The rainy season, or what should be the rainy season, is here which means significantly more clouds than sun for a good 6 months.

We are going into this time period with Chance's nose looking better than it has since her DLE symptoms first showed up in 2014.

She had no issues at all this year with her nose and it is a black, normal looking nose.  This means we have a choice: continue with the Doxycycline antibiotic that suppresses the immune system and works with the rest of what she is on to keep symptoms at bay or discontinue the Doxy for this time period and see how she does.

Her regular vet has mentioned discontinuing the Doxy during the winter months when her nose looks good but we have never done it because it always had some pink on it.  I think we'll talk to her vet about the pros and cons and also talk to her rehab vet about it since she was the one who diagnosed the DLE and has known Chance the longest of any of her vets.

We are coming out of our "rainy" season here in the Pacific Northwest, though it wasn't all that rainy or dreary this season.  This means we are about to start that time of the year when we have mostly sun and very little cloudiness.  Not great for a dog that has DLE (and Pannus, an immune-mediated eye disease that is worsened by UV exposure).

We are going into this bad time of year with what we think is the best her nose has been since July 2014!

We kept her on the Doxycycline all winter and she has been taking all her herbs, vitamins, and other supplements.

We are very pleased with the management of Chance's DLE so far this winter.  We are continuing the Doxy because our weather, which should be rainy and cloudy, has been dryer and sunnier than it should.  Chance is also outside more this winter helping us with various outdoor projects.

I'm including a picture that shows what her nose looked like on September 14, 2014 (on the left), September 22, 2014 the date of diagnosis (center) and what it currently looks like (on the right.)

We had considered stopping the doxy usage over the winter.  Our vet had mentioned it at Chance's annual exam.  We decided against it because we had a stretch of dry and very sunny weather which meant we weren't seeing the re-pigmentation (is that a word?) that we were wanting.  So, we decided to keep her on it so we would be that much better of going into the summer months.

We were able to find Doxycycline cheaper at our vet.  A little more than we had been paying but half what we were charged last month.  We could probably find it cheaper but are happy being able to get it from a place that is driven by twice every weekday.

Refilled Chance's Doxycycline prescription today to find out the price increased dramatically in just 4 weeks.  We went from paying $0.80 per pill to $1.97 per pill!

Chance is on Doxy to help suppress the damaging immune system response caused by the Lupus.

I'm going to see if I can find it cheaper elsewhere.  I'm hoping I can find it cheaper!

We had a very hot, sunny, rain-free summer but Chance's nose did well.  No lesions, no bleeding, no hair loss, no crustiness or scaliness, and the pigment is coming back already.

We'll be consulting with her vet team about tapering off of the Doxycycline this winter.

Here is a picture of her nose today.

Now that we are transitioning from a very wet, dreary winter to sunny weather, Chance is getting Lupus nose.  So far, it is some loss of pigment.  She had her senior wellness exam the Friday before last and her vet said she wouldn't have known she had Lupus by looking at her.

Her nose looked really good over the winter so we are going into the summer months better off than we were last year.

Her vet thinks we might be able to try tapering off the Doxycycline this winter based off how her nose looks right now.  Fingers crossed!

Chance's nose is looking better than it has since July 2014!

We had a regression a couple of months ago caused by stress.  Chance had an "incident" on our garage steps and her rehab vet evaluated her, made some quick adjustments, and ordered weekly TENS treatments until we could get in for our regular appointment.  Chance and Chance's Lupus nose did not like having to be still for 20 minutes at a time every week!  She lost some black pigment on her nose but that was it.  Her nose healed up extremely quickly after the TENS treatments were stopped.

I am in the process of becoming a certified Animal Aromatherapist (I figure it will complement my massage work) and am happy to see one of the covered condition is Lupus!  I wish I had this information back in September 2014.