chow skin problems

[Tori]

Hi chow family.
I have recently noticed that my female chow puppy's skin is very dry and irritated...that its gets to the point where she started chewing her legs causing hair loss. sores and she scratches non stop!
I've tried a few stuff ..but nothing has worked yet! And she gets the best food, good shampoo and is very healthy..I don't want anything bad to happen to my Snoopy bear!
Plz help.

[applebear]

I went through mange with my chow/husky and thought I'd share some of the things I learned while treating it. He suffered through super dry skin, to the point it was cracking and bleeding. There are shampoos you could probably get to help, maybe even through the vet...though a good oatmeal shampoo is often recommended. I used a medicated one at first from the vet, but now use oatmeal and it makes his coat very soft. There is also something online called Fur Worse aka Fur Butter. It's a bit spendy, but I swear it made such a difference. It took a 2-3 times to really see the results, but I'd just massage it in deep on the worse spots and just lightly over the body...it healed him so much and I wouldn't hesitate getting it again if he had the problem again or just dry skin even.

Lastly make sure it isn't something like mange, my dog has a genetic defect that is a poor immune system....passed down from his mother. All dogs have these mites, but for dogs with a poor immune system, they can't fight them off like other dogs and get too many resulting in [demedox] mange. He use to scratch and chew his legs to no fur and to point of bleeding...I had to change his diet to no grain [esp corn], tried many different shampoos and eventually medication/treatment from the vet. Not saying this is what your baby has, but I think they do have a couple things in common and perhaps what I did for mine will work for yours.

[applebear]

This was some of the damage he did to his legs from the mange, the worse of it was under his chest/armpit area and his feet were severely dry and cracking/bleeding.

This is how he looks now, he feels SO much better.

[Rex343]

Check your chow's diet, could be a food allergy. Also add some omega-3's to her diet. Ours didn't have any problems and had a good coat but adding fish oil made the coat real shinny and soft.

[Fozzbear]

I would head to the vets - they can take skin scrapings to rule out mange/other parasites.
The next thing is to make sure that all Snoopys food is hypoallergenic. I'm just swapping over to the BARF diet (completely natural raw food diet - look it up). My friends dog had terrible skin problems but a strict BARF diet fixed it.
It may be something in Snoopys environment that is causing the problem - my Fozzchops is allergic to dust mites. Vets can screen for these things (although it costs quite a bit - are you insured?). You can then get anti-allergy medication/ injections to boost immune system. Fozz has weekly injections at the moment.
Oatmeal shampoo is a great tip - maybe I should try the stuff recommended by Applebear too.
In the end, I think that it is a combination of all of these things that can help.
Applebear - your poor dog looks SOOOO much better, well done. Made me itch just to look at the before pictures!

[Victory]

Dry itchy skin can be a symptom of mange, but 9 times out of 10 it is food allergies. Make double and triple sure the food you are giving has NO corn in it, even a small amount. Some popular high end foods have corn in them, for most chows this is a complete no no. Also avoid wheat and glutton.

Good supplements for skin and coat are Solid Gold's Flax seed oil and Solid Gold's SeaMeal powder. These added to her food can help a lot.
The third thing is if the vet rules out mange, try not to start any medications, most don't work very well, also don't bathe her. Brush, Brush, Brush and Brush. If done properly this will stimulate the skin cause good oils to form and be distrubuted throughout her coat.

To correctly brush a chow, you want to brush all the hair in the opposit direction it grows, do it starting from the neck to the tail in small sections, until it all lays down in the wrong direction. Now with a good strong steel comb, comb it back in the correct directions from the skin to the tip, in 1/4 to 1/2 inch sections. (Yes I did say that small of sections) continue to do so over the entire body, use a slicker brush on the fronts of the legs to comb the hair the wrong way, and a finer toothed comb to comb it the right way from the toes up. This not only gets air to the skin, forces blood to the skin but also allows you to SEE and examine a lot of skin, and rid her of every bit of dirt, and dust, and distribute the oils of the skin through the coat. It will also show you any fleas or flea dirt she might have. Some chows are very allergic to fleas and their dirt too, so this can be a problem.

This type of grooming can take an hour or more, I pop in a dvd, get the chow and me settled on the floor and go to work. In the heavy shed season it sometimes takes two or more dvd's. Also you don't want the scratching to become a habit. When she starts stop her and distract her. Excessive licking, digging at themselves and scratching can become a habit, like nailbiting in a human and they can begin to do it just from any stress or tension they may feel and cause problems that aren't even there.

[applebear]

I wasn't trying to imply it was mange, only give some tips to help treat the dry skin as mange has that side effect too.

[Tori]

Hey
Thanks for all the responses definitely a few things I will try and change taking her to the vet first thing tomorrow! Wish us luck.
Hope it isn't serious

[chowpups]

Not to hijack the thread, but good job applebear with clearing up the mange. Not an easy task!

[applebear]

Thank you Chowpups, appreciate it. And best of luck to Tori...how's it been going there with your baby?

[gebower]

My Chows were itching and scratching and scratching and itching and Max would lick his paws constantly and chew on his forelegs. I had them on IAMS and switched them to "Solid Gold Wolf King" kibble. First ingredient is Bison and 2nd Salmon. It all stopped. No scratching, itching, licking or chewing on the forelegs. The vet said Max has the best coat and skin and recommends whatever we're doing, keep doing it!
Gene.
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