Toby’s Awareness Fund

We adopted Toby at 5weeks old. Born on September 1st. He has passed at the young age of 10 months old. He was our child, he brought so much love and joy into our life. We made a promise to him, to be the best parents a doggy could ask for. When we first noticed A change in Toby’s behavior, we just assumed he was becoming a picky eater, 1st symptom: loss of appetite. We spent tons of money changing out his food to find one he enjoyed, sometimes he did then he’d stop eating again. Then we noticed he stopped wanting to play as much, he was sleeping more during the day, which we assumed was due to the change in the weather, considering he was born in the fall he was very new to the summer heat. 2nd symptom: lethargy/depression. Toby started to lose a lot of weight slowly but it ended up being over 10lbs. At this point we knew this wasn’t normal, we took him in to the vet and they checked his blood levels and Toby was extremely Anemic. We then did everything possible to find out what was hurting Toby. Every blood test the vet could think of he did, we did a total of 3 or 4 ultra sounds, and X-Ray of his abdomen and gave him multiple different medications for parasitic infections and so fourth. He started eating again, I’m sure with help from the steroids that were given. He still didn’t seem to gain weight, if anything you saw more of his bones but his stomach was bloated. So now we feared for this new symptom. There was fluid building. After being told it was an auto immune disease and heart failure we were at a loss of what to do, but wait it out and see if he would turn around with these medications. The test for the fluid returned with the ACTUAL diagnosis. He had been infected by the Histoplasmosis disease. The doctors believe he retracted the spores of the fungal infection down south before he was rescued. It laid dormant slowly progressing as the months passed. No symptoms were noticeable till about 3 weeks before his passing. Toby went through two transfusions and was set for a 48 hour treatment for Histoplasmosis, also known as “cave disease” and “river valley fever”. He got through 11 hours of the very strong medication called Amphotericin B and Sporanox. His lungs were unable to take it anymore. He fought so hard but at the 11th hour after being sedated for the ventilator, he took his last breath. He is no longer in pain, no longer suffering from this horrible disease. All the months we couldn’t see that he was uncomfortable with this monster inside of him, he is now free of it. We loved him with our whole heart. I do not want to stop fighting for him. With the inexperience the vets had with exposure to this disease I would like to spread awareness to the northern states of the symptoms and effects of Histoplasmosis. If we had known sooner it could have been cured. If this wasn’t so rare in the north, they would have tested for this. I don’t want this happening to another beloved pet. We are in debt of over $12,000 fighting aside Toby, so thank you all for your donations and support during this time. I will be thinking of ideas to spread the awareness of Histoplasmosis so it is not so unknown to Veterinarians and pet owners. Ideas are welcomed in the name of Toby. We love you baby, Rest In Peace my Angel.