Hi, Im hoping somebody canhelp me, I have a 10 week old sharpei who seems to be constantly itching his belly and throat, he cant seem to go more than 2 minutes without doing this. We have had him for about 10 days and he started itching a day or so before we collected him from the breeders, They thought it was just a flea and so frontlined him. He has itched so much he has made it really sore. We have taken him to the vets (Numerous times!) and he had a steriod injection which didnt stop the itching and if anything made it worse. he is now on antibiotics as he has scratched the skin red raw, They have taken skin scapings as they believe it could be mites but no other pups have thi problem that he was with. He is also on anti hesimean tables.

We have kept to the same food he was eating at the breeders but have no decided to change his food to JWB. just in case its a food allergy. the breeder also fed him with raw mince which we kept doing but I have read that they can be alergic to beef, should we continue feeding him raw mince?, the JWB food is duck so hopefully if it is the food this will be better. We should recieve the results from the skin scrape at the end of the week but with xmas in the way I am a bit worried we wont get them before xmas. If anyone could give me any help it would be most appreciated as hes my baby and im deeply worried about him.

Hi sholmes78 :)

What a shame for your puppy and you that you're having to deal with these problems.  I must admit I think it's a disgrace that a breeder would allow a puppy to go to it's new home with an existing health issue - even on the assumption that it was a flea problem the least the breeder should have done was to retain the puppy until the problem had been cleared :(

However, what's done is done.  I'm glad you've moved swiftly for vet intervention and hope the test results are back soon so that you have a better idea of what you're dealing with.

On the subject of feeding the minced beef, I would discontinue all other foods from the pup's diet except the JWB duck that you've decided on.  That includes feeding of treats, chews, table scraps, the crust off your toast or dregs of your tea :)  If it is an allergic reaction then the least number of ingredients given the better.

Also check on possible environmental allergens such as carpet and hard floor cleaners, washing powder etc - although the puppy had these symptoms when at the breeder's also, it is possible that some of the same products were/are used by both of you.

HTH, best wishes Teri :)

As well as all Teri's excellent advice, a good thing to try to bring the puppy some relief is a light dusting of Mycil foot powder. It helps keep the folds dry and should make him more comfortable. Obviously, if he has any adverse reaction, stop immediately, but I've seen a couple of people use it on their shar-pei with no ill effects and good results.

It's quite possible he could have a mite and the rest of the litter not be affected -  demodex is often the culprit, but the skin scrapings should show anything like that and appropriate treatment will clear it up eventually. He could also just be 'atopic' and sensitive/allergic to several things. For now I'd only use non-biological washing powder and only mild solutions of bleach and washing up liquid as cleaning products - NOTHING ELSE at all anywhere near him and see if it helps.

Please keep us updated with his progress. I sadly lost my 11 year old shar-pei a week or two back and I can't wait to get another in the future. I've been lucky with my pei in the past who never had skin problems and were strangers to the vets.

To add to Teri's excellent reply, I wanted to share a couple of personal experinces. My Papillon puppy got very itchy and developed scabs when fed on Pedigree Chum puppy. Initially we wondered about mites etc, but once we swopped foods he was fine. (We actually did change to JWB but these days -when he is almost adult- he is on Chappie as he does better on canned foods for other reasons.) Also my Cavalier used to feel very itchy, and eventually I noticed that whatever dog happened to be in the living room started to itch. It was the carpet. There were no fleas or anything in it, but the people we'd bought the house off had treated their carpets with stain proof products years ago, and that did it. Once we removed the carpet the Cavalier has never itched like this again.

is the itch around the folds of skin that shar pei's have because if it is owners of sharpei's have been known to rub vaseline under the fold and also you have to make sure the folds of skins are completely dry or it will lead the skin irratation and alot of scratching