Free advice from friendly forum vet?

[Uniquely]

Originally Posted by John72953

That's one pretty looking dog! (I'd say handsome, but she's a *****). And I agree...the "Americanized" stock is way too wrinkly.

John

I really need a more recent picture. I got her a very active playmate that has trimmed every bit of fat off of her and left her very cut and athletic looking. You'd never guess she's seven years old now.

It's not just the pei... the show world tends to damage many breeds. Have you seen any German Shephards in dog shows lately? They've shortened the rear haunches so much they look almost crippled. It's a shame when you realize all the genetic difficulties that result from all the inbreeding used to advance the strange traits that the show world finds desirable.

The pei has some of the worst genetic problems of almost any breed. Familial Shar Pei fever, amyloidosis, entropion and mucinosis are just a few of the health problems caused by the huge changes done to the breed. Fortunately Annie only had to deal with entropian and a mild bout of mucinosis when she was young.

Entropian is an eye problem. Pei's eyes are able to "roll in" somewhat to be protected in a fight, which sometimes allows the bottm eye lid to irritate the eyeball and once it starts it's a vicious cycle that gets worse until you have corrective surgery (that wasn't cheap.) Mucin is a substance under the pei's skin which allows the skin to slide more easily, and when a pei produces too much mucin you get these bubbles in the skin. A quality no soy diet fixed that issue.


I'm sorry..... I'm going on. I love dogs more than HT.... I could talk about them forever!