My Chow was diagnosed with this about 6 weeks ago. Unfortunately for me, not
knowing much about the problem as I hadn't even HEARD of the "Discoid"
version prior to her diagnosis, I had to trust the vet when he said
"Cortisone" and put her on it.

The good news is that the nose, which looked like I had taken a sharp knife
to it and skinned it when she was diagnosed, is near normal, just a small
pink spot left for now. The bad news is that this is a Chow who is
unfortunately sensitive to medications. She is nearly 5 now but when she was
a pup and I took her for her booster shot, I was introduced to sensitivity
that night when she started peeing blood. Next time she needed a shot, I got
an antihistamine, first then the shot which seemed to work out just fine.

So it came to about 2 weeks ago and I realised her yearly shots were near 2
months overdue, I had forgotten about them and so had the vet. He checked
his records and didn't have them written down. I couldn't find my records
but I knew when I took her for her shots. I took her there, got her shots
and all seemed well for a week when she developed some "thing" I still
haven't got a name for and she started throwing up everything and anything
she ate or drank and at first seemed constipated then suddenly it came out
in a few bloody gastric rushes. Back to the vet and he put her on
antibiotics. A week later she is still somewhat listless but improving every
day and further blood tests revealed the infection is still there, mildly
but it is abating, at least.

Now about all we have to worry about is the damned Discoid Lupus. I am
interested in hearing about anyone's ideas who know about this and what you
do. I have my girl off the cortisone for now and for the moment all appears
OK. I don't really WANT to put her back on it but it is an auto immune
disease and of course that means regardless of what I want, at some time it
WILL come back, likely within the next month or so and thus I will be forced
to do SOMETHING.

Any help appreciated on what to do with this.

Unknown wrote:

Any help appreciated on what to do with this.

I have a friend whose GSD mix has Discoid Lupus. Last I heard, he had
been off medications for at least a year. He has problems with the skin
on his nose and feet.

If I remember correctly, he takes Vitamin E and EFA supplements. She
mimimizes his outdoor activity when it is sunny, and applies sunblock
(SPF as high as she can get) to the nose if he has to be out. Other
than that, she said that the best thing for his nose seems to be some
lotion she found that has glucosamine in it - I'm told it can be found
at CVS - although neither of us could find any proof that it should do
much of anything. Keeping the lotion/sunblock on the nose is a little
tricky, but I've found that giving the dog something else to lick while
you're applying it (I use peanut butter, held really close to the lower
jaw) seems to help. For the feet, she uses bag balm.

For both the feet and the nose, the higher the frequency of application,
the better he gets. He stayed with me for a few days while she went on
vacation, and we basically put the lotion on his nose every time we
thought of it (at least 5x a day). She could notice the difference when
she returned. I am told that she has used topical corticosteroids when
the disease had flared up, but didn't have to resort to anything oral.

Now, to the vaccine reaction. I am surprised your vet didn't mention
anything about doing a vaccine titer in lieu of the vaccine, especially
considering her previous reaction. Now may actually be a good time to
do it too, since she has just received a booster. This may be a little
difficult, but if her titer comes back as low for something (for exampl
e the 'D' in DHLPP), you can ask for a vaccine specifically against that
disease instead of the combo vaccine. Generally, vets don't carry
anything but combo vaccines, but may be able to special order it. If
you have a holistic vet in your area, that would be your best bet.

Suja