Health Worries

My petsitter was nagging me late last year because she was worried about Lola, who was looking swollen and apparently getting bigger by the day. Lola was eating and drinking just fine and was in fact quite playful. But I had to agree, Lola was decidedly bigger than a couple of months ago.

I dragged her to the vet and had a full blood panel and some xrays done. The verdict? Lola's blood chemistry looks fabulous. Her organs are in the correct place and are all about the right size--except that they are all nestled in a huge bed of FAT.

She had gained 4 lbs in four months.

And how did this happen?

Well, all the cats were looking a little rotund in the fall so I had started restricting their portions. They don't free feed but get measured portions of food twice a day. Lola was chowing down on her kibble then shouldering one of the other cats out of the way to eat most of his food.

The trick was to first switch to low-fat kibble then cut the portions to the point that even the pushover cat sucks his meals down right away, leaving little extra but crumbs for the voracious Lola.

My bigger worry is Harry. He tore a claw in November at flyball practice. I thought it was healing but as December progressed, more and more of his claws started deteriorating. The nails flake and crumble off, separating from the soft tissue underneath, and the nail beds of the affected nails would tear and would bleed often. Like, bleed all the time. I took him to flyball practice in early January which in retrospect was a mistake. Although his hind feet were wrapped, his front feet were not and he tore off parts of two nails on his left front foot. His feet hurt so bad on our return home that he was unwilling to walk.

I took him to my regular vet who passed me on to a dermatological specialist. My regular vet did run a full blood panel and nothing unusual showed up there. Many days of worry passed. I pulled Harry from the January flyball tournament. Whatever was going on had affected all four feet and all but two of his nails.

At last we got in to see the specialist. He seemed quite excited to tell me that Harry has an extremely rare condition called alopecia areata with trachyonychia (that second part is the nail disease). It is an immune related disorder in which his immune system is attacking his nail beds and the special cells that make nail material. He is now on cyclosporine, an immune suppressant (anti-tissue rejection). It is dissolved in cod liver oil castor bean oil in gel caps. Castor bean oil smells really nasty.

The castor bean oil is causing Harry significant intestinal distress (diarrhea, dry heaves) but the specialist said that he should develop a tolerance for it in about a week.

Harry is still in a lot of pain. I found out that when his nails fall off, the bloody stub that is exposed is HIS BONE! My god.


And some of you might recall that he has almost no hair on his ears. That is in fact another expression of this immune condition, which he has apparently had for many years. It suddenly moved into his nails. Typical of immune diseases, it can wax and wane.

This condition is so rare in dogs that there is very little information on its progression, if there are recurrences, etc. However, the dermatologist was remarkably upbeat about treatment and prognosis.

The dermatologist said that I should see improvement in his feet and a reduction of the pain and the nausea and such in about 7-10 days. It's only been four days and it will be a very long week ahead. My boy is suffering and I can't do anything about it except wait.