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Life With A Newf With Symmetrical Lupoid Onychodystrophy

Symmetrical Lupoid Onychodystrophy. (SLO)

Geez. That’s an awfully big word.

What is that big word doing here and what does it have to do with us?

Well, that big word describes a disease that Sherman has.

“SLO is an autoimmune disease of dogs which can cause severe claw problems in otherwise apparently healthy dogs.”

You can read more about SLO here, but basically, it is an autoimmune disease that attacks the nails.

In Sherman’s case, his affected nails will become brittle and crack from the underside and the shell of the nail will begin to peel off leaving only the quick exposed.

Sometimes the whole nail will fall off without warning. It is a painful disease and in severe cases can lead to lameness.

dog mail that has fallen off due to SLO

 

There is not much information out there on Symmetrical Lupoid Onychodystrophy but from what I have been able to research over the years it is one of the few autoimmune diseases that is not hereditary, as I say it is the luck of the draw.

Diagnosing Symmetrical Lupoid Onychodystrophy

Sherman was diagnosed with the disease a little over two years ago when his nails kept splitting.

We sent one his nails off to be biopsied and although we did not get the bone part that is needed for 100% diagnosis (which would have meant amputating the toe at the bottom of the joint) the findings and symptoms were consistent with SLO.

Treatment of Symmetrical Lupoid Onychodystrophy

I put Sherman on the recommended medications for this disease which is Tetracycline, Niacinamide, and Vitamin E.

After months of being on the medications, I saw little results and began to notice some side effects taking place so I decided to take him off all the medications except for the Vitamin E.

Over the years the loss of the nails was very sporadic, 5-6 months between episodes, so not too bad. 

Sometimes the nail bleeds a lot and sometimes it doesn’t. 

This week Sherman lost 3 nails.

For the past few weeks, he had been intermittently limping on his right front leg and I could not find the source of his pain.

Finally, I located it by his dewclaw, he wouldn’t let me have a good look, but I couldn’t find a crack, so the next day I took him into work and the vet and I tried to have a better look.

He was so painful that we wound up having to sedate him and we found that the nail was separating from the base, it was literally tearing out.

So that’s what the vet did, pulled it out.

We inspected all of the other nails and found that another one on the same paw had to be trimmed back to the base and then one more on the right rear paw that had to be trimmed in half. POOR SHERMAN!!!

When he loses a nail or nails in this case, he is put on pain medications for a few days and antibiotics.

Some dogs that suffer from SLO will lose the nail and it will not grow back. 

This is not the case with Sherman.

So far all of the nails that have been affected have grown back,  sometimes they grow back normal and other times they have grown back slightly deformed.

Today Sherman is doing just fine.

He is sore where he lost his dewclaw and we will continue to monitor him to make sure that the pain subsides. If it does not the next step will be to take radiographs of the joint to make sure it has not been affected.

 
 
 

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Patrice

Thursday 6th of December 2012

I'm glad you found my picture of my dog's nails useful, and I'm glad your dog is doing better. I don't mind that you use my picture as long as you give me credit for the photo, along with a link to the SLO page on my website.

If you don't care to give me and my website credit, that's OK. Just please remove the picture from your site.

thanks Patrice Dodd http://patricedodd.wordpress.com/slo/

Jen

Thursday 6th of December 2012

My apologies, credit has been given, but just so you know the image was not pulled from your site it was pulled from Google images. I have never been to your site before but have visited since this comment. Thank you for the wonderful and informative information on SLO, I have never been able to get a good picture of my dog's nails when this happens. Hope that Cooper is doing well.

Anonymous

Monday 7th of March 2011

Our 60-pound Husky Shepherd developed SLO a number of years ago. We have been having some success (not a cure, but it helps greatly) giving him one of each of the following twice a day: 600mg Trental and one Omega-Caps HP

KB

Monday 24th of January 2011

I feel terrible for Sherman. Poor guy. Thanks for the info on the disease - I actually wonder if our dog, R, has it. He keeps splitting his nails just like you're describing and has to do the whole pain meds/antibiotics thing. My vet mentioned last time it happened that it might be time to start delving into *why* it's happening... I guess that SLO is on her list of possibilities.I hope that Sherman feels better soon and that you can get things under control. I feel terrible for him. Splitting nails seems to hurt really badly.

itsmebuddy

Friday 21st of January 2011

Ah-h-h! Sherman, So sorry! We wish you a complete, speedy recovery.

Remington

Friday 21st of January 2011

So sorry to hear about your ouchie. Take care, my friend.

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