Although it’s been awhile since I last wrote about Cooper’s SLO (symmetrical lupoid onychodystrophy), it’s never far from my mind.
Three times a day, Cooper gets medicines. Every day, I’m always on the look-out for another broken nail, another session of determined toe-licking, or non-accident related limping. And awhile back, when Cooper’s coat began to look dry, my first thought was not to wonder about the effects of weather or the need for a new diet.
Instead, it was, “Oh, I wonder if this is a signal for another flare-up of SLO.”
Cooper’s current SLO status
Since last March, when his two front “index” nails were so badly broken, there have not been any new breaks that were anywhere near that bad. He’s had a couple of nails sort of peel, like a banana, where an outside layer of hard nail tissue peels away.
Several nails look very beat-up and irregular. One of these, Cooper started to lick last night. This might mean it has split back under the cuticle and is causing discomfort. If that’s the case, I should see the nail split in the next several weeks.
But it’s not all horrible. Four nails (one on each foot) look beautiful, black, glossy, straight, and strong. And (thankfully, knock on wood, please God) nothing that makes him limp, cry, or bleed.
Medication regimen
We’ve changed his medicines a little bit. We’re still with
- 500 mg tetracycline, 3x day
- 500 mg niacinimide, 3x per day
- 400 IU vitamin E, 2x per day
- 2 1000 mg salmon oil, 3x per day
- 2 capsules Permaclear in the morning, 1 at midday, and 1 at night
To that, we’ve added
- super vitamin B caplet, ground up and added to his food, 2x per day
We’ve stopped (mostly because it got expensive)
- Si Wu Tang powder, 2x per day
