We are very thankful that the prednisone is working on Layla’s nose. The weeping has stopped, no new lesions have appeared, and her nose is finally showing signs of recovery. Here she is shown today, after 15 days on her meds. We are hopeful that she will regrow pigment and hair!
The purple strings are the location of several biopsies that the vet had done. Truffle has shown no further signs of reaction, but we have yet to discover what caused it in the first place. It’s pretty hard to fight off an invisible problem.
About a week before Christmas 2010, I came home to find our lovely Layla with a very swollen nose and what appeared to be a bite mark on either side of her snout. I thought she had possibly been in a tousle with one of our other dogs, but thought it odd since she had been in the house all morning with only 2 others. Unfortunately, it quickly progressed to a mass of weeping lesions and was clearly not what it initially appeared. She also began showing signs on other body parts.
Showing day 1 through day 5
Two days after dicsovering Layla’s nose I noticed that Truffle also had lesions on her snout and hot spots in her ears and other areas, but we immediately placed her on antibiotics and hers never erupted into anything of note, until New Year’s day; she came in after playing outdoors for a bit and her whole face was swollen, presumably from the same issue. Thank goodness for Benadryl.
Truffle's allergic reaction on New Year's Day
After much worry, several vet visits, and a lot of $$ we concluded that both had experienced an allergic reaction that Layla’s had become infected. The lab results indicated Eosinophilic Furunculosis, which is generally caused by a foreign contaminant or an insect bite. We still have no idea what she reacted to in the first place, but I have since made sure that we always have Benadryl in the house as early treatment might have saved a lot of pain and suffering on everyone’s behalf. We ended up treating her with antibiotics and a steroid and it began clearing up.
Layla on New Year's Day after a week of prednisone/antiobiotics