discussion with the senior vet they decided that she has Blastomyosis. Blastomyosis is a parasite that lives in the soil in Tennessee, and it can apparently enter the blood stream through a cut in the skin. It is somewhat rare and they only see about one case a year. It is much harder to spot in large animals and animals with lots of fur. The progression of the disease is unique, it starts with weeping wounds on the skin, then progresses to weeping wounds in the lungs, and then on to the eyes. If its not caught before it gets to the eyes the chances of survival are pretty slim. After a chest x-ray they determined that her lungs were not yet effected and that a aggressive antibiotic and antifungal would probably do the job. So I now have to feed her 10 pills twice a day hidden in cheese. She's been a real trooper, no whining or crying just those sad "I don't feel good" eyes. Just one more adventure to keep me from getting bored...hahaha