krissn333

Pemphigus is a form of systemic lupus...usually you see that affect the toenails (bleeding, falling out altogether). But, pemphigus can also affect the nose. There is also discoid lupus, which my Pinky has. Here's what her nose looked like when I got her (it SHOULD be black): The shot is a little blurry but you can see that it's all pink and that the top of it has big shingles of dry, cracked skin. The recommended treatment regimen for discoid lupus is tetracycline along with several supplements. Pinky gets niacinamide, vitamin E, and omega 3 fish oil. Do you do a lot of outdoor activities with Elmo? Most people and animals with a form of lupus are photosensitive and sun exposure causes the disease to "flare up" and get worse for a period of time. Does he seem to feel a little punky when he's having these bouts with the pink crescents? If so you might be looking at something like pemphigus as opposed to discoid lupus which mainly affects the skin only. Usually your vet will diagnose this stuff by doing a biopsy of the nose, it's definitely something to look into. Once the actual cause is determined it will be much easier to treat. These are both autoimmune conditions...basically the body's immune defenses are semi-retarded and begin to view parts of the body as foreign, therefore they attack healthy tissues. In Pinky's case it's her nose and her skin (her skin was very flaky and she smelled funny). Interesting to note, Pinky is a dark colored dog too, she is actually dark brindle, but at a glance she looks black. In the sunlight you can see the brindle though. Is Elmo by chance the same, or is he just plain black? We have a dog at the kennel that is the same color as Pinky and he has developed the crusty nose too...I wonder if it's something that is carried in the genetic makeup that produces this super dark brindle coat. A course of prednisone might help Elmo, and of course, keep him out of the sun whenever possible. I would def. look into the biopsy. Both forms of lupus can be a bear to deal with, and there will always be ups and downs, but once you find a treatment that works, the downs become less frequent. I have a combination of discoid and systemic lupus, I get all the skin issues but I also have the joint pain and fatigue associated with systemic lupus in humans. Been dealing with it since 2004...sometimes, when I'm not feeling well, it's very frustrating, but if I take care of myself diligently I feel better and stay better. There will be a lot of trial and error at first so hang in there. These poor kids don't know what's happening to them, all they know is they either don't feel good or their nose hurts! It's up to us to be diligent for them. Best of luck to you!

Pinky does that too...I think it's because she's awkward She will sphynx sometimes too but usually she just throws her butt down

He's seeming a little more himself today...sneaking toys outside to run around with them in his mouth. Yesterday he just kind of meandered outside like he really didn't want to be out there. I have tried to include him in the PB time but he just licks a little of it and then walks away (he's never been much of a PB hound). Maybe I should start giving him some cheese when everyone else gets their PB. I wouldn't think something as simple as that would make him feel this way, but I made sure he got to lick my ice cream bowl with Skimmie just now

We're thinking about you and Rusty tonight...God, he is so handsome...I remember when you brought him home I thought he is the most handsome boy I've ever seen!

There really aren't any telltale signs, I just noticed today he is looking a little skinny and just hasn't really been himself. He's eating and drinking/pooping & peeing like normal...just seems a little run down I guess. Suppose it could be the weather but he's not normally affected by the weather all that much. Do dogs get depressed? I wonder sometimes if he feels left out...Pinky & Ace both take meds with PB twice a day and Skimmie has always got his nose in the middle of everything while Fritz stands back and watches. I make sure he gets a spot next to me in bed every night and try to pay a little extra attention to him whenever I am sitting here. Skimmie is a big attention hog so I have to put forth a conscious effort to make sure the big kids get the attention they need because they don't beg it of me like he does. If Fritz is still acting punky on Monday a trip to see the doc is in order I think for some blood work and a general lookover. I've noticed today he's not really interested in playing outside with the others like usual...he's acting like eeyore.

Last time I posted about Ace's tail we'd done her second bandage change and the end of it was open, you could see the bone. Took her to the vet, doc said it should granulate on its own. So, we kept up with frequent bandage changes and thanks to a wonderful little item called Aquacel (looks like gauze, turns to gel to pull out infection and encourage tissue to granulate), her tail is completely healed! The hair is starting to grow back on the end and I am so happy to see that she didn't lose ALL of the white on the end of her tail afterall. I know that's a very cosmetic thing but I just loved the white end of her tail and I'm so glad that she'll still have a little bit of white. So...yay! My poor peanut is back to normal!

Oh Terri I'm so devastated to hear this! Having known Bullett personally for the short time he was with us at the kennel, I can say he was a beautiful, peaceful, wonderful boy. His brother Spur will be sad to hear this news. You're all in my prayers...

Ace had something that looked like that and we lanced it like a zit and a chunk of hard stuff came out...I bet it's the same thing. She was licking it a lot and at first I thought she'd stepped on something and that it had abscessed. She was still walking just fine but I think hers was in a different spot than Lola's. Good luck!

Well, doc took a look at it yesterday and thinks it will granulate. His exact words, "I wouldn't give up on this one yet." We put some aquacel on it, which we used on Fritz's foot a while back. It turns to like a gel and helps the tissue to granulate. She's got her tail tube on and seems to be fine so we're watching it for now. I just REALLY don't want her to have to be put out any more, since she's had kidney/bladder/liver issues recently I don't want to do anything more that's tough on her body if we can help it.

Sat Ace down for her second bandage change since her tail amputation today, got her bandages off to find that the skin that they pulled around the end of her tail has either come open or it's gone (I wonder if there was vascular trauma to the skin since she PULLED the end of her tail off and they didnt amp up high enough to get rid of all of the dying skin). So we have exposed bone again, looks like in the cartoons when someone gets an arm sawed off and you see the cross section of the bone surrounded by the flesh I am going to have doc look at it but has anyone dealt with this before? With all the tails I've dealt with I've never had this problem. Will it possibly granulate and close up on its own, or will it have to be amputated more? I hate for her to have to go under anesthesia again but if that's what we have to do, that's what we have to do.

My mom and I changed Ace's bandage today...the worst part was getting the stuff off that the evet put on there! They had put medical tape on her bare skin where they shaved her tail...poor peanut has red skin for about 3 inches up her tail now I have to say it looks pretty good though, I hope it continues to heal well & we'll change her again next week. The syringe tube is a GODSEND! This way I don't have to worry about her banging her tail on anything and reopening the stitches on the end. We drilled some holes in it so there will be better airflow but other than that I think we're good to go... Praying that she can stave off any infections that might want to crop up...she's on amoxicillin but that was for a uti, though I'm sure it's taking care of the tail too

Ace and Fritz are 6, Pinky is 4, and Latte will be 3 tomorrow

The little peanut slept through the night next to me in her pillow nest She's been up and had her breakfast and been outside. She's a little slow but will still wag her tail even with that plastic casing on there When she's not up and about she's lounging on the couch, I've got the tv on for her. Grandma and Grandpa just got here to help me hang a cabinet so she's quite excited to see them. I just hope the recovery is uneventful...we've had some tails at the kennel that took forever to heal or the dog ended up having to have more taken off We are going to do our best, I am thankful that I've had tail experience or I would be totally freaking out right now about dealing with her.

Well the peanut is home. She's bandaged and our fabulous vet put a syringe tube over the bandage so she won't hurt it if she bangs it on anything. Of course she's exhausted so I've got her set up with a bunch of pillows (her favorite thing in the world is a nest of pillows ) up on my bed and she's already asleep. The others seem relieved to have her home and have all settled down. As for me, I am going to have an adult beverage, read for a bit, and go to bed, hopefully tomorrow will be much less eventful! Thank you everyone for the prayers! Oh, and our bill only came to $697. Still a large amount but it was less than our estimate so I'll take what I can get! Must have been a quicker surgery than our doc had figured.

Just spoke with the vet, she is out of surgery but still a little sleepy yet. I can pick her up in about half an hour. Times like this I thank God for very supportive parents and friends. I even called Brett to let him know (after all, Ace was his "kid" for the past 4 years too), he said if I needed anything to let him know. It was Ace's 4 year gotcha day yesterday and I didn't get anything posted for her...so here's a shot of my pretty peanut puppy:

I went rollerblading with a friend this afternoon for an hour or so and then we had some dinner really quick. He dropped me off and I was greeted at the door by Ace and Fritz, as usual. As I went to feed them, I noticed blood on my wall and all over my fridge...Ace's tail was bleeding! Not only was it bleeding, part of it was gone! I looked all over for what she could have beat it on, then started to wonder if she *ate* it (why she would do that I'm not sure). Then I saw it. My tv sits in an armoir thing in my living room and the doors are always open. SOMEHOW, she got her tail wedged into the bottom of the door, where the door meets the cabinet, and got it SO stuck that she pulled the end off! Yes, the last 3 inches of her tail were sitting there in the door I touched it just to be sure and then almost passed out. There is NO logistical way that this happened, I have been standing here looking at this thing for the past hour and can not figure out how the heck she got her tail in there in the first place. I even pulled Fritz over there to see if he casually walked by if his tail had any chance of getting caught. The space is so small I can't even think about getting my pinky IN there, even a little kid pinky wouldn't fit. This is such a freak accident. So of course it's Saturday, had to rush her to the evet. She has exposed bone, I knew it would have to be amputated, and sure enough, that's what we have to do. So, she's there right now having surgery, to the tune of $800 (well, the estimate they gave me was $725-850). I will do anything for my babies, but this comes at the WORST time since I've been having some money troubles...since Brett and I broke up I am not getting the extra money to help pay the bills that he was putting in. So, I did a little crying for me about the money but mostly I am just worried about my little peanut. The other three are wandering around like they're lost, their ringleader isn't here and they don't know what to do. Thank God for my mother, she came up here and cleaned up the carnage while I was at the vet with Ace. When I broke down about the money she said she and my dad would help pay for it. The evet will call me when she's done and awake and ready to come home. I hate dealing with tail injuries, we've had a few at the kennel over the years and they are just so difficult to deal with. My pretty peanut isn't going to have any white on her tail anymore Please say a little prayer for her, she's in surgery right now and she's been having some more kidney/liver issues (elevated bilirubin), for which she's been on antibx, on top of all this. Say a little prayer for me too...for my sanity and my wallet. I guess I just have to come to terms with the fact that I will probably always be in debt. PS - the doors to the armoir have been removed and will never be put back on until I get rid of it.

For what it's worth, Brett's parents' westie completely tore her ACL at age 11. Their vet told them it would be 5 grand (which is absurd) to do surgery, or they could get her on some joint supplements and a therapy regimen. She's leash walked for potty anyway so the therapy really wasn't any big deal. We put her on some glucosamine/chondroitin/MSM combo that we bought at Target. Took about 3 months for her to be really super improved but she seemed to feel much better pretty soon after starting. I should also mention she was on prednisone for a separate medical condition, so that may have helped as well but I'm not sure.

I'm quite a bit late on getting this to my vet, but, better late than never - he's also got a new vet in his office with him now, so she'll most likely be seeing lots of greyhounds as well and couldn't hurt to get them joined up! I also wanted them to have Dr. Couto's info in case Ace's ultrasound tomorrow comes up with anything disturbing or perturbing

One of our broodie mamas left for the Bridge yesterday...she came to us after being (IMO) overbred...her hips were out of joint, she walked funny, and though she was only 8 years old, she was worn out (one of our families has a 14 year old that walked the same way Squaw did). She still found a way to have enough spunk to be a sweetheart and seek out attention and hugs. She was thin when we got her and didn't seem to want to eat regularly in the kennel, so one of our WONDERFUL volunteers took her home for some TLC. Nina had her about a month, and during that time she began to eat regularly and became part of Nina's pack, consisting of another former broodie and a sweet old gentleman who was returned to the group some time ago. Squaw was really coming out of her shell and would greet Nina at the door with the other two, but over the past couple of days, Nina had had to go find her laying in the house. She went to the vet yesterday after her tummy started looking distended and she had gone back to her finicky eating habits and had started having some diarrhea. Turns out Squaw had an abdominal mass and a belly full of fluid. Not wanting to let her suffer anymore, the decision was made to send her to the Bridge so she could be happy again. I am so thankful to Nina for opening her heart and her home to this sweet old girl...she didn't get to stay long but I know that her time there made all the difference in the world for her. Godspeed, sweet girl, we all loved you like our own

I said Yes, minor and Ongoing because Ace takes thyroid meds, but she's having her blood drawn tomorrow for our first retest so we'll see, I'm sure she'll be able to come down in dose... We HAD trouble with Fritz's toe FOREVER but it seems as though we're FINALLY at a point where it will take a licking and keep strong, so, if not for Ace's thyroid we would have NO problems! They are 5 and Ace was just started on the thyroid pills so I think we've done pretty well for ourselves health-wise. Oh, does bad breath count as a problem? They both have good teeth but bad breath!

We titer here once a year when they have their heartworm test at their yearly. Rabies every 3 years. Not sure about the lyme...I know that people and dogs can get it around here but we don't spend any time in wooded areas My dogs I know had inhaled bordatella vaccine when they were racing but I have never had them get it...if I don't kennel them anywhere do they really need it?

I must not have seen this poll back when it was created so I'll chime in.. I'm 24, I'll be 25 in April, and DBF is 25 (just turned in late January). Ace and Fritz are 5 years old, and my Rose and Violet are almost 4 years old.b

Nancy I am just seeing this now...I'm so sorry to hear of Marvin's passing I have tears running down my cheeks, I always have such a hard time hearing of how my "internet friends" have lost their babies. Run pain free, sweet Marvin...you've been so brave

If anyone comes as far north as IL I can find a place for you and your animals, if not at my house, the animals can stay at my group's kennel and we have cheap pet friendly hotels also. Not a whole lot of room in the house but I'd be willing to give up my bedroom for guests. Fenced in yard too. Next door neighbors have a pool I have indoor cats but they'll hide in the basement even from cat safe dogs, so cat safeness isn't really an issue. I just pray everyone is alright.