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May 16th my lab Sam lost control of his hind legs. One minute he was fine and the next minute he could barely walk. I brought him to the vet thinking he had a stroke. They did some tests and one came back positive for Lyme Disease. This made sense to me since I have had other dogs get lymes and have trouble moving. So we started on antibiotics and the vet said if things don't improve in a few days to come back. Fast forward to last weekend while up at the cabin near Brainerd. Sam had been getting better with walking, but was still having some trouble with coordination. Saturday he started getting real lethargic and panting a lot. He also developed a sore on his foot that he was licking raw. I went back home on Monday and said if nothing changed by Tuesday I would bring him in to the vet again. Tuesday came around and Sam still was very lethargic and his appetite was going away. It was obvious he was losing weight as well. By now he had also developed a hacking cough. I bought a thermometer on my way home from work and took his temp. It was 104.5, so off to the vet we went. They ending up doing a complete blood profile and everything came back within normal ranges, so they decided to do x-rays. They noticed some masses in his lungs and decided to refer me to a specialist. Yesterday we arrived to the appointment with the specialist. While in the waiting room, I noticed a boil had formed on Sams lower lip. I told the vet about it and they took a quick sample of it. Within a few minutes they came back with a diagnosis of Blasto. Not exactly what I wanted to hear, but glad it's not cancer. In case you haven't heard of Blasto (which I hadn't until a few days ago), it is a fungal infection that dogs or humans can pick up. It's typically found in moist soil areas next to water. If the soil gets disturbed, the spores go airborn and infection can happen by breathing them in. I'm fairly confident Sam got his infection last month while digging at a bank den a muskrat had made. So now the treatment starts. Two pills a day for 6-12 months is what I am being told. Antibiotics do nothing for this infection, so Itraconazole has been prescribed. The vet said right off the bat to get meds from Canada, because the pills in the US are close to $15 per pill. In Canada they are closer to $2 per pill. On top of that, we will still need to do periodic tests to make sure the fungal infection is going away. So this is not a cheap infection to treat. The vet said the first week on the meds is the real test, because things typically get worse before they start getting better as the fungus starts dying in the lungs.If he can pull through the first week, they have high hopes he will make a good recovery. Just thought I'd throw this out there in case anyone else has a dogs that has had this. How did things turn out for them?

To diversify fishing, I take a cat and a dog with me) I am interested to watch them when I pull a fish out of the water))) Do you often do this?