Help Harry overcome blastomycosis

8/24 UPDATE:
That you everyone for your support with Harry! All of your kind words and support has meant the world to us!
Harry had a successful surgery, and he regained most of his eyesight after the blasto entered his brain. However, he now needs IV antifungal meds 3x a week over the course of 4 to 5 hours at a time. The cost for this is about $500 a week and he will need them for six to nine weeks. I adjusted our original goal of 7k to 10k to adjust for 6 weeks of treatment. Everyone sharing his story on facebook has helped SO much and I can't express my gratitude for everything you've done for us. Thank you! <3 

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It feels weird creating this gofundme because I still can’t believe the strange diagnosis my little bean has.

Harry is my sweet boy, he and I have a bond I’ve never experienced with an animal before. I experience intense anxiety that I seek therapy over, and when I have anxiety attacks he lays on top of me with his arms outstretched and purrs so deeply I can concentrate on the sound of that rather than the racing of my heart. He understands me, and I understand him. 

So when he wasn’t acting himself, I knew something was wrong. Our usual nightly routine of him snuggling on my lap on his favorite fleece blanket he would skip. He felt skinnier, his meow was softer. I took him to the vet in July for his 6 month check up and we found out he had lost over a pound within 6 months. The doctor who saw him was a relief vet during a busy time at the office and didn’t seem too concerned. However, Harry is FIV+ so he is more at risk of getting sick than normal kitties and I knew something was wrong.

I brought him back to the vet two more times, they did bloodwork, did follow up blood work, urinalysis, and an ultrasound to make sure he didn’t have any kidney or bladder stones. (Two or three years ago he was blocked and had to have emergency surgery for that so I am always vigilant to make sure he is not getting blocked again. He has been on special food ever since.) It was on the last visit where the vet did an ultrasound that they noticed he had a sore in his mouth and a swollen lymph node. He was put on antibiotics and was supposed to come back for a recheck today to make sure the sore was going away.

Instead, on Friday night I noticed some blood on his paw and swelling. I kept an eye on it and decided to call the vet in the morning if there was still blood. The morning came and now his paw was more swollen, and there was more blood. The vet office was slammed with appointments so I opted to take him to an emergency vet clinic.

After arriving at the clinic the emergency vet looked at his paw, his mouth sore, and his weight loss and informed me he most likely had cancer and would need his toe amputated. They offered to do it that night. Horrified and in shock I told them I wanted to talk to his vet first. I couldn’t just remove his toe without talking to his vet first, and I didn’t want to believe he had cancer without any diagnostic tests to determine that first. They did a chest X-ray to look for growths in his lungs and a foot X-ray to take a better look at his paw.



Monday arrived and he saw his vet. She took a cytology of his toe, and a sample of a swollen lymph node and the next day the results came back. 

Harry has a rare bacterial infection called blastomyces dermatitis. It comes from a fungus blastomycosis found in rotting wood in northern areas. We live in Maryland so it’s unusual to see it here, And Harry is an indoor only cat who does not go outside. 

Unfortunately his toe did need to be amputated, the sore removed from his mouth, and the swollen lymph node removed as well. The doctor was nervous the mouth sore also was in his jaw, and wanted to know that the fungus hasn’t spread to his other lymph nodes or lungs so Harry also needed two CT scans. If the fungus went into the bone he would also later need surgery to remove parts of his jaw bone, and would be put on a feeding tube for a while after. 



I took Harry to get the surgery today as it was spreading fast, and his FIV makes it difficult for him to fight this infection. He needed his toe amputated, the mouth sore removed, his lymph node removed, and CT scans to make sure it hasn’t spread to his lungs and other lymph nodes. There was no question as to if he would get this surgery to save his life or not. He is my entire world and my best friend, and my heart hurts thinking of a world he’s not in.



He got out of surgery a few hours ago and is now awake. The doctor did not immediately see on the CT scan that the infection had spread and remains optimistic, but is waiting on a radiologist to confirm that. They noticed his jaw on the scan does have a questionable mark on it so the radiologist will also have to determine if he needs jaw surgery later. They are also sending out his toe to be biopsy to make sure there are no cancer cells in it.

I’m about to leave to visit him now, and will find out if he can come home tonight when I see him. I have been posting about this health journey with him as it has progressed and a few people asked if they could help in anyway, so I decided to create this gofundme. From all his tests leading up to his surgery and CT scans today, his bills are already around $7,000. If he stays the night they will go up more, and he needs to have check ups after to make sure the fungus is going away with the medication they want to put him on. They also need to make sure his paw is healing okay after his toe was amputated today.  

Please if you would like to share this story Harry and I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you for taking the time to read our story.
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UPDATE::
Harry returned to the ER today. Post surgery he was walking into walls and corners, and could not see his food until I touched it to his lips. I was worried about his eyesight. My fears were confirmed, Harry is now blind... the doctor fears the blasto made it to his eyesight. We don’t know if it is temporary or not at this time. He is on antifungal medication but it is not strong enough to get through the blood brain barrier so the clinic is looking into ordering a stronger medication that is more expensive and needs to be given through IV every two days. They said they will call us tomorrow with information on it.

Thank you so much for sharing his story and helping support him in his journey so far. I am praying his eye sight will return after the medication has set in...

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Also, because he is so darn cute here are some sweet photos of my handsome boy.