Has anyone had any experience with Symmetrical Lupoid Onychodystrophy. A puppy owner's girl (she will be 4 in December) was diagnosed with this a few weeks ago. There is not much information regarding this.

What is it??? TIA.

Wow....who knew - another auto-immune problem:

http://www.grassmere-animal-hospital.com/SLO.htm

I hope that the treatment works!

I read that article, as did she. There is little info regarding this. She is on all the treatments prescribed there. It is a recent diagnosis so hoping and praying the treatment works as well. Thanks!

Hi,

I do not have any personal experience with this disease but have experience with autoimmune disorders in canines and humans. The medical community is seeing s huge rise in autoimmune disorders in humans and animals. A lot of holistic doctors attribute it to our food sources. About 70% of human food is now genetically modified (GMO). If this is the case in human food you can bet it's the same,or even higher, in the pet food industry. One of the main things holistic doctors will tell you to steer clear of is gluten. The gluten molecule has been significantly modified over the years. It is now larger and a lot of human GI systems can not digest it, therefor causing inflammation in the gut....hence inflammation in the brain. There have been studies which show an alleviation of autoimmune disease once a person goes gluten free. So, I started thinking.....what if dogs go gluten free? Will we have healthier dogs? Will we see less autoimmune disorders, allergies, etc.? Something to think about. Some believe it some don't. But, I can tell you, as a parent of child who has a learning disability, dark circles under her eyes, body odor and night wetting at the age of 6.......all of this disappeared after going gluten free. There will be many who don't believe, and that is totally fine. I can only tell you of my experience. But as a person who works in the veterinary field, the rise in auto immune diseases and allergies in dogs is unfathomable as of late. I am not preaching a cure but perhaps an option. Maybe try going grain free or gluten free on the dog food and see if things improve. Maybe it will at least help alleviate some symptoms. BTW, it can take some time to rid the body of gluten so you will not see improvement over night.

This is complete BS! We need to stop breeding too close. This is not rocket science. We've seen what it has done in other breeds. Wake up!

My friend's female lab had this a few years ago, after a move across country. She and her vet believed it was triggered by the stress of the move, and a new environment and/or something in the new environment.

While terrible to go through, and healing is a long process, recovery is achievable following the protocols you've most likely already seen (EFAs, antibiotics, etc.). My friend's girl got back into Dock Diving with gusto, and leads a full, happy and quite adventurous life, hiking, swimming and playing.

There is an SLOdogs Yahoo group, which could be helpful for your puppy owner.
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/SLOdogs/