Hi everyone! This is my first post here - thank you so much in advance for any advice! I have a 10 month old male blue Shar Pei who has had skin issues for as long as I can remember. He used to get red in between his toes, then eventually developed 1-2 small patches of hair loss on his back (skin was flaky and red where the patches were), itchy ears (lots of head shaking) and red spots all over his tummy which he would lick constantly. His chest hair was all patchy and brown, it looked terrible. He had a skin scrape done by the vet and nothing conclusive came up except elevated white blood cells - they prescribed apoquel but he was miserable on it. He whinged constantly and the meds seemed to just about keep the rashes away (if I missed a dose even by a few hours he would flare up so I didnt feel it was treating the root cause). I decided to slowly wean him off apoquel and to take him off dog food to see if it helped. I switched him to a cooked food diet - he mainly eats beef, chicken or liver, mixed with rice, sweet potato or pasta, broccoli, apples, carrots, peas, greek yogurt and cottage cheese. He also takes supplements daily - Bionic Biotic for itchy skin, coconut oil, olive oil, a liquid immunity supplement, calcium tablets, vitamin D tablets, and an 8-in-1 multivitamin. He is without a doubt much healthier than 3 months ago and much happier. His rash went away totally, his bald spots grew back, his feet looked much healthier and his chest hair was turning thick and grey again. I was so so happy! Now the last few weeks things have changed! He has red feet on and off (absolutely NO pattern to it), he has a small bald patch on his back, he has three circular, raised, red and scaly lumps on his chest that are bald and he keeps scratching them, he is shaking his head quite a lot and scratching at himself. I have changed absolutely nothing in his diet or his supplements. What am I doing wrong?! I feel so terrible for him, I just want him to be happy. I spend a lot of money on his food and supplements every month but if there's anything you guys suggest I am more than willing to pay for it! Would you have any suggestions? Did your Shar Pei ever get over their skin issues? Thanks so much in advance!
