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[trailrunners]

Our German Shorthaired Pointer Rudi has been diagnosed with blastomycosis.  She has it bad in her left eye and our vet (a good friend of mine) insists that the eye should come out.  This surgery was expensive and we thought we couldn't afford it until he said they could provide us with some assistance (basically cutting the cost in half).  Rudi is in pain from the eye and it seems that blasto is difficult to remove from the eye, so we've decided to do the surgery to remove it.  We don't want it to get in her good eye either.

But, now comes the cost for medicine.  We can't afford the cost.  I'm sending messages out to everyone I know to see if they have any leftover Sporanox or Itraconazole.  It's a shot in the dark, but does anyone on this list have any extra supplies of Sporanox or Itraconazole that we could buy from them for a low cost or have sent to us?  Our vet recommends buying the drugs from Canada or Australia but only Sporanox as he worries that generics from overseas could be anything and very unreliable.  Also, we do have some expired Sporanox that we're using right now.  Does anyone know how long the Sporanox should be effective after expiration?

Also, I've read about the powdered form of Itraconazole on here.  Is there a list of reputable pharmacies to get the powdered or compounded form of Itraconazole on here?  We've been giving Rudi her pills with peanut butter anyway and she loves peanut butter.  Is the powdered form a lot cheaper than Sporanox or the bead form?

We're sort of desperate here and really want to save Rudi.  The cost of the drugs along with the surgery for her eye is more than we can afford.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Andy

[Jen]

   I used Pet Health Pharmacy in Arizona with very good results.  
The cost of powdered Itra was approx. $82 or so for a 2 month supply, and they ship overnight.  
My vet recommended them and placed the order for me.     
Toll Free Phone (800) 742-0516 · Toll Free Fax (866) 373-0030

[Kash-]

There's a few threads on this board if you're looking for pharmacies.  Here's a link with quite a few,  http://blastomycosis.ca/forum/index.php/topic,204.0.html

Take a look around, there's plenty of people in similar situations.  But do take heart.  My English Pointer survived way back in 2002, when a lot less was known, and the drugs were a lot more expensive.

Good luck, let us know how things work out.

[davenchop]

my beagle had blasto very bad and she recovered almost completely by taking fluconazole at 150 mg tablets 1/2 tablet per day. She weighed about 35 lbs.

I strongly suggest fluconazole over any other blasto medicine...

The prices vary greatly. so shop around i found the best price at meijer here in highland indiana... walgreens was extremely high...

I have 6 pills left over that are not expired... Again, fluconazole worked incredibly well for me . no  guarantees but if you are interested you can have them for free...Good Luck... Blasto can be treated so dont give up hope...

[trailrunners]

Thanks so much for all the input!  I'm pretty sure I'll order from Pet Health Pharmacy.  I'd like to hear a few more positive experiences with the powder from Pet Health if possible.  It sounds like as long as you administer the pills with fat it will work good.

Here are a couple of photos of Rudi.  The first is one of her acting as Queen of the Desert on our trip to Utah.  The other was from tonight and shows her affected eye.  She seems to be doing really good right now.  Eating well and still a lot of energy and excited to go for walks/runs.

[Wilson3]

She is a beautiful girl!
I got Wilsons pills also from there 175mg enough for 2 months $80.40 was paying $175 a month before
 he was not given the fat he ate high protein low carbs worked great for us but had supplements to booster his immune system
good luck they do survive
wilson3

[evayola]

What a cutie! Marge was on fluconazole because her eye was affected so I cant give you much input on the powdered versions but I do recommend that you get eye drops immediately for her affected eye. We did not take Marge's eye out because her pressures were manageable and the eyedrops did wonders to keep the infection contained. Have you already removed the eye?

Eva

[trailrunners]

We haven't yet removed the eye, but her appointment is tomorrow.  We haven't yet tried the eye drops.  What kind of eyedrops did you use?  What type of medication was it?  Thanks for your help!

[gunner]

Sorry to hear about Rudi, 

Please read the post called "Sparkey's eye".  It has all the information in there that you are looking for. 
Best of luck to you.
Joyce

[paintubturner]

My dog went blind over night from Blasto. Then came the swelling/redness/etc of his eyes.  My dog was on Trusopt drops and Pred drops.  I did not have his eyes removed.  My dogs eyes never turned the cloudy/milky color but he did end up developing cataracts but they dont bother him.  He has glaucoma too that is what the trusopt drops were for.  I have his pressures check as needed and no problems at all.  Everyone has their own opinion about removing the eyes.  Read as much as you can on this site about this disease.  Everyone on here as been super helpful and full of excellent information.  This was a long hard road for my dog and I but after being on the meds for just over a year he was finally negative on his Mira Vista test and has been off meds since early summer 09.  The meds were hurting my dogs liver after being on them for so long so then he had to be on expensive liver support meds.  Also the disease/meds or something messed up his thyroid so now he is on thyroid meds too.  He is doing amazing and will be going to the vet in a few weeks for his yearly heartworm check--blood work to check his thyroid levels and a checkup.           

[carolh]

Mika's eye looks just like Rudi's.  Mika is at 4 months with blasto in the eye, almsot 5.  She still has her eye.  She took previcox orally to counteract pain, timolol maleate ophthalmic solution (this is given for glaucoma and helps reduce the swelling), Neomycin and polymyxin B sulfates and Dexamethansone Ophthalmic suspension (that's all just one solution beginning with the neomycin).  She has been on an itraconazol salve 2X/day in both eyes -- we've had no spread to the other eye.  Finally, she has been on itraconazole orally.  She is doing well.  We did catch it early so she didn't suffer from lack of appetite, etc. (just the high, high fever and feeling terribly lousy) but her Mira Vista test came back 31.5 which is high.  So all this is working for us.
Good luck with Rudi.
Carol

[mhitesman]

My Comet had blasto in his right eye, and the pressure caused the retina to fully detach ..and then to rupture the eye which resulted in emergency surgery to remove the eye...all in the span of a week or so.  We tried desperately to avoid the surgery and save the blind eye despite his obvious pain, but we were not successful.  If I had to do it again, I would do the same thing BUT I might be tempted to try fluconazole rather than itraconazole ..or maybe both meds.  Comet's eye was much more crusted over (from all the drops we were prescribed) but otherwise similar to yours.  Before it ruptured, it was golf ball sized, though.  Since there seems to be no research indicating that saving the eye does not necessarily inhibit successful treatment of the disease, I wonder if your vet is being overly cautious.  On the other hand, my dog is not impaired at all with only one eye, and he is alive and otherwise healthy.  Comet was treated with Sporanox, then generic itraconazole beaded capsules.  Comet's unaffected eye received no specific treatment but was checked regularly by his optho.  He has been blasto-free since 2/2008.

Many folks on this site have successfully treated with compounded itraconazole available from Pet Pharmacy and Roadrunner (both in Arizona, I think).   It is MUCH cheaper.  I have read, in my research, that some compounds (not necessarily those noted above) have less active ingredient (in this case itraconazole) than the labelling indicates, which is a concern.  Additionally, the powder is absorbed less effectively than the beads.  However, dogs have been saved with those meds, and the importance of this cannot be overstated.  The FDA site I researched on the subject recommended that regular testing is advised, especially with the use of compounds, so that you know there is a high enough level in the dog's system to effectively fight the disease.  Such tests are readily available from miravista labs.  If your vet does not know of this, you can research the subject on the miravista labs website. 

As far as expired medicines, I guess I would personally not hesitate to use them as long as they are not years past expiration.   The previous owner of my house makes a very good living selling expired patented medicines manufactured in the USA to foreign locations.  My .02

Best of luck
We are all rooting for you!

[trailrunners]

Rudi had her eye removed on Tuesday.  She looks a bit like Frankenstein right now with the stitches, but she is as perky as ever even with just one eye.  I think she was in a lot of pain with her eye the way it was before it was removed.

The vet felt she was blind in her left eye and was very concerned about the blasto in the eye.  He also felt her pain would be relieved once the eye was removed.  She's doing well now, but the swelling is pretty severe and until the stitches come out, we'll be very cautious.  She seems to be feeling better though.

[Teddy]

Good luck to your Rudy. I have just recieved my dog Ted's intraconozole pellets from Pet Health Pharmacy in AZ. From what I am hearing the meds are dependable and certainly the pharmacists there are very helpful. The meds are approximately $4/ day compared to the $18/day we where paying for meds for the past 3 weeks. Their number is 1-800-742-0516.

[Wilson3]

So how is Rudi doing?
I hope well
Wilson3