I was a bit dismayed at reading this today, I'm not quite sure what kind of reaction she expects to gewt off breed club reps when she has such a bad habit of sensationalising every little snipit she gets,,,,,, aaaarrrggggghhhhh some people never learn!

http://pedigreedogsexposed.blogspot.com/2011/03/shiba-inu-scratching-surface.html#comments

i have owned shibas for 12yrs now and have   many friends in the breed i have never known or seen this condition in the breed,maybe this shiba girl is just an issolated case,the breed club will find it hard to comment if it not been a problem in the breed i have 7 shibas my oldest being 11yrs old and my youngest 16 months and they are happy healthy dogs with lovely coats,maybe the breed club send a questnaire to there members asking weather there has been a problem with any of there  shibas  with this condition.

I have quite a few friends with shibas too and never seen it in theirs either, I find it interesting in the comments that she says there is pictures yet she uses a picture of q westie with quite a severe case.
I think it's her usuall trying to stir up problems where there is none.

i agree there should be a pic of the shiba in question and i am sure if there happens to be a problem in the breed with this condition the breed club will do all they can to find out about it

What a crock! We have had Shibas for 15 years and have never come across a case of this in the breed in the UK. As for the "definite" diagnosis, skin conditions are notoriously difficult to diagnose without skin scrapes etc.  Diagnosis "by exclusion" is actually the vet saying, "We don't have a clue what this is. We know what it isn't though, so it must be..........."
Jemima Harrison must be desperate for attention.

Must admit this did make me groan for Shiba's sake and reminded me of a schip I bred with similar problems. 

He was returned at 16 mths old by puppy buyer when his behaviour started to change, I took him to a skin specialist and spent a fortune on testing, then treatment which failed miserably, had to pts at 18 mths. The skin issues were just a symptom of a more serious problem within his digestive system leading to deficienies which caused the skin issues, he was unable to absorb specific nutrients including Zinc.  As a breeder I advised the breed club, spoke with several specialist who all concluded his issue was a random event maybe an insult to the DNA at some point of conception/developement.

Without biopsy's you really can't be sure of a diagnosis but make an educated potential assumption based on information available.  Do people really think all breeders try to push these things under the carpet and pretend it doesn't happen?  Most I know, myself included tell puppy buyers to report back any illness/health problem regardless of dogs age, outcome etc. We may not experience it with the animals we keep but still need to know if there is a problem with relatives that way we can monitor our lines, do more research on their behalf and nip anything new in the bud if it does have the potential to be inherited.

First thing I would want to know is did the puppy receive a vaccination prior to the itching starting up..??
If so which brand of vaccine was given...?? How many shots were given...?? If the puppy reacted within several days of the first vaccine was the vaccination schedule stopped immediately.....or did the vet continue to give the further shots....??

What diet was the puppy on....??

The etiology is not fully understood but it is thought that some dogs....and some breeds....do have a genetic predisposition to the condition, with environmental factors providing the necessary additional trigger....but....there are many, many research papers showing a link between allergies and vaccines. In 1983 Frick and Brooks published a paper to show that inhalant allergies (such as atopic dermatitis) have developed in dogs when vaccinated with distemper, hepatitis and leptospirosis vaccines. The allergic individuals suffer chronically irritating skin inflammations and other organs may exhibit signs of hypersensitivity causing for example conjunctivitis or rhinitis.

Homoeopathic vets treat a large proportion of skin problems as "vaccinosis" (a morbid reaction to vaccines).

As a breeder (or breed council) you really do need to monitor these reactions closely in your puppies and breed and if there is even the slightest suspicion that a vaccine or drug has caused a reaction then it needs to be reported and investigated. Otherwise it allows slurs against a breeder....when it is quite possible...and in my opinion highly likely....that the vaccine or drug has caused the reaction in the first place.