Valley fever is a disease that is common in the desert states of the SW United States. It’s a scary disease that can be fatal if not treated. One of our dogs was diagnosed with this disease in May of 2022.
Valley Fever in Dogs
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using one of these links, we will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This will helps us to continue creating helpful content. We would never recommend something we don’t like ourselves!
What is valley fever?
The clinical name for valley fever Coccidioidomycosis. Presently, this disease is prevalent in the SW United States, Central America, and Mexico. Humans and animals can catch it. Dogs are the most common animal seen with this. It can take two forms.
- The primary form is respiratory disease, this form of the disease is limited to the lungs.
- The disseminated form – this form of the disease has spread from the lungs to other parts of the body. This could include bones, joints, organs, and the brain.
Valley fever is not contagious from person to person or from animal to person. You can only contract it by breathing in the fungal spores from the soil/air.
The cause of Valley fever is a fungus called Coccidioides immitis. This fungus lives in the soil. A dog will breathe in the spores from the fungus that are either blown in the dust in the air or when digging or nosing in the dirt. The spores will then inhabit their lungs. From there they will grow into spherules that enlarge and eventually burst. These cause more spherules that will grow and burst and if not treated, this will keep continuing.
Symptoms of valley fever
Dogs with stronger immune systems may be able to fight off this disease and not develop symptoms. However, dogs with weaker immune systems may not be able to fight it off and develop symptoms. These symptoms can include any or all the following:
- Primary disease (in the lungs):
- Cough
- Fever
- Lethargy
- Loss of appetite
- Vomiting/diarrhea
- Disseminated disease (spread outside of the lungs):
- Any/all the above symptoms
- Lameness
- Joint pain
- Skin lesions
- Seizures
- Eye inflammation
- Blindness
If you live in an at-risk area or have recently visited an at-risk area with your dog and they display any of these symptoms, it is very important to have them checked out by a vet. One especially important note: If you do not live in an at-risk area but have recently visited and your pet displays any of these symptoms, be sure to let your vet know that you were in an area that is at risk for valley fever. Otherwise, your vet may mis-diagnose this as a different type of lung disease.
Diagnosis
Your vet will consider the symptoms that your dog displays. If the symptoms are any of the symptoms above and you live in an at-risk area, they will most likely take chest x-rays and do a blood test. If they show symptoms of the disseminated disease they may also want to do x-rays of the areas that are showing symptoms.
With valley fever, the body produces anti-bodies in reaction to the fungus. The blood test will check for those antibodies and if present will measure how much your dog is making. It will come back with a titer number, the higher the number the more severe the case of the disease. There are also dogs that can have low titers or negative tests that display symptoms and are sick. In those cases, the vet will use x-rays and other tests to determine if it is valley fever.
Treatment
The normal treatment of valley fever is to prescribe an anti-fungal medication. The three main anti-fungal medications are: Fluconazole, Itraconazole, or Ketoconazole. Occasionally these medications may have side effects. Those could include the following:
- Loss of appetite
- Vomiting/diarrhea
- Elevated liver enzymes with liver toxicity long term
Because of the possible effects on the liver, your vet may suggest giving your dog some kind of a liver supplement during and after treatment such as milk thistle. Additionally, if the anti-fungal medication you are on does not appear to be working or is causing severe side effects, the vet may recommend changing to one of the others. Furthermore, there are no over the counter medications to treat valley fever.
On average it can take six to 12 months for your dog to improve enough to be off of the medication. Although your dog should start feeling better within one-two weeks of starting the treatment. During the treatment, they may still exhibit symptoms. It can take weeks to months for the symptoms to start to subside. However, in more severe cases, the symptoms can be long term. Hence your dog will need to be on the medication for longer, sometimes for life.
Long Term Prognosis
By catching the disease early and starting treatment quickly, dogs with the primary disease have a good chance of full recovery. Dogs with the disseminated disease usually take longer to recover, and it can become life threatening in a small number of these cases. Younger dogs, senior dogs and dogs with weak immune systems can be more susceptible to the disease and can take longer to recover.
If your dog has fully recovered and received a negative valley fever test or a test with a very low titer number, you will most likely be able to take them off the anti-fungal medication. Be sure to consult with your vet prior to stopping the medication.
Once your dog has stopped taking the anti-fungal medication, you will need to watch them for the remainder of their lives to make sure they do not start to exhibit symptoms again. If you do notice the symptoms cropping up again, be sure to consult your vet right away.
Preventing Valley Fever
Unfortunately, it is difficult to prevent your dog from getting valley fever. There are things you can do to minimize their exposure:
- Keep your pets inside as much as possible on windy days.
- When you are outside, stay away from areas of blowing soil.
- Try to keep your dog from digging or nosing around in the soil.
Additionally, a vaccine is in development for valley fever in dogs, although it is not currently available. There are articles suggesting that it may possibly be available at the end of 2023, but it is still in the testing phases so nothing is definite.
