what kinds of tests did the vet do? what did they rule out?

 

I was wondering what they did for diagnostics also?

Wondering about possible pemphigus myself.

 

They didn't do any tests nor rule anything out, we're going to try a different vet tomorrow in the hope that they will be better
I will mention pemphigus to them to see what they think, thank you.

 

I know nothing about the nose, but a condition we've seen here on our gsds jowls is called lip fold pyoderma. I will link a thread with info and pictures. Read through and let us know if the lip issues are lip fold pyoderma. If so a simple cream applied several times a day heals the condition. It's called penaten cream.

http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum/archive-5-health-wellness/89505-lip-fold-pyoderma.html

 

I know nothing about the nose, but a condition we've seen here on our gsds jowls is called lip fold pyoderma. I will link a thread with info and pictures. Read through and let us know if the lip issues are lip fold pyoderma. If so a simple cream applied several times a day heals the condition. It's called penaten cream.

http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum/archive-5-health-wellness/89505-lip-fold-pyoderma.html

This does look very similar to my dog's condition judging by the picture, however it's not quite as severe, but we may try the cream to see if this helps, thank you.

 

Sounds a bit like a form of lupus.

 

LIsa-- I was gonna say lupus too! With the red eyes and nose problem, that could be one of the issues happening. We just did a dog eval on a dog with lupus and the eyes were his "symptom", but the nose gets affected as well. Ears might too since sun exposure makes it worse.

Not sure about the jowels, that might be something totally different.

 

GSDElsa, did that lupus dog have full blown SLE? or a more localized version?

 

sorry that i've taken so many months to reply, he did infact have lupus, we took him to a vet which specialised in controlling lupus, he put him on steroids but the steroids after a while began to have a negative side effect on him so the vet had to drop the steroids by half, causing my dog to have withdrawal symtoms, he slowly recovered but had to be dropped slightly again, we were hoping to eventually ween him off the steroids completely but the combination of the lupus and the steroids had caused him so many problems he wasn't going to recover, his skin was thin causing him to sustain injuries very easily and he had a cut in his leg which wasn't healing, it became infected and the infection would have spread to the rest of his body, he had no fight left in him so we had no choice other than to put him down.
All of the family are completely gutted and the house now feels very empty without him, we are hoping to get another German Shepherd in the near future because the time we had with Ammo (our dog) was the best time of our lives.

 

I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your Ammo.

 

Just a thought ... when Ringer was being treated for lupus mediated polyarthritis he was first treated with Pred (enough to shut down his immune system, then slowly weaned off it). When he had a relapse they gave him a course of Azathioprine (used for organ transplant rejction of all things) which worked - he remained in remission for the remainder of his life.
Azathioprine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia