Sharpei problem

superfish

hi guys ive been the proud owner of a male sharpei for 7 years now, over the years he has had many health issues and cost me a bomb in vets fees (although hes worth every penny) of late Ive notice hes getting a layer of scabs across the tip of his nose and I dont understand as he gets loads of exercise and the best of food and there is always fresh water out for him.does anyone know what this is and is there anything I can do to stop this or is it just he is getting old ?

Shanao

Does he bury his food at all? Sometimes Shar Peis can develop a scab or crust on their noses from trying to bury the food. Otherwise, what food are you feeding him?

superfish

Shanao wrote: »

Does he bury his food at all? Sometimes Shar Peis can develop a scab or crust on their noses from trying to bury the food. Otherwise, what food are you feeding him?

Hi shanao Im not too sure he would bury food out in the garden but have often caught him burrying stuff in his bedding and he uses his nose to push it round lol I just thought there is no way it could be that also I feed him a mix of complete dry nuts and pedagree tinned food also twice a week he gets a cooked chicken he also gets steak as a treat once a month and he gets pedagree jumbone x2 per week I always put cod liver caps in his food also as I heard this is good for his coat

Toulouse

Are the nuts pedigree too?

barbiegirl

Could it be allergies asserting themselves, as our retriever cross gets a similar sounding nose when he allergies set in. We found hypo allergenic foods such as James Wellbeloved, Robbies and Luath sorted it out.

ISDW

I'm really sorry, but pedigree is really not the best of foods. I'd try changing his diet and see how he gets on.

superfish

cheers guys really appreciate the help im going to look further into the right diet for my breed of dog and see what I come up with I always just assumed I was giving him the best because it was the most expensive I might just try keeping him on dry food only for a while as I heard the tinned is full of crap anyway

andreac

superfish wrote: »

cheers guys really appreciate the help im going to look further into the right diet for my breed of dog and see what I come up with I always just assumed I was giving him the best because it was the most expensive I might just try keeping him on dry food only for a while as I heard the tinned is full of crap anyway

What dry food have you got him on at the moment?

superfish

andreac wrote: »

What dry food have you got him on at the moment?

the big bag of pedagree complete the one with rice in it i think lol

andreac

Ah right ok, well as we have already mentioned, Pedigree isnt the best. You should get some good quality food at the local pet shop or vets. Shar pei can be tricky to get a food that suits them.
My friend owns them and she has trouble with their coat if they are not on a good wuality food.
Have you tried adding some oil like Salmon Oil or Flax oil, its great for their coats.

superfish

andreac wrote: »

Ah right ok, well as we have already mentioned, Pedigree isnt the best. You should get some good quality food at the local pet shop or vets. Shar pei can be tricky to get a food that suits them.
My friend owns them and she has trouble with their coat if they are not on a good wuality food.
Have you tried adding some oil like Salmon Oil or Flax oil, its great for their coats.

thanks il look into it and yes I always put fish oil into his food as he has a skin condition that most sharpei suffer from, hope this sorts his nose out as I feel so sorry for the poor lad I dont think hes in pain with it as it does not seem to bother him atall but not nice for him all the same

kildara

Can you post a picture of his nose? It doesn't sound like a "Shar Pei-only" condition. Our boy occasionally gets a little but dry on his nose where the nose meets the top of his snout (if that makes sense!) but goes away after a while.
Try to get him onto a better quality food if you can.
You can get high strength cod liver oil tablets in Aldi/Lidl, they're pretty reasonably priced too.

superfish

kildara wrote: »

Can you post a picture of his nose? It doesn't sound like a "Shar Pei-only" condition. Our boy occasionally gets a little but dry on his nose where the nose meets the top of his snout (if that makes sense!) but goes away after a while.
Try to get him onto a better quality food if you can.
You can get high strength cod liver oil tablets in Aldi/Lidl, they're pretty reasonably priced too.

good stuff il post a pic up in a sec its hard get him stand still lol the scab has fallen off but if you look at the top of his nose you will see its pink where the scab was, i never posted a pic before so give me a while to work it out lol

superfish

turo.jpg

took me ages to work this out lol, but if you look at the top of his nose you will see what I mean sorry the pic aint a close up but hes camera shy

Shanao

Like I said, quite a few shar peis have this same problem and its down to rooting around in the dust and dirt too much. It definitely would do no harm to change his food as well though; a good hypoallergenic food would be best for him. Crusts on the nose like that can be a sign of an autoimmune disease, but it doesn't seem to be that bad. A lot of people reccommend rubbing vaseline onto the scabby spot to help keep it from drying out.

*EDIT* Forgot to mention, smashing looking dog. I lost out on getting a shar pei last year (guy I was supposed to be getting him from never called me back:rolleyes:). They're lovely dogs though, and great personalities of course.

kildara

Can't see much on his nose in the pic I'm afraid
Could it be from the sun either? Its been lovely here the past week and our boy loves to lie out in it. And no matter how much I tell him he won't wear sun cream! (he's similar colouring to your fella but a dilute).

superfish

Shanao wrote: »

Like I said, quite a few shar peis have this same problem and its down to rooting around in the dust and dirt too much. It definitely would do no harm to change his food as well though; a good hypoallergenic food would be best for him. Crusts on the nose like that can be a sign of an autoimmune disease, but it doesn't seem to be that bad. A lot of people reccommend rubbing vaseline onto the scabby spot to help keep it from drying out.

*EDIT* Forgot to mention, smashing looking dog. I lost out on getting a shar pei last year (guy I was supposed to be getting him from never called me back:rolleyes:). They're lovely dogs though, and great personalities of course.

Im deffo going to change the diet now anyways and il try out the vasaline, hes a great temperament hes the best dog ive ever owned hes very spoilt though I swear he thinks hes human lol

kildara wrote: »

Can't see much on his nose in the pic I'm afraid
Could it be from the sun either? Its been lovely here the past week and our boy loves to lie out in it. And no matter how much I tell him he won't wear sun cream! (he's similar colouring to your fella but a dilute).

I should have mentioned the scab has come off if you look at the pic his nose is really pink where it fell off this happens then a couple of week later hes a new scab, im just laughing cas my guy wont come in if there is any sun whatsoever I thought it was due to the fact I bought him when i was in spain and he was used to the heat but since yours is the same it must be in the breed

andreac

Lovely dog, is he a dilute? Maybe try and find a shar pei forum and join it and get some advice from the experts on the breed?

superfish

andreac wrote: »

Lovely dog, is he a dilute? Maybe try and find a shar pei forum and join it and get some advice from the experts on the breed?

by dilute you mean a dog with out any black pigment ? im not entirely sure as his tounge is purple and his nose and paws brown

andreac

In Shar Peis they come on all different colours and coat types, he looks like the dilute type.

http://bagginssharpei.com/imagegallery/a725e4be-e29b-475c-9418-a681347ee6a6/

superfish

andreac wrote: »

In Shar Peis they come on all different colours and coat types, he looks like the dilute type.

http://bagginssharpei.com/imagegallery/a725e4be-e29b-475c-9418-a681347ee6a6/

oh ya he deffo is dilute then

kildara

Dilute means that all of the dog is the same colour. Your boy seems (in the photo) to be have slightly darker colouring on his muzzle so I don't think he's dilute.
Lighter coloured dogs can have lavender as opposed to the typical blue/black Tongue that alot of Shar Pei have.