Slo

[Newgreymom]

We have been away for almost 3 weeks due to my husbands surgery. The dogs came back from the sitter tonight and Daisy's nail are coming off and there is like new nail underneath. I've heard of SLO, but don't know much about it. What is the treatment? Do they cut the nail that's coming off?? I'm freaking out!!!

[kamsmom]

It's not usually a new nail underneath, it's usually the quick that is exposed because the nail has fallen off. My dog lost all of her nails over a month's time (except one, one toenail) It's messy when they fall off as the quick bleeds and bleeds. My vet said absolutely not to be trimming or cutting on the nails as they are extremely painful. If your dog is in pain you need to have the vet give some pain meds to help. Isis is still on doxy, vit E, and Niacinamide. She had been taking Tramadol for the pain.

 

Good luck.

[kudzu]

You will be taking your dog to the vet, right? You need to. This sounds like it might be SLO but it could be something else. Most SLO dogs have exposed quicks when the nail falls off but have heard of a couple who don't. That seems to be dogs whose SLO has been going on for a while. That isn't how their SLO initially presented.

 

Kamsmom's has described our situation with my girl Venus but with one exception. Venus' nails bled very little when they came off. By the time her nails fell off the quick had pretty much already died so there was minimal bleeding. The only one that bled a lot was the one the vet pulled off. The nail had seemed like it was hanging on by a thread but it turned out to be a very bloody one.

 

This time last year is when Venus' SLO appeared and all her nails fell out over the course of a couple months, every single nail including dew claws. Each time it left the quick exposed. The quick slow developed something like a shell around it but it wasn't like a normal nail. Those grew in slowly over the next 8 months. She went 10 months without needing a nail trim. She also didn't loose any more nails until a few weeks ago. She has one nail on a front foot where the nail grows out strangely, almost cork screw like. I let that nail get too long & it apparently snagged on something. It pulled is somewhat loose but didn't come off. That one bled of & on for the next couple days but it wasn't a lot of blood, just a few drips here & there. For the humans it was an annoyance. For Venus it was very painful. The nail did fall out on it's own after 7-10 days. In the meantime my poor girl was lame.

 

Our vet did not want to pull any nails off & was very against clipping the nails while Venus was going through all this. She had found that in general SLO dogs seemed more painful when nails are removed rather than allowing those to come off on their own. Either approach is very painful though. It is a rare dog who is not in pain during the process & for Venus it was agony without meds. Using NSAID, tramadol & gabapentin we were able to keep her comfortable. She was on doxy, niacinamide, vit E & B-complex for treatment of SLO.

 

Will say that keeping your dog's nails as short as possible will help reduce the nails loss in the long run. That is because SLO damages the nail bed and weakens the nail or nail attachment. Longer nails are more likely to catch on things thus increasing the likelihood those will be accidentally ripped out. The same applies to dogs with healthy nails but it is even more likely for SLO dogs.

 

I trim Venus nails with a Dremel rather than clippers. She seems to tolerate that much better especially if I hold the nail as still as possible with one hand while using the grinder in the other. When a nail is already loose though trying to use a grinder on it is very painful. I did do it on a few nails on rare occasions. The nail a couple weeks ago is one of those. It was very hard to do it without causing her unbearable pain. It was no doubt still painful but she was able to tolerate it & the result is that over the course of a few days I managed to get that nail short enough that it didn't contact the ground when she walked. That increase her comfort more than the drugs.

 

Here is a very good website on SLO: http://www.grassmere-animal-hospital.com/SLO.htm