Category: Health Issues

Way back in 1983 we first started recognizing episodic fevers in Shar-Pei often associated with a swollen, painful hock joint. Later on it was observed that an early-onset kidney failure occurred in many of these dogs as well. I remember many individuals, including myself, remarking that this has to be associated with the wrinkles in some way and now we know it does. An important article was recently published in March, 2011, entitled “A Novel Unstable Duplication Upstream of HAS2 Predisposes to a Breed-Defining Skin Phenotype and a Periodic Fever Syndrome in Chinese Shar-Pei Dogs”, Mia Olsson et al. It...

MAST CELL CANCER seems to be a particularly aggressive and troublesome problem in the Shar-Pei breed.  The following discussion hopefully will provide you with some useful information. CAUSE:  Mast cells are a normal component of the body.  These cells contain granules in their cytoplasm which contain heparin (an anticoagulant), serotonin (an inflammatory mediator), histamine, and a number of other substances.  The release of these vasodilatory, nociceptive and pro-inflammatory molecules cause inflammation, itching, edema, and attract other cells to the area.  This response is usually helpful in responding to allergic reactions, foreign objects, infection, etc.  This also explains why mast cell...

Over the years in working with Chinese Shar-Pei I have seen severe skin disease characterized by lichenification (“elephant skin”), hyperpigmentation, thickened plaques or plates of skin, pruritis (itching), rancid skin odor, hair loss (alopecia) and seborrhea (oily skin) due to underlying allergic skin disease with secondary bacterial and Malassezia infection. I call it “SPTriad Disease” as these three skin diseases tend to occur together. The major underlying disease is allergic whether due to hay fever-type allergies, food allergies, flea bite dermatitis and/or contact allergies. I also feel it is possible for Shar-Pei to be “allergic to themselves” because of the...

Immune-mediated hemolytic anemia (IMHA) is an antibody-mediated or complement-mediated cytotoxic destruction of circulating red blood cells (RBCs). The term “hemolytic” refers to the release of hemoglobin from the damaged red blood cells which imparts a reddish color to the normally clear serum. IMHA can be either primary, also known as idiopathic or autoimmune, or secondary. Primary IMHA is the most frequent cause of IMHA in dogs and it is an autoimmune disorder with no recognized underlying cause. IMHA typically affects young adult and middle-aged animals, and is most common in Cocker Spaniels, Poodles, English Springer Spaniels and Old English Sheepdogs....

This condition is one of the most devastating acute syndromes seen in dogs. It is also known as gastric torsion, gastric dilatation-volvulus, or GDV. Torsion or volvulus refers rotation of the stomach on its mesenteric axis which results in malposition of the stomach obstructing the inlet at the cardia and the outlet at the pylorus. Dilatation refers to stretching the stomach beyond its normal dimensions. In my experience it is not uncommon to see post-anesthetic gastric dilatation without torsion in Shar-Pei. As they recover from anesthesia many have “stormy” recoveries with excessive air swallowing and salivation. Whether these go on...

Thromboembolism is the process of blood clots forming in the cardiovascular system. These can remain stationary or can break loose and travel throughout the blood vessels eventually lodging in smaller capillary beds located in the lungs, liver, spleen, and kidneys. Worse case scenarios involve clots ending up in the brain and heart which can rapidly lead to life threatening consequences. I have seen a syndrome of thromboembolism in Chinese Shar-Pei especially leading to splenic infarction or thromboembolism. In fact, the only breed I’ve seen this in during the last 26 years have been in Shar-Pei and only those suffering with...

Introduction: Since the elucidation of the human and canine genomes our understanding of the genetic mechanisms underlying the inflammatory response has progressed at an exponential rate. We now realize that genes encode for proteins that serve as enzymes in biochemical pathways, as receptors on cell membranes, as chemical messengers in the body such as cytokines/chemokines and regulatory proteins which control various processes in the body — primarily the inflammatory response and the innate and adaptive immune responses. It is even more complex as some proteins (chemokine receptors) have a role as ‘silent’ (non-signaling) receptors which regulate inflammatory and immune reactions...

Amyloidosis is the deposition of an abnormal substance called amyloid in the tissues of the body. Amyloidosis is not a disease as much as it is a specific biochemical arrangement in which a precursor protein or protein fragment accumulates and forms filaments. These filaments align and stack themselves in a beta-sheet conformation forming fibrils that twist around each other and are deposited in the tissues as amyloid deposits. Amyloid deposits differ due to the nature of the protein precursors that form there. Due to this structure amyloid is insoluble and can be thought of as “wax”. There are currently at...

Report of the Health Committee – 2010 While it did not occur in 2010 the big news has been the release of the long awaited research report on the association of the “meatmouth” mutation copy number with FSF. Validation studies are currently underway to verify the usefulness of a genetic blood test to (1) predict the potential risk for FSF in a particular individual and (2) to help breed away from the “meatmouth” mutation. The article, “A Novel Unstable Duplication Upstream of HAS2 Predisposes to a Breed-Defining Skin Phenotype and a Periodic Fever Syndrome in Chinese Shar-Pei Dogs” was published...