One of my friends has this problem-has anyone else every had it.
" I took him to have his nails trimmed and after that he got an infection in his feet and now his nails are splitting and coming off. We are on our second round of antibiotics and the vet suggested surgery to remove all the nails and have a fresh start."
I have never heard of this happening before, and removing all the nails seems extreme and expensive to me. Anyone have any suggestions?

Sounds like SLO.. we have come across a paw full in GC... Most do pretty well with rounds of prenisone <?> Not constantly but staggered doses & they need to keep short nails & watched carefully. They'll actually hollow out & sometimes fall completely off

Does sound like SLO. Here is a website for the Arizona Greyhound group that talks about this issue.

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And a very good article from Grassmere Animal Hospital that works with greys.

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Our Julius has it. It gets worse and then better. The article from Arizona that Maggies Mom posted about finally helped me understand what it was. I took him to 2 vets and they did not have a clue what it was.
Carol's Bizzy is having some treatment from Poplar for it right now. She said Dr Amat (whom we all know and love) did some extra research on it to help treat it.
Good luck!

Thanks everyone for the information on SLO-it sure sounds like that is what Scooter may have. I've sent it on to Marie.
It seems like I'm hearing of a lot of different auto-immune problems lately.

As Tottie said, our Bizzy does seem to have this toenail problem. The prednisone treatment she's been on seems to have helped her and also resulted in our having to wash floors frequently! (prednisone in, urine out, lots and lots of urine) We hope she will be able to "coast" without prednisone for a while until things flair up again.

We'd had Bo in now 3 times to the vet in the past two weeks and hadn't identified the problem until yesterday. He'd been licking his paw but we couldn't tell that anything was wrong other than some minor redness. Had taken him back Sat. afternoon and the vet saw nothing unusual. Sat. night did notice that one of the nails was white which seemed odd but yesterday the nail separated (still hanging on) and you could see the new nail underneath it. There was no swelling at the time a talked with a nurse that used to work at Animal Medical Hospital and she said the nail normally falls of on its own. There was no inflamation then but the nail is still attached this morning and there is some swelling. He's not a happy boy and really doesn't want anyone messing with it. First time he's ever really snapped at me but I muzzled him "before" I tried to take a close look.

Glad I saw this series of posts and have printed off the articles and taking them with me to the vet this morning. If anyone has any additional insight, please feel free to give me a call at 704-891-1901. Thanks.

Take care-
Kirk

Kirk
My Sport pulled his dewclaw a couple of weeks ago at playgroup and it swelled up. After the swelling went down, I checked it yesterday and his is doing the same thing-separating from the skin and looks like it is shedding. I hope you are just having the same thing and not that nasty SLO.

Got Bo to the vet this morning and Dr. Cooley felt like we should treat it like it was described in the articles. Think she was thrilled that we have come closer to figuring out what was going on.

Bo was due for a dental cleaning anyhow so we bumped it up to today and they will take off the hanging toenail while he's napping and trim back the rest. They can take a look at the rest to see if there's evidence of a problem on other toes.

Will post an update when we get him home.
Thanks-

Kirk

Got Bo home from the vet and he's enjoying his end of the futon. Didn't care much about dinner but has rested quite well since he got home.

Dental cleaning went well and his teeth look great as they were able to remove not on the plaque buildup but some of the stains I never thought would come off.

Dr. Cooley was able to remove the toenail that was hanging on and trimmed back the rest of his nails. The SLO was present in other nails and several crumbled when they cut them. I had used a Dremel the last 2 times I trimmed the nails so I didn't notice a problem. However, it's a big difference when you use the clippers and the force you need to cut them.

Bottom line, thanks to a little research and the post here, was able to find out what was going on with Bo. Dr. Cooley said without the info I brought in, it would have been absolutely one of the last things she would have thought to look for.

Will go back on the 29th for a follow up on Bo and get Corky's dental done that day as well. Not used to having 7 vet visits in a month. Hoping for a return to "normal" in September. ;)

Later-
Kirk

So glad to hear that Bo is doing well after his vet visit. Good luck with his nails. Keep us posted on the followup.

For anyone out there with a pup with SLO I was wondering what treatments you tried and did you have much success. My littel
Milo man was just diagnosed with SLO he has lost 9 nails in the past two weeks with numerous trips to the vet. We are changing his diet to get
more omega 3's and my vet is waiting to hear from the dermatologist at the vet school to see if there is any new info out there. Just wondering if anyone has had much luck- it breaks my heart to have him gimping around like he is. Thanks Dottie and Milo with the gnarly toes!

One of our greyhounds has been recently diagnosed with SLO. We actually diagnosed her using the book "Care of the racing and retired greyhound". Our vet was not familiar with SLO. After reading our book, our vet started her on the "cocktail" described in the book. We started with 500mg of Tetracycline, and 500mg of Niacinamide 3 times a day. She also must take a Dermacap once a day. Her food was also changed to Eukenuba FP (fish and potato). She has been on this for about 3 months. We are just starting to decrease her dose to twice a day. She will been on the medication for at least another 2 months. We had tried Prednisone on her in the past, and she lost so much weight, that we have opted not to put her back on it. This cocktail is a pain...it must be administered every 8 hours, but she has improved 100%.

Please feel free to pm me for my phone number. I would be happy to discuss this further with you.

Stephanie

For those seeking help, advice and additional info on SLO, I've joined a Yahoo group for Bo that has lots of good info and helpful group members.

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Since SLO is an an auto-immune disease, we're in it for the long haul (treatable but not curable at present). You will be dealing with this for the rest of your dogs life. The good news however is that it comes and goes but is never as bad as the first time. This group is not big on Dr. Stacks protocol w/prednisone but sticks to a more natural approach and their results have been good. Here's a link to another vet clinic I found that follows this protocol.

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Bo started some time in late August and the nails have been slow coming off. We are down to 2 remaining nails and he seems to be navigating better and in less pain. After the first set of nails come off, from what I've read, any additional nail loss isn't nearly as painful. When the nails start growing back (takes 9 months to regrow a nail), they are really funky looking. I have not attempted to trim but most are suggesting a file. Best advice is not to expect quick improvements or results (think 3-6 mo.) I know that sounds awful but the sooner you accept that time frame, the better you can help your grey for the long haul.

The biggest frustration is that not that many vets are familiar with it, your dogs can be in pain early on and until they start hobbling and the nails start separating, there aren't many symptoms that you would notice. The vet was down on the floor looking at Bo's feet and couldn't see a thing, yet when we got home 30 minutes later, the first nail had raised up...Tada.

I got the Omega 3s & Vitamin E at Target on sale and the Ninacinimide at the Vitamin Shoppe in Matthews. Again, using the experience and vet recommendations from quite a few folks, there's nothing wrong with buying the people brands and in fact they may be better since the FDA regulates them more closely.

Hope this helps and if anyone has any questions, drop me at email or call.

Kirk
Bo the SLO Dog
Corky the Goofy Brother w/o SLO