Blastomycosis-fungal infection in dogs

Off late I spent some time getting to know about different forms of dog diseases and oddly enough I came across thousands which remain unheard. One of the glaring diseases which have all along been a cause of concern for most pet owners is Blastomycosis. It is nothing but a fungal infection caused by the organism Blastomyces dermatitidis.

Some of the prominent characteristic symptoms include mild flu accompanied by occasional chills and headache or sometimes little pain in chest.
The fungus broods over soil and as the dog sniffs, it may end up inhaling the same. Once inhaled, they multiply and disseminate into blood and eventually into other vital organs like skin, bone, brain and genitourinary tract. In order to diagnose whether your dog has been infected with the infection, tissue biopsy of the skin is required to be done. Sometimes veterinarians recommend urine antigen testing which is rather more sensitive in detecting existence of organisms. Lung biopsy stands out to be yet another option incase blood and sputum cultures fails to detect the fungus.

The best treatment available for curing Blastomycosis is Itraconazole. Sometimes doctors prescribe Amphotericin B for those who are critically ill. But it is not recommended for those in benign stage as its components are considerably more toxic.