Kimberly,
Thank you SO much for posting all of this and for sharing your experiences. I'm so glad that Brennan is doing better
.
I was wondering if Lymes disease might have triggered the SLO. The reason that I wonder is that Amber tested positive for Lymes last October & was treated (she showed no signs). She lost her first nail in May and I didn't think much of it until I noticed about a month later during our weekly nail trim that another nail on her hind foot was gone & one on her front was split & pulled away from the quick. I asked about nails on this board & someone told me about SLO so I started her on the fish oil while I watched her nails closely. We started the "full" treatment in august. Here's what we're doing:
~1000 mg fish oil (180 mg EPA per 10 lbs of dog and each cap has 180 mg so Amber gets 4 caps 2x per day)
Doxycycline 2 100mb tabs 1x oer day
niacinamide 500mg 2x per day.
Nolvasan solution to soak the feet in if they get bad 2x per day.
Thankfully her nails never got really bad. While they've been splitting & falling off with the exception of the 1st nail they were never bloody. She does lick them on occasion but doesn't chew at them. She doesn't favor any of her paws and seems to flex all of her toes. Maybe starting the fish oil so early helped? The vet certainly seemed to think so but who knows?
I feed Canidae and would prefer not to switch her food as this is the one that seems to work best for her. Plus she seems to be responding to the SLO protocol.
After losing my Smidgen to osteosarcoma I'm just so happy that this is something treatable and not fatal. Chronic I can deal with, as long as I can keep my girl healthy, happy & comfortable.
How long have you & Brennan been dealing with this?
And could you post the link for the study? I'd really like to read it & show it to my vet though, thankfully, he was the one that mentioned the possibility of SLO before I even had the chance to...after first determining as best he could that it wasn't fungal.
Thank you so much! Hopefully our discussion can help someone else.
Nina