Hi - first post (although have been lurking for a while)
As the title suggests I am looking for anyone who has a dog with discoid lupus (DLE). My German Shorthaired Pointer, Blue (6yo), was diagnosed about 18 months ago and I was hoping that there may be others here so we could perhaps share thoughts about treatment regimes etc.
Unfortunately Blue's DLE has only been minimally responsive to treatment thus far. He is currently on a regime of prednisolone, nicotinamide and doxycycline. At the time of diagnosis, we were not told about the condition being exacerbated by UV exposure. Now that we know, we have added more shade to the backyard to minimise his favourite sunbaking spots, and use sunscreen.
His nose is very cracked and ulcerated. He is not overly bothered by it, but I worry about him (and he looks terrible)! I also worry about the long term effects of the corticosteroids and anti-biotics.
I have done a bit of Dr Googling in recent weeks and happened upon a study of topical tacrilomus treatment which seemed to have amazing results, although the study group was very small, and I plan to discuss this with the vet and ask him to do some more research on it. I'm planning to start him on some Vit E this week, as it seems to help with the scaling and it can't hurt. I've also stumbled across various homeopathic suggestions. I'm willing to give them a try, but would love to know if anyone has had success with them before I whip out the credit card.
Hope there's someone out there who is going through this too - would love to share notes!
