Gracie is a 3 years old Doberman/Shepard rescue. We adopted her and her sister Hope when they were 6 months old the girls are inseparable sisters. Gracie is the runt of the litter but what she may not have in size she certainly has in speed and smarts. Grace behaves more like the Doberman and Hope more like the German Shepard as the looks are matching closer to the specific breed as well.
In June 2011 Gracie started to loose a nail she saw the vet and he removed the nail and trimmed the others. Unfortunately a couple of weeks later we began noticing Gracie and Hope licking Gracie's toenails and another toenail was gone.I called our vet and he treated for a bacterial infection prescribing a course of prednisone and antibiotics. The meds had no effect and she continued to loose her nails on that same paw, within another couple weeks she has lost all but her dew claw on one paw and now 2 nails on other front paw.I have done days of research and figured it must be the autoimmune response commonly referred to as SLO, my vet agrees and is letting me research to find the best possible med regiment for Gracie. It is heartbreaking to watch this happen to my dog, I have opted to simply observe how she handles her activity levels while the nails are lifting from the quick and falling off and she remains quite active and care takes herself by licking before sleep. With her normal running in the yard the nails do not stay embedded they simply fall right off and the exposed quick does not seem to bother her.I have started her on doxycyclene omega 3,6 and vitamin e, I am picking up the niacinamide today as the doc had to order it for me. Little-one as we sometimes call her is resting comfortably beside me right now and I do beleive she knows I am helping her with this problem.I will continue posting updates to our journey so stay tuned!
