Uveo Dermatological Syndrome

[wolfenite]

I am curious if anyone is dealing with Uveo Dermatological Syndrome with their dog.    It is an auto immune disease that starts attacking the eyes, and then the pigment usually around the mouth, nose, eyes and sometimes the pads on the feet.

I have a now 8yr old female Siberian Husky who just received this diagnosis today.

We started out on August 23, 2011 with her and Fibro-Sarcoma of her leg.  We had the tumor removed but with dirty margins.   In March of 2012 her left eye got very inflamed almost over night. It was three weeks to the day after she received her 3 year rabies vaccination.  I took her to the vet and they thought Lyme's Disease and treated her for such.  The redness got better but the other eye then developed the same issue and she was blinking a lot.  We got her in to an Eye specialist and they also thought Lyme's and treated her for four more weeks. Eye was getting better but very slowly. SO she was then treated for another tick borne disease even though all her blood work was negative for such diseases. We were told tests can give false results.   We did twice a month monitoring of her eyes, the blue came back but other issues developed. By November her eye pressure was very high in her Right eye (she develped secondary glaucoma due to the Prednisone) and would not respond to drops so the specialist did an iridectomy and all was going well until March 2013 when we noticed in the am blood on the carpet but could not find a source. Finally I found a small pimple like lesion that was bleeding.  Vet put her on antibiotics saying it was allergies.  It cleared up and all seemed fine until May when she has more of these and her skin in spots was crusty, we were told allergies fleas (even though none were found) and again given antibiotics.   In June her nose was peeling, vet thought sunburn and said it if did not heal possible Lupus.   It healed but then came back the end of July.   This time I insisted on blood work for Lupus- ANA was negative.  I still thought maybe Discoid Lupus and insisted on biopsies.  Today the results came back for Uveo Dermatological Syndrome.

My local vet has not dealt with this, said it is rare and would leave me to the eye vet specialist for care.   She is great and called me we are now upping the Oral Prednisone, prednisone eye drops and hope it will respond, if not then we might have to up her Azathioprine.  We were in the process of getting her off all of this.          We had her down to 1/4 prednisone tab 2xweek and prednisolone eye drops 1 drop  3x week, Timolol Maleate Ophthalmic 2x day, Dorzolamide HCI Ophthalmic 2%  2x day, Atropine Sulfate Ophthalmic 1 x week in her good eye, and Azathioprine 1/2 tablet 3xweek.

The specialist told me that this is most likely what we were dealing with back in March and suspected, (funny she never told that to me or my husband).   However she does have a good reputation, even cares for the White House dogs.

I am curious if anyone else has dealt with this and how is your dog doing?

Thank you.

Amy

Skylar- 8 yr  Siberian Husky  dx Aug 23, 2011 Fibro-Sarcoma, March 2012- auto immune disease attacking eyes,  Nov 2012 Iridectomy due to secondary glaucoma,   August 22, 2013- Uveo Dermatological Syndrome

Timber- Siberian Husky 10yrs

Wolf- Siberian Husky (14 yrs- crossed 2001)

[Jo CIMDA]

Hi Amy and welcome.

I'm sorry it has taken so long for you to get a diagnosis but at least you have one now and appropriate treatment has begun.  Although I knew straight away the disease your Siberian Huskey has,  in nearly 14 years of having a keen interest in autoimmune disease in the dog I have never come across it. I thought it was seen more in Japanese Akitas - and now I know that Siberian Huskeys are  prone too (and other breeds).


If you want to research this disease then it is also known as Canine Dermatouveitis or Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada-like syndrome.  You may already know this of course.  If we can help you with the various problems of giving immunosuppressive doses of prednisolone or any other support, please say.  The effects of immunosuppressive doses of steroids and the management is the same regardless of which inflammatory AI disease the dog has.

I'm sorry I can't help further.  As I haven't got any personal experience I can only refer to text books for information.

I do hope you see improvement very soon.

Jo

[wolfenite]

Updating this thread. It has been a long time. Sadly my girl Skylar passed in August of 2016. She battled Uveo Dermatologic Syndrome from 2011 to 2016, along with cancer. She had a number of seizures in one day, lost her eyesight from those seizures, then we discovered cancer had gone to her brain.   Interestingly we had the Uveo Dermatologic Syndrome under control. She had, had an iridectomy to help control pressure in one of her eyes and that surgery was a sucess, and at the time of her seizures which occurred almost two years after the iridectomy she was finally on the lowest dosages of all her medicines and the Dr. couldn't have been more happy, same for us. The seizures took us completely by surprise. When she lost her eyesight literally over night she was still her happy self and I created a "halo" out of a wire coat hanger and attached it to her harness... this allowed her to go all over the house and outside without walking to in trees, etc. Then after 4 months of being seizure free she had 8 really bad ones almost back to back and she was so confused. Our vet suggested we help her cross. It was the worst day of my life and up until now I really could not bring myself to do any updates. At that same time the family seemed to have a monster of a black cloud hanging over them. We lost my father-in-law to cancer in 2015, then his wife in 2018 to cancer, then multiple cousins of my husband to cancer. All totaled 11 people since 2015.  Sorry for being long winded. I do hope others on this site find relief and or cures for their pets.  They are our family.   

[Jo CIMDA]

Hi Amy, and thank you for taking the time to post an update on Skylar, and even though many years have passed, I know how difficult this must be to relive the sadness.  It never leaves us, we just have to learn how to manage it over time. They are our family for sure.  You have been through such a tough time with your family too. I do hope that that dark cloud has lifted for you, and for so many others who seem to have gone through unprecedented hard times. 

I appreciate the information you have given about Skylar's condition because even if it helps just one person who has a dog with similar symptoms, your posting has done a good job.  Anyone who has experienced looking after a dog with seizures knows how traumatic and unpredictable it is, let alone the other problems that you and Skylar had to manage.  She was a lucky girl to have had you for her family.

Wishing you and your family all the best for 2024 and beyond.

Take care

Jo

[Catherine]

Amy, thank you for the update. Even if people do not post on the site they can still read the information. It will give anyone who has a dog with Uveo Dermatologic Syndrome hope that it can be controlled. Also the "halo" idea sounds good although perhaps cover it with some material, padding perhaps?

I have had dogs with seizures and one can never totally relax. Life can be cruel, just when you think things are going well it throws bad things your way. Sometimes lots of bad things that make it difficult to cope but we have to think of the good times we had with our dogs and humans.

I hope you will soon have happier times.

[wolfenite]

Thank you Jo and Catherine for your comments. My Skylar did go through a lot. I have only run into one other Husky owner whose dog also had Uveo Dermatologic Syndrome. Their dog also had eye issues, and I referred them to the same Veterinarian we used. In the end that owner chose to not do the iridectomy surgery on their dog's eye but instead had the eye removed. The surgery was a bit costly ($2500 US dollars) but the Veterinarian allowed for payments so for me that was worth it. 

I hope that original post I made might help anyone else dealing with issue and give them some hope.

 
~ Amy

[Jo CIMDA]

That information is appreciated Amy.

Thank you.

Jo