Every year thousands of dogs are infected with Valley Fever in Arizona.  What we found over the years are few things that can help treat and cure several dogs even the most severe cases from this dangerous, debilitating  and deadly disease. We wanted to make sure that pet owners understand the disease, understand what to look for in their pet if you think they might have valley fever and know what best in practice treatment options are available.  We will talk about our approach to successfully managing and treating valley fever. Let’s start by talking about the fungus itself. Valley Fever is a fungus that lives in the soil in this arid environment. It displays active behavior most often in the summer months during our monsoon season where high winds and rain can activate and release the fungus in the soil. The Valley Fever fungus or collectively referred to as Coccidioidomycosis is airborne and inhaled by pets and people. In Arizona where many of our residents are snowbirds or new to the area their immune system may be naive to this fungal infection which can make them more susceptible to getting the active disease. The same is true for pets new to our state.

     It’s very difficult to prevent exposure to the disease because of the airborne nature of the fungus and most dogs constantly have their nose to the ground sniffing smelling and inadvertently inhaling the fungal spores into their lungs.  Dogs that dig will also expose themselves to the fungus and finally with all the recent and continued building in the area construction sites will raid us into the air creating a health risk to pets and people in terms of valley fever. There is no way to prevent the disease but you can minimize it by keeping indoors during monsoon season avoiding being outdoors during windy days and being mindful when you’re outside digging or working with the native soil. When a dog get sick from valley fever the early signs of disease can be as simple as feeling tired and possibly a high temperature. Most often people bring their dog to the veterinarian because it has a cough and is not feeling well. When we evaluate dogs for Valley Fever the way we diagnose it is through a blood test and the clinical signs. Blood testing looks for exposure in your immune system to tell you whether or not there’s an active infection.