u/Background-Debate523 — reddlx

after taking him to the vet with not much of a solution or answer, i researched and think my dog might have SLO (an autoimmune disease that attacks dogs nails). my 7yo blue merle Great Dane has never had health issues in the 7 years that I’ve had him and get routine vet check ups every month. three weeks ago he started losing his nails and we have been to the vet and they said its due to infection and gave antibiotics and pain meds, but after researching myself it looks like the symptoms of SLO. after discovering this we are going to change his food, and also talk to our vet about medications moving forward as well as vitamins he can take. he is roughly 146 lbs. we are in love with him and he is such a joy to our family. while this disease is not curable ive read that it is manageable. we want to give him the best treatment and care and ease the pain he’s experiencing. throughout all of this he is still a happy go lucky playful dog, but I can tell this is taking a toll on him and he is considered an old man at his age for a Great Dane. I don’t want my last years with him to be spent with him like this. if anyone has any tips specifically for Great Danes with SLO please let me know! thanks in advance.

hi all, my Great Dane is 7 years old. Over the last 7 years he has rarely ever had any kind of medical issues and only visited the vet for check ups and shots. He is active and playful and eats good food and stays hydrated and he got nail trims at the vet every six months with us doing it at home as best we could in between. I have never had a health scare with him. about 3 weeks ago i noticed his toe was bleeding, I looked down to find the entire toenail gone and the full quick exposed. later i found the toenail and assumed it got caught on something and was ripped off. we bandaged and cleaned it and called in antibiotics and pain meds from our vet to keep it from getting infected. then two weeks later after nail on a different foot did the same thing and this point I knew it was more than just him getting it caught on something so we took a look and noticed that a few toenails looliked like they were seperating from the skin above the toe pad and had become scabbed and bloody one even had a little pus, so we took him to the vet immediately. after almost being dismissed and them not wanting to check under his nails to see they eventually did realize it and did culture swabs. we waited for a week to get results and one bacteria was common and was being treated with the antibiotic they originally gave us while two bacteria strains were immune to that antibiotic. so they prescribed us different antibiotic and more pain meds and didn’t give us a cause to this like SLO or anything else other than infection. Lee have religiously been giving him the pain meds and antibiotic but his toenails seem to keep getting worse. he has now lost two more. help. I love my baby and it is hard to see him in pain