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Hi everyone,

Long-time lover of chow chows and chow chow forum , first time poster =) Our two year old chow chow, Aslan, suffers from chronic hot spots on his tail, lower back, and hip area. We have no idea what to do! It seems he gets severe hot spots at least once every other month, no matter the time of year (so not seasonal), and this has been happening for the past 18 months! We've tried changing his diet (limited ingredient, as well as home prepared), his flea and tick medications (frontline, brewers yeast, bravecta), supplementing with fish oil to help with inflammation, etc. We've tried bathing him frequently (twice a month), and less frequently, and neither seem to help with his itchiness. We've also moved three times, and clean his bedding frequently, so I don't think it's necessarily something in the house. We live in the SF Bay Area, and all the vets tell me that allergens here are especially bad for many dogs. Prednisone helped, but obviously cannot be a long-term solution.

We recently changed vets, and she recommended using Apoquel and having the groomer keep him shaved on his lower half. Does anyone else have experience with this? I would love to hear how other people have done using Apoquel, but am also interested on getting feedback re: shaving him. I hate the idea of shaving him, especially his tail, since I know chows' coats are not only beautiful, but serve to protect the skin from sunburn and insulate them from heat.

We are at the end of our rope! It's awful to see him constantly going after himself (he's never able to relax), and also awful to see those vet bills pile up. Please help! Thank you!

I tried but didn't extend the use of a Nu-Vet product that would help with allergy issues. I told a co-worker about this product because she has a dog that had a history of scratching and biting at what looked like hot spots. She took him to several vets and tried a variety of diets, pills, etc. She put her dog on the Nu-Vet regime and after a couple of months he dog no longer has the skin issues. You might check it out.

Thanks for the suggestion! We will put that on our list of thing to try if the apoquel doesn't help.

At one point my chow went through the same issue. Vetericyn is a topical gel or spray that you can put on the hot spots to help with inflammation and soreness. This worked wonderful for healing. It will not harm the dog even if licked. You can put it on as many times a day as you wish. This was vet recommended. I would always clip the hair around the hot spot so the area could get air and apply. Within 24 hours the hot spot was already back to the skins natural color. No more redness or irritation. After trying many many foods I ended up with Organix.
I also cut back her bathing to twice a year because it seemed that maybe that also was a precursor.
The issue went away. It does take trial and error and many patience. Hope this helps.

Thank you for the reply! I'll definitely try the vetericyn and look into Organix. Thank you!

Good afternoon,

Our Kringle Bear had the same issues. The poor baby's hair was falling out everywhere. The only relief he got was when I would bathe him with an oatmeal based shampoo. We got him allergy tested (these tests are expensive but so worth it!). We found out he had a ton of allergies, many of which were in his treats and food! So we got him monthly injections to help with his immune system along with steriods to help with the healing of the spots and changed his diet (it's all fish based now since he is allergic to almost everything except pork and fish). He bounced back pretty quickly and now his coat is even better than before and he doesn't scratch as much as before either. He seems much happier as well. Now the breath, that is another issue (LOL). Good luck and I hope you get your chowling better.

Poor baby! I think it would be well worth it to have allergy testing done to get to the root of the problem. So hard to see them suffer like that! Good luck

Two of the worst food allergens are chicken and beef. Corn, wheat, yeast and other grains can also be a problem so my suggestion would be to get Aslan onto a fish and sweet potato diet with no added ingredients that you dont know what they are. I use taste of the wild Pacific Stream because the protein level is not too high which can also be a problem for chows. Only feed treats which you know the content of. I use dried fish treats and fish and sweet potato. Washing your chow twice a week with a shampoo like Malaseb can help clear the skin up too. Good luck I hope you get your Aslan more comfortable.

We have found that grooming and bathing sorts this out quite well. ShenLung has had a few over the years and it got real bad for awhile until we changed the regimen. One key thing we noticed, after adding some Epsom salts to the baths, this was drastically reduced to almost zero and boy were the coats ever soft!!! We also noticed this after going to the ocean every year with the bears which is what gave us the idea.