Hi
My name is Audrey and I have 2 beardies and a mini schnauzer.
beardies are Mcduff and Mctavish and mini schnauzer is Narra.
Mctavish was 2 on 5th November and he had an issue with nails separating from quick believed at first to be injury related.
However yesterday my vet took him to theatre and discovered that it was worse than we thought he said as soon as he tried to clean etc they were splitting and some fell off.
So they made decision to remove all nails and start treatment for SLO his bloods and nails have been sent off for testing.
So any advice and help would be greatly appreciated.
Hes currently on antibiotic and prednisone painkillers and I started vitamin e yesterday.Salmon oil.
Poor Mctavish losing all his nails but it does seem they have the right diagnosis. Have you see the information here about SLO? http://cimda.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=22.0
You could try putting some socks on the affected paws, at times, to stop him licking them if he is doing that. Dog boots would also help protect his toes/nails being knocked when he goes outside, especially if you have other dogs as well that want to play boisterously. Just make sure that you keep his feet clean, dry and aired if you use the socks, boots.
Hi Audrey
I am so sorry McTavish has SLO.
It is a very distressing disease, and it is slow progress to remission, but beardies are known to have a genetic predisposition and I have known countless beardies affected, and with the correct treatment they have reached remission and have done well.
Fortunately, SLO is not a life threatening AI disease and this means that instead of using immunosuppressive steroid therapy you do have other options, such as an antibiotic called doxycycline, which is also acts as an immunomodulatory drug, and niacinamide and many supplements. This is the preferred treatment option.
If you would like to email me at cimda@aslog.co.uk I can send you my seminar notes which give treatment options for SLO.
It will be a while before McTavish is comfortable and able to run again, but it will happen, and that is something to look forward to.
Jo