My dog has aspergillosis. Is itraconazole safe and when will he improve?

Hello and thank you for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. If the vet has confirmed that your dog has systemic fungal infection, then itraconazole is the right medication to use. Usually, dogs needs from 4 to even 15-18 weeks of treatment with itraconazole to completely get rid of bad fungal infections.

I would worry that at some point the antifungals would not keep the disease under control, or that the antifungals might cause toxicity to the liver and kidneys. This might be a better question for the vet who is managing the aspergillosis however.

It sounds like your veterinarian is doing a great job with a difficult disease. I'm glad to hear that Wiley seems to be a little better after his last procedure. I think adding oral anti-fungal medication sounds like a great idea, so I think we will just need to wait to see adding the Fluconazole is sufficient. Sometimes we need to combine oral anti-fungal medications. My latest case of aspergillus is being treated with Terbinafine and Voriconazole which are expensive, but seem to be working well. So, if theFfluconazole does not seem to show improvement, you can discuss other oral anti-fungals with your veterinarian. Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Itraconazole has a broader spectrum of activity. This means it can treat a greater number of fungal infections. Both can cause varying degrees of GI upset or liver function issues. Itraconazole is also more expensive than fluconazole.

Not really, aspergillus stays contained in the sinuses of your dog and it also needs certain conditions to thrive in those sinuses, as well as a compromised immune system of the dog. Aspergillosis can be treated with flushing the sinuses with a fungicidal wash. In order to do so, your dog will need to be sedated and in most cases the vet will have to make an access ( trepanize a hole) through the bone above the sinus. This is a bit complicated but doable and the fungus can be killed off that way. So again, no, it is not possible to directly transfer aspergillosis from one dog to another.

I'm so sorry that Maggie has been diagnosed with Blastomycosis. I have most commonly used Itraconazole, but there are other antifungal drugs that are used to treat it as well. Here is some additional information on Blastomycosis and treatments. https://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=2256 Unfortunatately without knowing specifics about Maggie's case I can't tell you about her prognosis and if it was caught early, but I can say that the drugs for Blastomycosis tend to work very well. I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using PetCoach. Good luck to you and Maggie.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. I have never seen these symptoms occur with use of Fluconazole. I would say that this would be an uncommon side effect of Fluconazole but I cannot rule it out for sure. I would stop the Fluconazole and see if this helps resolve the problem. The heavy breathing could be due to Coke being in pain. This sounds more of a back problem and if his legs are not working well and he seems to be paralyzed or wobbly in the hind end, this could be due to a spinal issue if there is a prolapsed spinal disc. If the symptoms do not resolve after stopping fluconazole, I would recommend discussing a protruding intervertebral disc with the vet as a possible cause of the symptoms. This can be treated using steroids and pain medications. In some cases, surgical intervention is required to restore function back to the legs. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.