Poor Tilly - hope she gets well soon.

I hope Tilly is doing well? Where do you get the salmon oil from please?

this is all very interesting to me, since I have a white gsd (pale colour, wonder if that means anything significant for this lupus???)who suffers terribly with pyderma and has done all his life, BUT, what you are describing with the claws, is exactly what I'm having with him at the moment. I discovered him limping badly about 3 weeks ago, was wrongly diagnosed with arthritis, until I discovered with a magnifying glass that his nails, where they attach to the toe, have big sort of holes there with dried blood? Does this sound familiar at all to any of you??? I am going to ask my vet about this lupus now. Do you get it diagnosed via a blood test? Any info would be much appreciated - thanks!

Hi Helena, I would definitely ask the vet about it, I think my vet had to do a little reading about the condition as I don't think its all that common. Unfortunately the only way to confirm a diagnosis is to amputate a section of the toe as the damage is done deep inside where the nail forms...so they have to cut some toe away to test it...now they CAN do this on a dew claw if they still have them and they are also being affected...but from what I have read many people dont go down this route and just base it on the symptoms...(and of course see if it is responding to the treatment) but with Tilly it seems pretty definate that this is what we are dealing with so I have said that I don't want her to have any digit amputated.

These are some (very!) close up pictures of Tillys nails the way they were the day before she had six taken off...the outer nail gradually separates away from the quick...

Do you see how the claw at the top of her paw is normal...but the claw that my finger is near has the HUGE gap...the pink stubby bit where the nail should be!!




Here is one that dropped off a while a go...it is the completely hollow shell of her nail...if she doesnt get them removed under sedation at the vets then they will just drop off on their own like this one.


Oh and I get Tilly something called Salmopet for her essential fatty acids...it seems like good stuff...

http://www.salmopet.no/english/index.htm

anyway, hope some of that helped...just have a chat with your vet and see what they think...it seemed to take a while of Tillys nails dropping off before it was diagnosed...definitely the earlier you get on top of it, the better.

Hi Em, I can't thank you enough for going to all that trouble to let me see Til's problem. This all sounds pretty horrendous, and I have never heard of this before. I am going to get the magnifying glass out again tonight, and have a really good look at his claws. It might well be worth me mentioning this to my vet, coz he's still lame on his front, and it seems to sort of be both front legs now. I thought he was improving in the last couple of days, but he's back to square one now after a couple of longer walks.

Poor little Til's, and I can see your reasons for not wanting to go through that digit amputation! Oh dear, what a nightmare for you this must be. I'm so very sorry. Thanks again, you've been magnificent doing that for me!

aw no problem in the slightest, Im glad it helped. She really is doing well at the moment...in comparison to how she was before they took off the 6 nails she is like a different dog now! She used to pretty much just spend the whole day sleeping and didn't play with our other dog for weeks...but NOW she is back to her naughty self, running and playing like a looney!! So I think the treatment must be having some effect. We have found another couple of nails that are heading the same way as the one in the photo, so Im keeping a close eye and she will have to get them taken off if she seems like she is in pain again...but for now she is showing no sign of any discomfort (fingers crossed!)

I think it will definitely be worth just mentioning to the vet about your GSD, I'm sure different dogs nails are affected in different ways, I thing some nails go crumbly, or some grow really thin or mis-shapen...so it sounds like it possibly could be it...good luck, I really hope you get some answers...you are half way there when you find out what is wrong, let us know how you get on!

I'm so pleased to hear she's back to her normal self after what she must have gone through, and I bet it wasn't easy getting the diagnosis either!

My other gsd has the mishapen ones, they sort of cross over each other on some of her feet! The nails are black, healthy and strong though, and she won't let us trim them without a fight! Lol! Georgie's (the one I've been talking about who might have the problem) are white, brittle and very sort of hollow when I look at them from the tips? I will definitely be mentioning all this to my vet when I go, so thanks again, and all the very best with your little Tilly

My 5 yr old westie has been diagonosed with this & after 6 weeks of running to & fro vets which started with having his fur shaved off his feet & nails clipped a little which didnt work very well as every time i tried to take him for a walk another nail would split & bleed.
last week the vet decided at last to cut all his nails rite back & glad to say he is now a lot more comfortable he is also on a vitamin to help along with antibiotics as well & we are back to doing short walks his next check up is in a months time.