Lupus

[Austerra]

I had a customer in today whose dog may have Lupus, cultures are being done to confirm this, does anyone have experience with this?

The dog presented with a severe ear infection, so the vet cleaned out the ear passage and prescribed ear drops and antibiotics, after a week and no inprovement the dog started to get rashes around the lips and eyes, with swelling in the ears and around eyes. After three vets having a look and none being familiar with what they were seeing, they decided it wasn't an allergic reaction and hence looked towards Lupus.

The dog is now on cortisone and antibiotics, awaiting outcome of tests. It is a 9 month old bitch desexed, lab x poodle.

Any ideas if this may be Lupus or other suggestions of possible problem.

Thanks in advance.

[trifecta]

There have been several threads on lupus over the years.

I did a search of this forum for you & found these topics listed here

ETA Sorry the link does not work however if you type lupus into the search box at the top right of this page the topics will come up...... hopefully

Edited September 18, 2011 by trifecta

[Austerra]

There have been several threads on lupus over the years.

I did a search of this forum for you & found these topics listed here

ETA Sorry the link does not work however if you type lupus into the search box at the top right of this page the topics will come up...... hopefully

Thanks, will have a look

[F.L]

I had a customer in today whose dog may have Lupus, cultures are being done to confirm this, does anyone have experience with this?

The dog presented with a severe ear infection, so the vet cleaned out the ear passage and prescribed ear drops and antibiotics, after a week and no inprovement the dog started to get rashes around the lips and eyes, with swelling in the ears and around eyes. After three vets having a look and none being familiar with what they were seeing, they decided it wasn't an allergic reaction and hence looked towards Lupus.

The dog is now on cortisone and antibiotics, awaiting outcome of tests. It is a 9 month old bitch desexed, lab x poodle.

Any ideas if this may be Lupus or other suggestions of possible problem.

Thanks in advance.

Hi,

It could also be Demodectic mites. My dog had this. He had a number of scrapings but most came back negative so it's very hard to diagnose. He was treated for three month with Ivomec.

[Sankari]

My GR has Lupus, she's managed well on medication - “Macrolone”. Her white blood cells were very low, so we retested and still very low so we did an abdominal ultra sound which turned no further answer, so our final option was to do bone marrow biopsies which were sent off and gave us a diagnosis. Her blood was tested a few weeks back and now she's maintained her white blood cells are back to normal range, her weight is almost back to normal, and she's racing around like a puppy again - previously was very flat, lethargic etc

She's ALWAYS wanting more food... Well more than what's normal for a Goldie! I am told the medication will do this to her though. All in all there's no reason why dogs cant resume a normal life, just have to be careful because Charlotte will be prone to infection, other than that, she's doing fantastic!

Edited September 21, 2011 by LucyCharzie

[ShesaLikeableBiBear]

By the symptoms you have described it sounds as if it could be Demodectic Mange, which a vet should be able to diagnose. Generally they will do a skin scraping and the mites will show up under a microscope. All dog have mites but they flourish when a dog is under stress. e.g. I had a sheltie who had Demodectic mange after she has her first season. We successfully treated it with Demodex.

Discoid Lupus Erythematosus (DLE) is an auto-immune disease of the skin. It may be referred to as Collie Nose as it often affects Collies, Shelties and German Shepherds. Clinical signs include crusting of the nose. I have had a sheltie with DLE. We treated the nose with Aristocort cream (a human cortosteriod) and kept him out of the sun. He has shown no signs of DLE now for 6 years.

[Sankari]

There is also SLE (systemic Lupus Erythematosus) which is different to DLE which affects the skin. My dog has SLE, she will have certain restrictions however there's nothing to say she will not live a normal life like any other dog

I have heard on DOL that dogs with DLE have shown no problems for periods of time. So hopefully if this dog does have DLE it will be like the cases I have heard on here. I am yet to find another member whose dog has the SLE form of Lupus, so I rely heavily on the vet and the Internet to help with my research!

[Sankari]

Sorry double post!

Edited September 22, 2011 by LucyCharzie