YIKES, it wasn't PEMPHIGUS...........it IS ERYTHEMA MULTIFORME!!!

well.....(as Jack Benny would say)....what we had believed to be PEMPHIGUS for over a year turned out to be NOT.......the biopsy on Little Joey revealed something even more rare....ERYTHEMA MULTIFORME.
Quite rare and related to herpes or lupus it's rarely seen by vets. My vet sent biopsy to California.
Still and all, the massive doses of medrol seem to have pulled Joey's bacon out of the fire, at least temporarily. I am so happy to have him here with me at Christmas!!!
Joey also has two new BFF's who live in the neighborhood-"Hops" and "Barley", sable/white Pems!!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS to all of CORGIVILLE!!!

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Permalink Reply by Winnie on December 25, 2009 at 4:55pm

it's a very uncommon one--an autoimmune condition which attacks soft tissue areas such as gums, mouth, eye margins, tummy, anus etc. Joey's eye margins bled, the crusted over, continued to break out and bleed again. He became very lethargic, not at all like himself (or any Corgi!). He just lay on his side and couldnt even walk around the block.
It's may be caused by a bacteria, or internal tumor, maybe even reaction to RIMADYL or FRONTLINE.
Quite a mystery...they put Joey on 24mg of prednisone a day for a week and once they found out it was NOT pemphigus, vet dropped the tetracycline/niacinamide she had him on. I have been giving him COLOSTRUM to stimulate his immune system.
Dr. says that oftentimes animals will fight out of the attacks on their own but sometimes die during the first week or so of the onset.
Joey, as you may have read earlier, presented with bleeding sores on his feet just after I adopted him.........the preds seem to have cured that but as we backed off more and more from the pred, apparently the erythema multiforme moved in.
Hope your puppy is healthy, happy and enjoying Christmas!
TY,
john & Little Joey

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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on December 25, 2009 at 5:57pm

I am still rather confused about this. I hope that Little Joey can heal from this and have a wonderful life. Our prayers are with you and Joey! I am glad that Joey has some new friends ...it is good to have others around!

Take care and keep us updated!

Jane and her gang!

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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on December 26, 2009 at 9:21am

Wow, I have never heard of this! I am glad they have identified it and hope the treatments work.

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Permalink Reply by Shelia on December 26, 2009 at 10:08am

This is very interesting to us. We went through something very similiar with our dog who got to be 14 years old and passed away from kidney failure. She started with bleeding from her nose. She had ulcers around her nose and mouth and the margins of her ears.. They originally thought pemphigus but the biopsies were negative. They never were able to tell us exactly what it was. It did respond to the steroids but she stayed on them for a long time and then was able to stop them after several months. The vet decided it was some kind of allergic reaction but we never figured out to what. It sounds similar to the erythema multiforme. Thanks for putting this info up for others.