Nasal Arteritis Education

22/05/2024

22/05/2024

3 month post op update: Look how healthy this nose is?! He’s all better y’all! The surgery was a 100% success and he’s even getting pigment back where they created the new scar! We’re off ALL oral and topical medications too! I’m so grateful for Dr. Dominico Dorentino at University of Florida for his experimental laser procedure and healing this boy back to his goofy self! We’re forever grateful 🥰🙏🏻😩 

22/05/2024

Havent posted in a bit..Khan is not a fan of having his photo taken! Just wanted to show off his amazing looking nose! We are officially 9 months into his treatments and haven't had a bleed in 8 months! Still having lots of foot issues but he's SO much happier. This will definitely be a much quieter holiday season for us all! 💙

22/05/2024

22/05/2024

My good boi being the goodest boi for one of his two topical tacrolimus treatments. This is how we keep his nose healthy and keep the skin from opening back up. 🥰🥰🥰

25/01/2023

Here’s a little pupdate on Jax. The surgery that we did ended up being a complete success. Soon after we had the surgery, he injured his toe and had to go on antibiotics for an infection. After he was on the antibiotics, his scar started to regress and at that time he had been off of prednisone & tacrolimus for about six months 🤗. I was so excited but once we started him on the antibiotics, he ended up having scar regression so we had to restart prednisone and topical tacrolimus. Here we are a year later and we are completely off of prednisone after slowly weaning him off to heal a skin infection. However, he will probably need tacrolimus for the rest of his life. We currently apply to tacrolimus twice a day for 15 minutes topically. I notice if I miss even a day, his car will start to look pink and lose its pigment. He is definitely what most would consider a high maintenance pump that I love him and I wouldn’t have this life any other way. 🥰💙

25/06/2021

Omg y’all look at this nose?! 😩😭🙏🏻 the bleeding has completely stopped and it’s healing so nicely. I haven’t seen his nose this healthy since I rescued him when he was 1 1/2!!!! I am literally crying happy tears right now, we’ve come so far from hospitals and talks about euthanasia to this 😭. He has his quality of life back and mom has her boy back 💙. I never knew I could love an animal so darn much. I’m so glad I never gave up on finding a cure 🙏🏻💪🏻. Thank you everyone for the prayers, good vibes, for checking in on us, everything! It means the world.

21/06/2021

Jax update:

Hi everyone! Here’s the latest with Jax and his nose. The surgery seems to have been a success. We are still watching him closely but we are seeing new scar tissue form which should prevent further bleeding. He is still being hand fed every meal but he is drinking water on his own now 🤗. We are reducing his prednisone every week by a 1/2 a tab and will hopefully be fully off prednisone in a few months 🙌🏻🙏🏻. Before all this happened Jax and I would go out on “date night” about 1-2x a week. This weekend we FINALLY went out for the first time together since his first bleed in April! Pic of the happy boi below 🥰. He was SO HAPPY to get out of that house. I will continue to do updates but I’m so happy we’re finally heading in the right direction. Thank you everyone who has prayed, sent good vibes, and thought about us during this tough time.🙏🏻💙

03/06/2021

All right y’all, wish us luck! We’re on our way to University of Florida to have Jax’s nose surgery!!!! I’m such a nervous and excited wreck! Please say a prayer/ send good vibes that we have a safe drive and that this fixes his bleeding once and for all. Because of the uniqueness of the surgery, he will be staying overnight. I will update everyone as soon as he comes out of surgery. 🙏🏻🤞🏻💙

13/05/2021

Been meaning to get a post on here with photos for a while but life kept getting in the way. This was our last bad period of bleeding. Warning* graphic photos!
This is such a horrible disease. It's often misdiagnosed as lupus or pemphigus as well. It can take several different vets to finally get an official diagnosis and to find one willing to not just throw steroids at the problem.
Khan is now managed medically along with humidifiers and some lifestyle changes. We are here anytime for questions.
If your dog has these symptoms please know you're not alone!

13/05/2021

Jax Update:

Sorry I’ve been radio silent but things have been a bit of a roller coaster lately. He’s good for a day or so then BAM another arterial bleed. Sometimes I feel like we’re so close to getting it under control, then he regresses 😔. We’re trying a different concoction of medications before surgery and it’s a trial and error with the limited info we have on this disease. The current meds he’s been on for a week and the bleeding is better (manageable) but not stopped. So we’re at internal medicine again today to get his bloodwork checked since his liver enzymes were higher than she liked. We’re discussing adding back in a medication that was very successful stopping the bleeding (Pentoxyfilline) but causes liver failure 😔. We will only be able to use this medicine if his values are ok. Please say a prayer we get a good report card 🙏🏻💙.

07/05/2021

Here are some good articles that talk about the disease:

https://dermvettacoma.com/nasal-arteritis/

https://www.dovepress.com/successful-medical-and-surgical-treatment-of-dermal-arteritis-of-the-n-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-VMRR

https://wagwalking.com/condition/nasal-arteritis

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270130672_Successful_medical_and_surgical_treatment_of_dermal_arteritis_of_the_nasal_philtrum_in_a_Saint_Bernard_dog

Cause: Nasal arteritis is an ulcerative disease of the center of the nasal planum in dogs, caused by immune mediated inflammation of the walls of the nasal arteries/blood vessels. Affected animals: This condition is most commonly seen in certain breeds such as St. Bernards and Standard Schnauzers, b...