u/General-Tennis-1992

(Australia)

My partner and I are considering getting a kitten to join the fam. We have 2 dogs (an 8 year old pointer and a 3 year old American lab). They are the absolute best of friends. We’ve got lots to consider in terms of dynamics, temperament etc, but just wondering if anyone has any experience around cats and dogs in the same house. Particularly high energy labs.

Hey! For those that have had their lab diagnosed with SLO (or potentially any autoimmune condition).

I’m seeking advice on managing SLO in dogs. Particularly triggers, but also most helpful supplements / meds, any useful tests / bloodwork. To be clear, he’s already on fish oil, biotin, vitamin e, I’m hoping the vet (if not will advocate) will put him on doxycycline and niacidimide as things the most common medication approach. Speaking of this, for anyone who did this combo - thoughts? and also, was it a short term thing, or permanent. I’m hoping short term, and then figure it all out by other means once more managed, but whatever he needs, he needs. Nature can throw some curve balls I guess! We’re very much in the early stages of diagnosing / managing this. The vet has gone off to do her own research (because it’s fairly rare) and come up with a solid plan. Ive been doing countless hours of research.

For anyone that doesn’t know what SLO is: “a rare, immune-mediated disease in dogs causing painful, brittle nails to separate from the nail bed (onychomadesis) and fall off, typically affecting multiple paws.”

It’s extremely painful. As you can see by some of these photos, there’s been a lot of laying around, a little sore and sad lately. This has been a new thing over the last couple months for my 3 year old lab, it’s truly breaking my heart see him struggling. He’s gone from being the most active, outdoor boy, to basically being on house arrest for weeks. He’s lost 7 nails. I’ve just been focusing on mental engagement which has gone a long way. I’ve posted in the SLO community with more history, context, things I’m doing to manage this, questions, but for now:

I’m super curious if anyone has any lived experience around food triggers, things like that with SLO, or autoimmune conditions in dogs in general. Theres a lot of info on things to add in to his life to help, but not quite as much on what to remove from his life. I’ve complete removed kibble recently, and moved on to lyka.

Weirdly, in about December I moved from adding rotating toppers to their food (meat, organ meat, sardines, eggs, veg, fish oil, egg shell powder, Greek yoghurt, hemp seeds, berries), to making a homemade batches of food for convenience, which included all of that plus quinoa. They’ve always been on about 40% kibble 60% toppers / home cooked food. A month after adding quinoa, this started, so I’m now wondering if it could possibly be quinoa that has triggered the initial flare up. He did also start on new kibble around that time too. Who knows. Could be a total coincidence. I was never overly keen on kibble, knowing how processed it is, but I saw it as a “gap filler” to ensure he was getting the added vitamins and minerals etc. Not necessarily a cause, but it’s well known foods can “flare up” auto immune conditions in anyone. Not so much online about this in SLO in dogs though. Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts on grains or other foods, ingredients, additives. Lyka is as whole foods as it gets, but still has a huge variety of foods, which may include a known trigger. I’ve seen a bit about pea protein but his food didn’t have that. I’m not saying this caused it, but I’d like to try to avoid “triggers”.

On top of the vet handling the medical side of things (there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes than mentioned eg pain relief, currently antibiotics as one toe got infected, daily cleaning and filing etc etc), I’m just super determined to do whatever I can to help. I guess it is just trial and error, but definitely just interested in any personal experience around auto immune in dogs, and foods / triggers.

I’m a huge believer that the body can heal in the right environment. I love my boy with my whole heart and will do whatever it takes to hopefully help heal this, if not manage it in a way he can return to a lifestyle closer to that of which he loved.