Keeping Your Chinese Shar-Pei Healthy

Your dog is a living, breathing animal and as such is subject to a myriad of diseases, just as humans are. Everyone who purchases a puppy hopes that he will live a long, full, healthy life, but life doesn’t offer any guarantees, and it will be your responsibility to help keep your dog as healthy as possible. Just as it is important for you to have periodic medical checkups, so it is for your dog. The first time you see a vet should be within forty-eight hours of purchasing you new puppy.
This is an “insurance policy” of sorts to assure you and your breeder that the puppy is healthy at the time of purchase and has no obvious health problems.

Ticks
This is another external parasite that, though it does not produce more than a short-lived skin reaction, can carry a myriad of other, more serious illnesses such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Lyme disease and canine ehrlichiosis. The most common symptoms of this last disease are lack of appetite, lethargy, weight loss, vomiting, pale membranes in the mouth, lymph node enlargement and blood in the feces. Your veterinarian can prescribe treatment.
It is most important that you check your dog for ticks, especially in the spring and summer when they are most abundant.
Ticks reside in grass, shrubs and trees and will take every opportunity to attach themselves to you or your dog to feed on blood. Some are so small as to go unnoticed, such as the deer tick which is a carrier of Lyme disease. If you find a tick attached to you or your dog, use tweezers to gently remove it, holding the tweezers as close to the skin as possible so as to remove all of the tick. Place it in a small container filled with alcohol. If you or your dog becomes ill, you may want to confirm that the tick was a carrier of one of the aforementioned diseases.
Ears
While small and close to the head, Shar-Pei ears are extremely mobile, which allows for more air circulation than the ears of drop-eared dogs such as the Basset or Cocker Spaniel. Occasional cleaning to remove wax buildup should be routine.
If your dog scratches at his ear, shakes his head a lot, or tilts his head with his ear lowered, he probably has an ear infection. An infected ear will emit a distinct odor. See your veterinarian for treatment. If the problem is a chronic one, you should also have your vet check for ear mites (parasites that invade the ear and cause itching and inflammation) and/or a yeast infection. Shar-Pei who have problems with allergies will often have chronic ear problems, and if this occurs, your veterinarian may recommend an ear resection. This is a surgical procedure in which the veterinarian opens up the ear with a lateral incision so that air can more easily circulate.
Anal Glands
The anal glands are located on each side just below the dog’s anus. You may notice that your dog will voluntarily empty his anal sacs after a bowel movement or if angered or distressed, and the odor is unmistakable. Routine evacuation is nature’s way of cleansing these glands. However, if you notice your dog “scooting” his rear on the floor, it can mean one of two things: he may have worms, or he may have impacted anal glands caused by secretion buildup. In the latter case, these glands may need expressing. This is an unpleasant job I would rather leave to my veterinarian, but some owners do not find this task as objectionable as I do. Make sure the secretion buildup has not caused an abscess. If one of the glands is infected, the skin will be red and inflamed and you may see pus coming from the rectum. If you suspect an infection, this calls for  veterinary intervention.
To complete this task, it is best to wear rubber gloves and gently probe the area with your thumb and forefinger until you locate the small, round gland. Gently express the contents of the gland into a soft cloth or tissue. This is sometimes a two-person job, one to hold the dog’s head and talk to him gently and another to do “the dirty deed.” If the glands become impacted or infected on a regular basis, your veterinarian may recommend that they be removed.

Reproductive Organs
Although the testicles in male puppies are present at birth, they do not descend into the scrotum until several weeks of age, some sooner, others later. Ask your vet to check for testicles in your new puppy if they are not visually evident when he gets his first vaccination. If they are not “down,” don’t worry yet. You probably have a late bloomer. Once the testicles have descended, it is possible for the puppy to “pull them up” because it takes some time for them to become firmly entrenched in the scrotum.
If, after six months, the testicle (s) are not down, consult with your veterinarian, and if they have not descended by one year, you should have him neutered. A great number of cancers occur in undescended testicles.