Toenail problems due to lacking a certain vitamin??

[K-9Girl]

A while back I posted that Kodi was having problems with his toenails, they were falling off. We are still having this problem. Kodi has been to the vet, the vet had never seen this before. Kodi was on Cephalexin for a while to cure any infection if there was any....that didn't help. I even soaked his toes in warm epsom salt.

Do you think that this problem could be due to him being vitamin deficient? Someone suggested to feed him raw beef because is contained certian enzymes or vitamins. Right now Kodi is eating Canidae and doing wonderful on it. He coat is shinny, he has a lot of energy, and he is very alert. His toenails are his only problem.

Should I try the raw meat? Any suggestions? Helpl!!

Sara

[Barbara Surplus]

Sara, diet could most certainly be the cause of his problem but to simply start feeding him raw meat would not be a very good way to tackle a problem you don't know the cause of.

I'd certainly start by looking at his diet to determine if the food might be having such an effect but really my inclination would be to find a good holistic veterinarian who could see the dog as a whole instead of merely treating the symptom (and guessing along the way). It could be a fungal problem which can be addressed easily enough but without a clear idea of what you're trying to treat, I wouldn't try to second guess the situation and perhaps end up causing more harm than good in the long run.

I've found that my severely ill dog, until he showed symptoms, was a pretty happy dog. He sure had us fooled. They are a stoic breed and will put up with a lot of discomfort before giving in to it. Even if he seems fine, it's always best to err on the side of caution and have him looked at by someone who can see beyond the obvious.
Best of luck.
Barbara

[frontierrots]

There is also a fairly rare ailment that Rotts are prone to that causes toenails to fall out. One other member here had a dog with the problem. Wait let me go look it up....

OK In Padgett's book "Control of Canine Genetic Disease" Cutaneous Vasculitis and that is what the forum member's dog had that was losing nails and eventally toes :(

[Judi W]

Fungal infections can also be the culprit with this sort of thing. If that is it, it usually requires a systemic medication especially for fungus. Ask your vet if he has not considered this.

[K-9Girl]

The first time I took Kodi to the vets about his nails, the vet treated it as an infection....but obviously it is more than an infection becasue it wasn't getting any better.

I took Kodi yesterday to the vets again. This time the vet thought that it was probably a fungal infection. In the exam room we turned off the light and shone a light (it looked like a black light, or UV light ????) on his toenails. If he had a fungal infection his toenails would have glowed a greenish color. The tips of his toenails did glow a green color, but the base of his nails did not.

Hopefully healthy nail is now growing. The vet said to watch it for a while, and if things did not continue to get any better that we would put Kodi on a medicine for fungal infections.

Sara