Hi everyone, hope you are all having a great Christmas I clipped Charlie's nails a few days ago and a couple of them were soft, very easy to clip. They are usually pretty tough but not these ones. Is this something to be concerned with, maybe a vitamin deficiency or something? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you xx
You know how humans are told to soak their nails before cutting, makes them softer. Had Charlie been swimming and they were now softer? I've actually read somewhere a tip for cutting dog's nails - do it after a swimming!
Sorry I don't know then. Snowie's nails are extremely hard - I've found out the sore way when they've scraped me! I have noticed that the first toe (like our pointing finger) has a fatter nail than the other three nails. But that might be because his front feet turn out (I'm surmising!). What is his coat like? Usually hair and nails are related ito deficiencies I do believe. I hope you work it out. And please let us know when you do.
Look up symetrical lupoid oncodystrophy in dogs problely isn't that but some dogs nails do go soft with that condition but they are more often crumbly too.
Brogan's nails were super hard (to where I really preferred to use a Dremel on him) but every once in a while I would also notice that one or two would seem kind of "crumbly" and brittle when I had at them with a regular nail clipper. What it seemed to be was if the nail had been compromised somehow between trimmings, so if it had a little crack in the side or I let it get too long and it had a little hollow bit in the middle. None of that really helps you understand why Charlie's nails are doing something similar or if you should be worried, but just to say that I did see that myself and for Brogan it didn't cause any problems for him.
No, no smell and no blood - I had a look at symetrical lupoid oncodystrophy when I saw your post and that looks pretty scary! I guess he could have had a mild case, but it never caused him an issue so frankly I never asked the vet about it.
Think it was mild, Doug didn't have a mild case unfortunately. People don't really know about it. Doug lost all his nails a toe and had complications for the rest of his life. It can be a horrible condition. I never had a dog in such constant pain
We got him well but he would relapse he was a great dog patience and kindness itself. He had a great life I worked everyday to keep him well. He had a fun and happy life we kept the awful bits to a minimum .i didn't want it for him but I made it as easy for him as I could, I know you are the same with your boy. We'd do anything we could for them ,
it was a a hard 8 years but he was worth it.I miss him everyday but then smile at the memories. He was such a great dog
I'd never heard of SLO ( thanks Emily for naming the full condition) I don't remember reading about Doug having it .....poor boy x I can't help really Helen,mine get brittle and break when I've done too much hand washing or dishes.....as helpful as Charlie is loading and unloading the washing machine I don't think that would account for it in the same way xxx
He had from when he was 6 until he died. Its weird ive seen dogs with mild cases and its in the dog population more than you think. The odd nail loss put down to damage. It's when it gets really dramatic it causes problems. It's an auto immune problem so it can go on and on. It damaged Doug's whole body. If you get a dog that repeatedly licks its nails and paws I would take a very close look at the nail beds. I have posted about this before in 2015 as when I joined I did a search for it as I was also looking for new info on it. Not many people are aware of it. Even my vet was stunned by its nastiness. I saw a specialist vet and while we could control the symtoms to some extent would could not stop the progress. Like a lot of auto immune we treated the symptoms to confirm the condition as put Doug though more biopsies was unfair. All my dogs were health tested they never got any of usual lab problems but this one hit Doug hard. It ate him from the nails up at one point he had no nails infected nail beds and was about to undergo toe amputations. I wouldn't let my vet do this as dogs that are immune meditated don't heal well so off to the specialist again. We saved his toes. But one turned white a grew in a deformed freaky way, think aye aye claw. Doug's devil toe.
Brogan did this constantly and the vet said it was from grass allergies (which to be fair, he also had in spades). Really interesting to learn about this. I had no idea there even was such a thing as SLO. I'm really sorry that you went through this with Doug (and again - poor Doug) but appreciate the education you are sharing here.
It's not the thing itself that bothers me its knowing there must be a loads of dogs who have it and are being misdiagnosed . My own vet apologised he said he had never experienced anything like it either. The good thing was once he knew about it he went on to help some owners who were at their witsend. He told Me he had a very upset desperate woman who'd been from practice to practice who was able to help. Its something i want everyone to be aware of.
Thanks everyone. Charlie's nails are not crumbly, sometimes split and break, he lost half a dew claw a couple of weeks ago. They are very hard to clip except 2 which were almost hollow. There's no smell or bleeding. Very odd and I will keep an eye on them. Thanks for your help @SwampDonkey, poor Doug sounds awful x I will get Charlie some rubber gloves! x
