Pemphigus Foliaceus

[Ursa's daddy]

Does anyone have experience with Pemphigus Foliaceus? This spring, Ursa, my female developed blistering on the top of her muzzle at her nose, and the vet diagnosed it as Pemphigus Foliaceus. He began treatment with steroids, and we noted that she was loosing hair. Blood tests showed a thyroid condition which we then started to treat. Blood tests showed we had her thyroid levels were back in control, and she began to regrow hair. However she develops scabs on her back. After doing some research, my wife and I thought this may be due to sun exposure (UV) and modified a tee shirt for her to wear outside. Sunlight may be a contributing factor, since U bathed her yesterday and noted that most of the scabs along with some skin pigmentation changes were in the area not covered by the tee shirt. My wife suggested adding a little skirt to make it a tutu, so my little girl will dressed up when she goes outside.

I have searched the forum and have noted some discussion of Chows and food sensitivity. I will be checking the food ingredients for possible issues. I have two Chows, and my ~2 year old male is not having any skin problems. We live in south Mississippi, and last year had problems with hot spots, especially with our male. We did not have any problems this year because of additional grooming and attention to skin conditions.Over the years, I have had many "working" breed dogs; German Shepherds, Australian shepherds, our last dog was a Siberian husky. From what I have observed, Chow Chows have very sensitive skin. Both my chows are rescue dogs, and my female, Ursa, would have been euthanized because of severe flea allergies had I not adopted her. Both the dogs were raised with our cats and there has never been a problem with them and the cats. I have had lots of dogs, and these two are the SWEETEST dogs I have ever owned. When I take them out in public, people ask if I had them professionally trained because they are so well behaved. (no)

[Merlin]

Yes I do.
Out of curiousity, was a biospsy done? because if one wasn't done, then it's just a guess and there are several types of Pemphigus and the treatment for each is different.

sorry to hear that you've got that problem. This illness sure does come with it's frustrations.
Pemphigus is difficult to control at the best of times and drug therapy is your best bet, but like Herpes, you'll find that it comes in cycles, some seasons/cycles being worse than others.

What drugs are you using now? We had very decent successes with Prednisone. Pred is hard on the liver so we made sure to give decent doses of Milk Thistle to help protect the liver. We have one pei who's been on pred for 7 years now and she's holding her own.

You can help your chow improve but consistently offered a high quality diet, but even with that it won't erase the illness.
This is an auto immune disorder that comes from birth, so you'll have quite a challenge. If you can't please DON"T DO SHOTS.... they contribute to the problem.

You need to make sure you feed natural foods or at least entirely grainless foods to this chow. \it WILL make a difference.

[kingalls]

Please use the advanced search for Pemphigus by the author swancin. Cindy's Chow, Kodi, has this condition. I'm sure Cindy would be a very helpful resource.

[Ursa's daddy]

Thanks for your replies. Ursa is receiving Azathioprine and Prednisone for the Pemphigus Foliaceus, and Soloxine for her thyroid. I do not know if a biopsy was done. I was working out of the country when the problem first arose, and my wife handled it through our vet. The chows are being fed dry food, and at this time, I don't have the analysis, since we transfer it from the bag to a sealed plastic container. We recently changed feed because the feed we had been using had too many fillers. We have cats, and if you think diet for dogs is an issue, cats will really drive you nuts. The animals only get specified feed and not table scraps. If necessary, I can set up a spreadsheet for feeding and weigh the portions. We are new to Chows, but not to caring for animals. I agree with the advice on shots. Adjusting her diet and reducing the meds is what I would like to do. Thank you all for the advice. I will keep you posted. If my furry children will cooperate, I will post some picture.

[AlwaysTango]

Our beloved Zilla had it. As Merlin said it came in cycles, sometimes he would go half a year without any issues, other times it would come and go for several months at a time. We tried several different drug combos, but the only one that seemed to work for him was pred. At first we used it just when he had outbreaks, but over time we ended up on a low dose maintenance course all the time and that seemed to work the best. We noticed that when he was really stressed about something he seemed to get more outbreaks, so we tried to keep him stressfree and his diet as high quality as possible. We got a baseline blood test and kept a really close eye on his liver/kidneys with the pred.
One thing we noticed with the pemphigus is that pain meds didn't seem to work for him (of course you can't give pred with NSAIDS). I'm not sure if others with pemphigus had this problem, but it was a real problem with Zilla and his arthritis. Funnily enough, the low dose pred helped with the arthritis pain ( in addition to acupuncture) more than anything else. Because the lesions were on his feet, we had real problems with his toenails. Cutting his toenails was torture for him and us! The lesions around his nose caused his nose to lose the ability to make moisture, so we had to keep vitamin E or petroleum jelly on it at all times or it cracked and peeled off in big pieces. If you put your dog on pred long term, it's good to keep a close eye on small illnesses or problems, since your dog's suppressed immune system isn't fighting off disease and problems as it normally would.
The important thing is not to give up. People told us that the average dog with pemphigus foliaceus only lives about a year after diagnosis. We had Zilla with us for over six years after diagnosis, until he was almost twelve. He lived a wonderful life, and we were so thankful for every moment we had with him. We miss him so much! Good luck with Ursa. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions, and I will try to help.
Tracey

[spliffers97]

Hi, my Chow , Kiba has been diagnosed with pemphigus erythematosis. He has been to a specialist and on various meds but prednisone is the one that keeps his sores minimal. He has never achieved remission. Yesterday 3/4 of his nose was affected with what looked like a giant pustule. Usually it's real small ones. I am worried his disease is getting worse. Any suggestions besides prednisone? Maybe vet is missing something. He's only two and I want him to live a happy life but I am very unnerved that it seems to all of a sudden get worse. Thanks for your suggestions.
Laura