Anyone here have/had a dog with Systemic Lupus?

[seether]

Just wondering. Kiska dropped from 57lbs (26kilos) to 40 (18) in two weeks. He has Discoid Lupus, as you can tell by his nose in the pics, but now the tests say Systemic as well. We get the Cortico roid treatment now. Hopefully he'll improve, but in a very short time we've gone from "psycho-spaz" to not being able to climb stairs or stand without shaking due to muscle waste.

Anyone here have any experience? Should I relax a little about him or start stressing more?

[GT98]

I have a friend with Lupus, and I understand its where the immnume system starts to attack the lining of the heart. From what he told me they had him on steroids for a period of time to help out with the syptoms back a couple years ago, but since I've known him he hasn't had any problems with it. Not sure if its same in canines or not. Nice looking dog BTW

[ZokesPro]

What a beautiful dog!

[Paddy]

I've seen SLE (systemic lupus erathematosis) in a few people, but never in animals...

[ayoub_ibrahim]

Originally posted by Paddy [MU]
I've seen SLE (systemic lupus erathematosis) in a few people, but never in animals...

hmm, aren't people animals?
the steroids will damp down the immune reaction.
hope he has a long lasting remission though that's not guaranteed!

[GNEP]

And isn't lupus the latin for wolf? Which would suggest that dogs could get it.

Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

[Liquid_Memory]

I have been doing some searching on the net and found some websites that might be of use. I'm really sorry to hear about your pet, they are our only friends that don't care what you look like in the morning and try to cheer you up when your down. I sincerly hope everything turns out ok.

Liquid Memory

http://www.vetinfo.com/dlupus.html

http://www.showdog-magazine.com/autoimmune.htm#SLE

http://www.canismajor.com/dog/autoimmn.html#SLE

http://cal.vet.upenn.edu/saortho/chapter_89/89mast.htm

I don't know if these will help you or not, I found about 10,000 websites that had information on SLE for animals. The above links seem like the best bet for info though. Hope this helps ya.

Liquid Memory

[Sethos]

Sorry to hear that, I'm a dog lover as well...Hope he improves, he's really cute!

~Sethos

[DentyCracker]

He may or may not get better. This disease in humans tends to be of a remitting/relapsing type. I have seen a few cases of it when I was in med. school and the outcome was not good in any of them. Prepare for the worst, but it may not happen. Do not stress too much, just try as much as possible to deal with each day as it comes.

[ZokesPro]

I really hope you dog gets better, it's sad to see something like this happen to such a beautiful creature.

[seether]

Thanks guys for the input, sincerely.

Zokes and Sethos, he's a sweetheart too, really likes the girls more than guys also, so he'salsways helped me out a bit with the ladies .

Scott, Ayoub, GNEP and Paddy, yeah, it is similar between canines and humans. Spent most of last night reading up on it.

This is a rare disease of the immune system. In this disease, the immune system forms antibodies against the nuclear component of its own cells. This can cause a variety of effects but the most common ones are arthritis, kidney disease, skin disease and blood disorders (anemia and/or decreased in platelet numbers).

Liquid, Thanks for the links. Checked out some of them last night, going to look up the others in a bit.

Denty, thanks for the direct input, I really appreciate it. I'm not too worried right now, just going to start treatment and take it frome there. Right now he's lost so much skeletal muscle his cheek bones stick out like aircraft wings, but he's just as happy as ever which is cool. We can work on his physique, but importantly, his psyche seems fine.

Have to call the vet in a few about treatment options. Gentelmen... we CAN rebuild him... we have the people... we have the technology . . .

[ZokesPro]

Originally posted by vwdrivrco
Thanks guys for the input, sincerely.

Zokes and Sethos, he's a sweetheart too, really likes the girls more than guys also, so he'salsways helped me out a bit with the ladies .

Note to self: Get myself a dog!

Jokes aside I can see why your concerned for Kiska. I really hope that eveything goes well. Keep us updated too.