Cassie the Corgi, Redux

So around 6 p.m. the vet’s staffer called and said the dog’s Valley fever test came back negative.

Hallelujah!

However, said she, he wanted to talk with me but he had just gone into emergency surgery. Okay.

Along about 8 p.m., he calls. He says he suspects the test is a false negative (which, if xyou look it up, you’ll find is commonplace) because the X-ray looked very telling and other aspects of the blood tests he ran are strongly indicative of Valley fever. Yea verily, the UofA College of Medicine’s page on canine Valley fever reports, “Sometimes tests are negative early in the infection, especially the Valley Fever blood test, and they may need to be repeated in 3-4 weeks to establish the diagnosis.”

Having already come across this factoid in my first round of frantic reading-up on Valley fever as it manifests itself in dogs, I’m inclined to suspect he’s right.

He suggested we keep on giving her the fluconazole, at least until such time as we can run some other tests or watch and wait. He was heartened when he heard that the dog seemed to have revived late in the day, despite pounding at Death’s door, and that she seems more alert and active today, though she’s still obviously under the doggy weather. That she’s eating and drinking normally are positive signs.

Interestingly, they compound the drug at their office, which allows them to give it to patients for significantly less than you can get it if you have to go to a pharmacy with a prescription in hand.

She’s still plainly sick. But she seems a little better today, or at least, she has seemed so for a few hours. She’s flopped on the floor just now…need to pick her up, put her back on the bed, and turn on the steamer for her again. Poor old dog.