Dog's claws falling off on all paws!

[Minstrelsaremarvellous]

Took dog to vet last week with 1 sore claw on front foot and 2 sore claws on back foot. Given antibiotics/pain killers but late this afternoon he yelped and the entire claw came off revealing the bloody quick. Since then 2 other claws have come off and I can see more are coming off. It's truly horrendous and fortunately I was able to give him painkillers. I've been reading on the Internet about Symmetrical Lupoid Onchyodystrophy which is an auto-immune disease. Does anyone know anything (and I'm taking my boy straight back to vet tomorrow - out of hours were useless). Help!

Oh no your poor boy :( no idea I'm afraid. Did you see the vet today? What did they say?

I will try and find my thread about exactly this - ask for thyroid test, in my dogs case she had low thyroid and although lots of tablets and blood tests were eneded to get the right dose, the nails all grew back perfectly :)

I wil search for it now...

here it is under my old username - and I admit to sounding a little irrational! (my dog did not die!) and I, like you, also thought lupus was the cause - although this normally appears in much younger dogs. How old is your dog?

My boy is 7yrs. Saw the vet today and she was fantastic. She openly admitted she'd never seen this in a dog before and referred us immediately to specialist vet. We have an appointment Weds morning. His paws are all bandaged and he's doing ok. Will read the link now thanks.
Am on mat leave fortunately so can be with him quite easily. I was so upset on Sunday but feeling calmer now.
I intend to ask about thyroid issues too but I'm sure they'll review all differentials. Will update you Weds afternoon.

Hi all, my dog got admitted to specialists today so they can put him on morphine They suspect SLO too rather than thyroid problems but they're going to run several diagnostics. Will keep you updated...

oh I'm sorry to hear that :( I do hope it is something less serious. Please do keep us posted. xx

Thanks Windmill, spoke to vet this evening. He said my boy had settled very well and had 'relaxed' with the morphine. (it's good stuff!). Dermatologist is being consulted tomorrow along with internal medicine. More hopefully tomorrow lunchtime.

Hi all
My boy come home today with lots of tramadol! He's back in on Monday to see a dermatology specialist with an internal medicine specialist. They'd like to avoid any aggressive measures like biopsies if they can so fingers crossed. I'll post again on Monday.

Great news! (though sounds expensive!) hope Monday goes ok

hi windmill we were back with dermatologist today and she thought it was a very early case of SLO as I thought. She's only ever seen one other dog like this as all other cases she has seen have progressed further. She kept him in this afternoon to clip his claws and I asked her to do it under GA because of the pain. Thank goodness she did as 7 more claws came off. She's not seen SLO at this stage and even she was visibly upset at it. (and this is a small animal specialist hospital)
ANyway, we have a management plan in place, extreme diet management, fish oils, vit B, biotin. Unfortunately it's going to take months but he's now home with bandaged paws. He's getting a lot of TLC..... our black lab looks a little fed up at missing out on the love! Thanks for the concern, it's appreciated as I've been really upset for him today.

Oh no :( I am sorry for him.

My dogs claws all came off too. It is absolutely awful to see them in so much pain.

Luckily for us the thyroxin ensured all further nails grew back properly, and we've not had recurrent nail problems

Has your vet discussed total removal of nails yet? Before they do this, please please get him checked out for thyroid levels just in case, as it is a much cheaper cure than removal of nails (we were literally one step away from nail removal - I am just soooo glad my vet tried the thyroxin first, the other gets all disagreed with her and wanted to refer me to specialists or do toe biopsies)

I hope your boy recovers okay today

Thanks windmill, he's lost 10 claws now but the don't want to remove the others. We discussed two differentials, thyroid problems and vasculitis. Thyroid issues were dismissed as there are no other signs/symptoms. If he doesn't stabilise in the next 4weeks then she'll review again for vasculitis. One step at a time I guess.
I've just paid a small fortune for special dog food for him and he won't eat it! It's practically caviar for dogs. Oh well, he's been curled up on the sofa today so he's happy as larry (ish!)

Glad he is happy today- 10 claws I had forgotten how distresig the claw loss was for us. It is just such an awfully painful thing to watch them go through isnt it? I think our dog lost all of hers in the end (over a couple of months) and they seemed to take AGES to grow back.

Our dog has never had any other symptoms of low thyroid, and the results weren't excessively low, just a bit below average IIRC. It was a "stab in the dark" by the vet, a stab which luckily for us worked.

I am not diagnosing your dog by any stretch, I am just very grateful that my vet took that leap of faith, and i didn't have to go down the route of specialists etc.

One of mine also has a thyroid problem with few symptoms. Push for a blood test, just to be sure. You need a test for T4.

The normal range for T4 is a massive 13-51. My girl came back with a result of 18 and we are medicating her try and get her to the middle of the normal range. Her symptoms are behavioural, but that's the only sign.

A blood test will cost little, cause very little distress and just might be useful. Insist they take one!