My Pembroke Corgi, who will be 2 at the end of January, was just diagnosed with Familial Canine Dermatomyositis. There are mild and severe forms of this disease, and it looks like Farley's is moderate and worsening. The disease causes hair loss and bleeding sores (mostly around the face and head) and muscle atrophy. Lovely.

Here's a pic of him, pre-symptoms:
http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r159/Puppickle/Farley.jpg

Here are some pics of what the disease is doing to him (he was symptom free two months ago!!)

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r159/Puppickle/FarleyrightlipDec0306.jpg

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r159/Puppickle/FarleyleftlipDec0306.jpg

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r159/Puppickle/FarleyfrontlipDec0306.jpg

This disease causes sores/pigment loss on his eyelids as well, and is recently causing painful and bleeding, scabby sores inside his ears...just don't have pics of those.

Does anyone have any experience with this auto-immune disease? If so, how did you treat the dog, and what were the symptoms and the outcome?

I'm so upset about this. Farley is an amazing dog. There aren't many treatment options, but we're doing what we can. He's not acting sick, so that's wonderful. The problem is that it seems to be worsening rapidly and what ultimately becomes a problem in severe cases is that the esophagus begins to atrophy and he won't be able to swallow.

Anyway, thanks for your help.

And before anyone says anything...my search feature is wonky! It won't give me results on ANYTHING! This is day two of search weirdness, all was fine before that.

I was reading about this recently.

http://www.gsdhelpline.com/spots.htm has the clearest overview I have seen.

It may sound crazy, but if you're at that "willing to try anything" stage, re-evaluate what he's eating. I have been reading more and more about auto-immune diseases having onsets after vaccines and/or resulting from food intolerances, believe it or not. Of course, these things are difficult to prove at best, but if he were mine, I'd turn over every stone. Improving his overall health certainly couldn't hurt his ability to fight this thing anyway. Did he have any vaccines that stuck out in your mind as causing him difficulty? I say this because I was forced to research the vaccine/auto-immune connection because of one of my dogs, and the food/auto-immune connection because of clients' dogs, particularly diabetics with secondary illnesses/conditions. You would be shocked and disgusted if you could see the harm some vaccines have done to previously healthy dogs. Good luck, and hope the poor little guy feels better ASAP!

So sorry about your dog, that looks painful.
I haven't had any experience with that, I hope it goes away and he gets healthy again.Does he try to scratch at his face at all?

Jenni: The pathology report did say that vaccines can trigger this condition in dogs that are predisposed. However, Farley hasn't had a vaccine in a year (rabies). I don't know what's going n. We are experimenting with his food and giving him vitamin E. There's another immuno-suppressant drug we're considering as well since this disorder is immuno-mediated.

Connie--That link is my favorite, too. I sent it to Farley's breeder to try to explain to her what's going on. It's pretty clear that close relatives of the affected dog (mother/father/sibs) should not be bred...it has a major hereditary aspect. It'll be interesting to see how she handles this.

The other weird aspect to this is that a Corgi breeder friend of mine bought Farley's blood brother to add to his breeding program. The pup he bought is only 6 months. The problem is, she sold the pup to him at breeding/show cost for $1000 ($600 for pet).

Now he knows that his puppy should not be bred because his dog's brother (my dog) has a hereditary condition that prevents ethical breeding. SO, he's willing to neuter the dog (and provide documentation) and keep him as a pet, but he's asking the breeder for the $400 difference back since the pup is under a year and unbreedable even though he was sold as breedable.

I submitted the pathology report from Farley's biopsy to her, but she hasn't responded to either of us yet. I've always had a lot of respect for her as a breeder so I think it's weird that she hasn't gotten back in touch. Just FYI, I'm not asking for anything myself...my dog is neutered and I only paid for pet quality for Farley.

So I thought my friend's request for the monetary difference back was fair since the pup is only 6 months, and not breedable even though he was sold as breedable. Granted, theoretically, the breeder didn't know that these pups were carriers of this disease. But since she suddenly and uncharacteristically clammed up, I wanted to ask everyone....is what my friend is asking for fair? I don't breed dogs and am clueless about this.

Ow, sorry about your little guy (and his brother). Will keep y'all in my prayers.

Maybe I should post the last part as a new topic...it looks like I hijacked my own thread!!

Now Farley has gigantic sores in his ears and his eye is leaking green pus. His lips are even worse than the were 4 days ago...noticably worse.

Vet appt. tomorrow. I hate that this is happening to my buddy who isn't even yet 2 years old.

The breeder still hasn't responded to my friend about the returning the $ difference and he's starting to get irritated. Sigh.

 Quote: Amber Morgan

Now Farley has gigantic sores in his ears and his eye is leaking green pus. His lips are even worse than the were 4 days ago...noticably worse.

Vet appt. tomorrow. I hate that this is happening to my buddy who isn't even yet 2 years old.

The breeder still hasn't responded to my friend about the returning the $ difference and he's starting to get irritated. Sigh.

This sounds like the kind of case that maybe isn't manageable....?

I think I would be clear to the vet about how much I was or was not willing to put the dog through, based on the prognosis. Sometimes vets are worried about being blunt in this kind of sudden and shocking ailment. I think I'd ask outright about quality of life. From what you are describing, this sounds like a bad case (from the references in Merck and elsewhere).

I have no professional knowledge at all; I'm just going by research. I would want the vet to be upfront with something that can cause this kind of misery.

I am so sorry about this.