01/31/2025
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From Aurora Beacon News
To spread awareness
‼️ Please read about this disease took my healthy 4 year old dog and is effecting multiple other dogs in the area‼️
"Like many of you, I’m a longtime dog lover. But until this week I’d never heard of blastomycosis.
That all changed after contact with multiple dog owners in the Montgomery area whose pets have been seriously impacted by this fungal infection.
Wendy Calabrese’s 4-year-old rescue dog Hazel died from the disease on Jan. 8 after battling it since November.
And after “a month and more into this,” her neighbor says his dog has gone blind in one eye from the airborne spores that enter the body through the respiratory tract, settle in the lungs and can attack other organs.
Kelly Fisher, who lives nearby, also has a story to share.
When I first spoke with her at the beginning of the week, her 7-year-old dog Marlei, a Shar Pei/basset hound mix, was fighting for her life under an oxygen tent at the VCA Aurora Animal Hospital after coming down with symptoms only a few days earlier.
Fisher told me she was surprised at the “slew of responses” she got after sharing her story on a Facebook support group and neighborhood app.
“Some owners had dogs that survived and were OK but had a long road ahead of them,” she told me.
“Our dog was also recently diagnosed with it,” posted one owner who lives off Mill and Orchard roads. “Ours will be in treatment for many more months and will live with seizures for the rest of his life … it’s horrible.”
Reports of cases in close proximity, of course, led to concerns about the source of this environmental fungus that impacts canines 10 times as often as humans and 100 times more than cats.
According to various medical and veterinary websites, blastomycosis is caused by breathing in fungal spores that live in moist soil and decomposing plant matter like wood and leaves. When the soil or plant material is disturbed, tiny spores can be released into the air.
Once they enter the lungs, the spores transform into yeast and can also spread to other parts of the body, including skin, bones, other organs and the central nervous system, according to the sources.
Among the symptoms, which can take up to three months to appear, are fever, cough or shortness of breath, sores, weight loss and fatigue.
Calabrese said Hazel’s initial issue in November was a swollen paw, which did not react to antibiotics and eventually led to a toe amputation.
The dog seemed to be doing fine after that, until the first week in January when Hazel developed a cough and suddenly had trouble breathing.
Wendy Calabrese of Montgomery, whose rescue dog Hazel died earlier this month from blastomycosis, wants to raise awareness about this serious infection from fungi found in soil or decomposing organic matter such as leaves. (Wendy Calabrese).
Wendy Calabrese of Montgomery, whose rescue dog Hazel died earlier this month from blastomycosis, wants to raise awareness about this serious infection from fungi found in soil or decomposing organic matter such as leaves. (Wendy Calabrese).
On Jan. 6 the dog was back at the vet, where testing confirmed the fungus.
Two days later she died.
Fisher is praying for a better outcome. On Jan. 20, she took Marlei to the vet after the dog became lethargic and developed a cough. Three days later, lab results came back positive for blastomycosis. The dog was prescribed a heavy duty fungal medication and she was told to be vigilant the first “make or break” 72 hours.
On Sunday, Fisher took her pet to the VCA hospital when Marlei began breathing rapidly and could not walk because of swollen lymph nodes.
According to multiple sources, there are unfortunately no publicly available tests to detect this ubiquitous organism in the environment. Nor can anything be done to eliminate it from the landscape. And there are no vaccines to prevent it, although reducing exposure to damp soil and decaying wood can lower risk.
All of which is why these dog owners want to raise awareness. If your canine develops shortness of breath, a cough, becomes lethargic or develops sores, get them to the vet immediately as things can get bad quickly, they insist.
“And it’s not as easy as keeping your dogs off trails” or out of wooded or water areas, added Fisher, who had surgery and has not been able to walk Marlei for six months.
“There is no logic in what dog gets it … it’s also in mulch and new construction,” posted a Big Rock resident whose dog did not survive this “terrible disease.”
The survival rate, according to the VCA website, is between 50% and 75%."
Please share and educate each other.
Call your veterinarian with questions.
As a dedicated, close-knit team of passionate pet lovers, we are driven by a deep commitment to the well-being of every animal in our care.
