Hello everyone from sunny, hot Florida (lupoid onychodystrophy). !

I am hoping to find some information about my best friend here. I have a 7-year-old Chocolate lab, Charlie Brown, and he is our world! Pampered pooch is an understatement.

We've had this big hunk of chocolate since he was 8 weeks old. At almost two years old, Charlie was diagnosed with leptospirosis and was very, very ill. Our vet sent us to Auburn University in Alabama, where they ran a battery of tests. Had Charlie not been so young, he may not have pulled through. For those not familiar with leptospirosis, please read this article (http://www.2ndchance.info/leptospirosis.htm). Charlie has always had his lepto vaccine, even before the illness.

So, fast forward 5 years to the present, Charlie is doing very well. He will always have traces of lepto in his system, but it is managed with vitamins and supplements, a great diet, exercise and lots of love. Thankfully, there has never been a recurrence of the disease.

I am trying to find any information on problems with labs toenails. After a trip to the vet today for blood work, the vet suggested Charlie may have lupoid onychodystrophy. Although the pictures look nothing like Charlie's nails, I am a little concerned the antibiotic treatment she suggested for this condition is not the direction I wanted to go. I was hoping to find a natural supplement/vitamin to help with his dry, brittle nails. Any ideas/suggestions regarding a natural approach would be much appreciated!

I look forward to reading everyone's posts and contributing and sharing my experiences.

Hi, welcome to dogsey. Lucky Charlie to have survived lepto---years ago we lost a GSD to it.

Sorry, can't help with the toenails.

Good luck with it.

rune

Hi my Rottweiler has Lupoid she was diagnosed 18 months or so ago.

The antibiotics are needed to start with but not long term. My dog is on Coatex, Nicatinamide from the vet and Echinacia which i buy from the health food shop which is for the immune system.

I personally wouldn't go by pictures as every dog is different. Can you post some pics? Or even explain to me what his claws are like.
The best way i'd describe it from my experience is the nails suddenly appear to go long and are hollow if you look underneath before they start lifting off.

A friend of mine had a Beardie whose claws were like this & they gave him Biotin powder on his food-one level teaspoon a day & the extra Keratin in the Biotin helped with his claws & the problem disappeared

The equine version is a coat & hoof supplement

Hello, I am new to this forum but was also looking for anyone with experience with Lupoid. My 3.5 year old male Rottie, Gunter, was unofficially diagnosed with Lupoid. He has lost every single nail over the last 2 months. My poor guy. What my vet has done is cauterize his nails as they broke untilm he got down to only 3 they had not broke and we made the decision to cauterize the rest. He is on prednisone, fish oil, vitamin B 12 and Leukerin. He had a couple that were growing in poorly, they were already splitting. My prayer is that he just remains healthy everywhere else. He is like a big teddy bear with his clawless paws. I swear he is like a panther sneaking up behind us as we can't hear him walking like we do his sister with the click clack of claws! Anyway, we started him on this regimine of medication about 8 weeks ago. I also give him biotin but I can't really see a change in his claws since thankfully they are growing in slowly.
Any suggestions? Oh, my vet is working with the head vet at The hio State University and he is in the Oncology unit. He works with this disease a lot and has seen this treatment work.

My rotts got it and is on Coatex (EFA) and Nicotinamide (Vitamin B3) and was on antibiotics Tetracycline when first diagnosed. She's had it 2 yrs now and did lose the nails again but not as bad as the first time the 2nd time they mainly split and came off. She's still on Coatex and Nicotinamide always will be but is doing great.
I never sent her in for any kind of surgery i just let things take their course.
I also give her Echinacea from the health food shop as it's good for the immune system.