Craig's Blastomycosis Battle

Craig The Dog, local beloved celebrity dog, was diagnosed with a fungal disease called blastomycosis on August 15 after many vet visits to try to figure out what the heck was going on.

Blasto is an aggressive, nasty disease that is common in the Midwest, especially Great Lakes region. It's contracted by inhaling fungal spores from wet dirt, wood, mulch, and compost from any place that a mushroom could grow. Craig could have picked it up in his own backyard! While humans can contract it too, dogs are 10 times more likely to get blasto. Because it is often misdiagnosed as cancer or a respiratory infection, too many dogs are lost to blasto.

Craig happens to have blasto in his skin, lymph nodes, and eyes, and has already had his left eye removed. It can also spread to his lungs, but we are hoping his medicinal treatment will prevent that from happening.

Thankfully, Craig's blasto was caught pretty early, but treatment is lenthy, rough, and very costly. He will be on aggressive anti-fungal medicine for 4-9 months. The cost of the medicine combined with the surgery expenses and multiple vet visits add up very quickly.

He has already burned through the funds set aside for something like this, and now I am asking for help from my friends and community. I know a lot of you know and love Craig and know how much he means to me. I am so grateful to live in a small community where I have more friends and support than I can measure, and I'm hopeful that a group effort will help heal our Craig.