bad skin in shar pei

[joce]

My grandparents have three shar peis. One is great,one has flare ups of allergies and the last one is always pulling out hair and chewing like crazy. They were on pedigree for a longggg time and going to the vet for shots when needed(cortazone I think). The vet just kept having them come in and said try this and come back in a week. SO a couple months ago I had her feed them all eagle pack and it has completely helped the first two dogs. The one with great skin is six and acts like a puppy again and even wants to run and play. The one with ok skin now has great skin. But the black dog is still horrible.

She took her back to the vet and the vet said the only thing that will help is science diet and its supposed to be some sensative skin kind. My grandma told her I had them switch and explained about fillers etc,and the vet told her the eagle pack made lucy(the dog with all new energy) like that because it is full of cat nip And science diet will help them all. First off does cat nip affect dogs and is it in the food? So now they are all going on science diet.

second is this food any diffrent than regular science diet?
Can you think of anyhting elses to try for this dogs skin?
I want her to see some doggy specailist but the vet is loving the money and will not referr her to anyone and I can not seem to find one in northern ohio.

Here is the bad skinned ones dogster page http://www.dogster.com/?100861
That was last christmas during an ok time but right now she is bad. You can see the other two under her family.

 

[oriondw]

Oh do i know how you feel! Been battling skin problems for years now.

Ok here's few things from my experience.

1. Eagle pack is a great food and switching foods often helps with skin problems.
2. Try switching the other dog to another food if possible, if not..
3. Try switching the flea medications. We used frontline for a while and constantly got hotspots, then we switched to Advantage and hot stops stopped, so dog might be alergic to flea stuff.

You vet is full of it, sorry to say. Science diet is terrible food and eagle pack is very good food. Actually was reccomended to me by my breed club and im sure mordy will agree as well.

Saying all that, we are doing alergies testing right now because my dog still has skin problems =\

The specialist said that 9 out of 10 dog allergies is 'hay feever alergies' quoting her, so you might research that?

Hopefully i was helpful

 

[joce]

They are not even on a flea preventative because all three will loose all the hair on their backs. That was the first thing her first vet thought it was. They yard and around the house gets treated the begining of every summer and the supposedly tested that to see if it was the allergy causing factor for her. They even get walked in a park down the street were no sprays are allowed.

their first pei was allergic to grass,every flower you could think of,just about every food. She died of cancer at five-ish.

I guess after this diet fails we'll switch to soemthing else. All three free feed and I don't know if I cna convince her not to see as of now they all need to eat the same thing. If after that nothing helps I think she may give up and try the raw. the dog just suffers constantly,its sad.

Did you take your dog to a specialist? What are they even called,doggy dermatologists? Price doens't really matter becuase this vet has been getting her money almost every other week for a years os a couple expensive visits will be better than that.

thanks

 

[showpug]

Science Diet Sensitive Skin forumla is a pretty crappy food and vets push the sale of it like there is no tomorrow. I would steer clear of it. Keep buying the Eagle pack!

 

[joce]

She is convinced she has to try it or the vet will think she is not tryong. Good thing is the vet said it only takes a week to see improvement, so when there is none I am going in wiht her. This is the smae vet who almost had her crying over not giving shots to them,the idiot who had no clue they are prone to cancer

 

[Athebeau]

California Natural is a great food for dogs with allergies. There are not that many ingredients to it. Then I would pick a few good foods and rotate every few months. I also add flaxseed oil, canned Sardines, canned salmon, Hempseed oil, crushed flaxseeds...this way you can get much needed omega 3 fatty acids into the dog.

I also give my allerginic Newf astragalus to help build a healthy immune system...this is not expensive at all and can be purchased in most health food stores. I give her dandelion root to help cleanse the liver...and other herbs.

You could also try a natural homemade diet and do a food allergy trial. There are many good books to reference for recipes. Dr Pitcairn for example.

 

[bubbatd]

We are lucky to have a great doggie dermatologist here in Indy. They are well worth the money .

 

[joce]

What are they listed under in your phone book? I just can't seem to find any. Maybe I'm just not looking right.