My Symmetrical Lupoid Onochodystrophy dog

[2rttndgz]

Hi Nina,
Just a quick note as I'm getting ready to go out the door. Brenin's food comes from SouthernAgriculture.com, the unusual treats come from petextras.com and the probiotic he's on is Culturelle... the chinese herbs come from Kan Herb and you need a vet script to order there.

Week 3 and the nails are looking super...no pulling away, no abcesses, I'm actually having to trim them at this point because of how well they've grown in.

I can't wait to get another week or 2 under his belt... I'm only slightly excited!

Kim

[Nina&Bill]

Kim this is SO awesome! I'm so happy for you & Brenin. I hope that the good news continues. Thanks for taking the time to share those websites with me. Keep me posted! And give Bren a big rumple from me.

Nina

[2rttndgz]

Hi Nina,
I meant to tell you also that the heartguard that Brenin is on is a vegetarian formula... didn't even know they made that kind.

I trimmed his nails last week for the first time in months, got all the toes except for 4. I trimmed his nails again today and I got all the toes except for 2!

No relapses, no joint pain, no nails coming off...

Kim

[Nina&Bill]

Kim! That's great! Trimming nails, would I even remember how? Are you dremelling or using clippers?

I actually hear the sound of nails on the floor when Amber walks by now so tonight I'm going to take a good look at what's growing. I haven't noticed any change with her as a result of the new food but it's only been about a week so I'm not expecting much. I was hoping to see the eye boogers start to abate, at least. Regardless, we'll give it some time & see what happens.

I am SO glad that Brennin is doing well. It makes me really happy .

Nina

[2rttndgz]

Hi Nina,

Just a short update. All the nails got trimmed on Sunday. No relapses, no pain....looks good.

Had my friend that saw him the day of the vet visit see him this weekend and she said he looked and acted completely different. She said his coat looked fantastic and he's more energetic.

I was glad she got to see him since she doesn't see him all the time. She would really see if there was a significant change.

I wanted to say, if you ever want the email to the vet or the clinic, I'd be happy to give it to you.

Kim

[Nina&Bill]

Kim,

Bren's improvement sounds nothing short of amazing! I'm so happy for you & your boy, it's fantastic that everything is finally working.

We've got nothin' good happening at our house. The latest batch of watermelon seeds is falling off & I'm noticing no improvement in Amber's coat or eye snot. This weekend I plan to give Amber a good washing & going over , then we'll take a trip to the vet to discuss things. It'll be a year in May since she first started losing nails & even though we've seen no infection, she doesn't seem to be in pain & the quicks don't bleed I would have thought that I would have seen some sort of improvement by now. I'll see what my vet says. I'm in NY, not far from the Animal Medical Center & there's a good holistic vet nearby but my vet has done right by my dogs since way back to Smidgie's first vet visit (when she threw up on the examining table, then tried to eat the scale) so I'd like to see if he has any insight.

I'm very glad to hear about Brennin, though. Keep the updates coming!

Nina

[2rttndgz]

Nina,
My thoughts are with you and your girl. I know what you mean when you say your vets done good by you... I felt and still feel that way about mine. I think this just happens to be over his head and he doesn't have the holistic training that the vet in NH has. He and I have had many conversations about the care and his limited knowledge. He was well aware that I was tired of the "I don't knows" and the shoulder shrugs.

I wont change vets and I know that the vet in Dover keeps him posted with updates on this particular problem.

The vet in Dover did say that there would be relapses. I don't know what it would take short of changing his food to make him relapse, so I hope it doesn't ever happen.

Keep me posted and if there's anything I can do to help in any capacity, let me know. Brenin has an appt. June 1st or 2nd, I can't remember which and I'll let you know how that goes.

I wanted to say too... I gave Brenin a bath the other day to get him ready to go into elderly housing for therapy and for the first time in ages, he had hardly any hair loss in the shower. Normally we would have had enough hair to make a litter of 8. All I can say is there is a deffinate change somewhere.

Give Amber a scratch on the hips from me and I'll be thinking of you both. Let me know what your vet says I'd be curious to hear how he/she thinks Amber is doing.

Kim

[2rttndgz]

Hi Nina,
Brenin and I got back from Dover, NH. with great results. The vet there was very pleased with the condition he's in. He's lost 11 pounds, all the nails are growing back, no relapses, he appears to be pain free in his joints and in another 3 months, we're going to try and take him off all the herbal meds.

Kim

[2rttndgz]

Hi Nina...
We have relapsed! The vet in Dover wanted to start slowly adding certain foods to Brenin's diet. She wanted him to try apples, sweet potato, pears, carrots and bananas. One new food would get tried and then we would wait 2 weeks to see if there was a flare.

We are officially allergic to apples!

Kim

[2rttndgz]

Just an update on Brenin since it's been a while since I've posted.

He's doing great, we had a flare up 2 weeks ago on one toe. It abcessed and seem to take quite a while to heal this time. But with anitbiotics and some pain meds along with this chinese herbs and probiotics, he's back to his regular self.

I noticed this time that while nothing had changed with his diet, his coat started feeling funny about 3 to 4 weeks before his flare up. Now his coat is back to feeling soft and plush again.

Dr. Rennie says flares up are to be expected as this is an auto immune issue and while it may go into remission, it's never permenantly gone.

We have added apples back into his diet, bananas, chicken and sweet potato canned food. He's tolerating everything very well this time around.

I'm so appreciative of the work Dr. Rennie has done... we've gone from all 4 feet being effected and Brenin being in such pain that his personality was changing (and not for the best) to once in a blue moon 1 toe might abcess and he's not having the foot and joint pain he was having before. We have gone from constantly licking of the feet to NO licking at all.

I can't have asked for anymore... he's happy, as healthy as I can keep him, running and jumping and just generally being his good natured self again.

Kimberly

[Nina&Bill]

Hi Kimberly,

Thanks for the update. I really appreciate them and especially am glad to hear that Brenin is doing so well!

We've had a busy summer so I haven't been checking in too much. Amber's been pretty much keeping away from her toes but while the nails don't seem to be growing...at least they're not splitting. We're eating Innova now & while it seems to be agreeing with her it makes her coat horribly oily & greasy (something that was never an issue before). I'll probably go through another bag of Innova with her to see if things even themselves out. of course it could be all of the fish oil contributing to the greasiness, too .

Thankfully Amber never had the issues that Brenin seems to be plagued with, no abscesses & when the nails fall off they do so cleanly. So I'm still watching.

Butt scritches to Brenin from us!

Nina

[2rttndgz]

Hi Nina,
Good to hear Amber is doing well also.

Due to the urgings of Dr. Rennie, I've been trying other foods such as what I listed. But I've also been giving Brenin Innova Evo chicken & turkey. He's also able to tolerate Wellness chicken & sweet potato and turkey & sweet potato.

I guess based on what I've been giving him, we can narrow his allergies down to beef, venison, buffalo and lamb.

I'm also happy to say that I've found another line that carries duck and sweet potato. At least now I have options and can rotate his food if it becomes neccessary. I'm not just stuck with the food from Southern Ag.

I'm really pleased... there are 3 nails where the nails never reattached to the nail bed, but even those are starting to come in different. All the rest I trim on a regular basis. I've stopped cutting them as I don't think that helps them if there is a potential that they might split...dremel, dremel, dremel.

Course I shouldn't speak too soon, the Innova I've tried giving him has only been given once and the 2 week wait for flares isn't up yet. (crossing fingers)

Keep up with the updates on Amber as you're the only one I've ever met with the same disease. Plus I love hearing how she's doing.

Take care and give her a good solid hip scratch from us.

On a side note, if Amber is having really oil skin and coat from the food, you might look into cutting back her fish oil just a bit as the food may have ample in it. Just a thought. I'll let you know how Brenin does on it once I get him on it full time... if that ever happens.

Kim