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My answer is NO to ALL of the above. I was once a FIRST TIME shar-pei
owner. Naive, inexperienced, praying the breeder I bought my first shar-pei
from could help me with all my new buyer questions. My biggest disappointment
was, that my breeder was not there to help me out, and really didn't even care.
So I was left to deal with SKIN, COAT, EARS, EYES..........all by myself,
with the assistance of a veterinarian not familiar with the breed (which you can
imagine back in 1983/84)and my nursing background. The heartache was about to
begin. Both my sister and I had shar-pei. I do remember one thing I was told
by a large, well known, well educated American breeder, who was also I would
consider, a shar-pei expert at that time, and I state the last words out of the
mouth of that breeder was "NEVER get a shar-pei ears flushed........so many
have come away with broken ears drums and chronic ear problems" - but being
new to the breed I "listened to my veterinarian". Lets start with ear flushes,
antibiotics and then an ear re-section - been there and done it all. END
RESULTS - no improvement or just a slight improvement. So my research began
- i) A breed with lots of medium brown to dark brown chunks of smelly debris -
a build up of wax, that some get a lot of and some don't, ii) A breed that is
one of the oldest breeds in the world ?? what went on with ears back then ???
iii) A breed that reacts to diet as prime cause of allergies and wax build up, iv)
a breed that reacts to stress and ear and eye maintenance increase as result of
stress, Just to point out a few things that all affect their overall health,
including ears and eyes. Experiencing the ear flushes and ear re-section first
hand and realizing that this was only a temporary solution and that all of the
above would just repeat over and over again, I was now on an expedition of
breed information and health research, not excluding my noted health
background with people, what works and what doesn't. Reading much of the
breed info written by old time experts and breeders, some the first to be in the
breed, I started to adopt their ear cleaning methods, coupled with my own
research and common sense. My first step was to wait for another droopy ear,
and shaking head. Then I decided to let nature do its thing and leave the ear
alone. So untouched, I discovered that my shar-pei had the capability of letting
its own immune system take care of the infection or pending infection, or
moisture build up due to seasonal change - whatever the reason that particular
ear acted up, it was duly noted - IT CLEARED UP ON ITS OWN. Took about 2
weeks. After watching this with every shar-pei I had and was to own in the
future, many of my dogs now NEVER even require ear cleaning of any type
anymore and the ones that do, it is only a surface wipe of the inside of ear
flap. Interesting yes, truthful yes, do I recommend it, yes. It has been
observed that over the years, the minute the ears are touched by way of
flushing or over cleaning, that ear maintenance becomes chronic and yeast is a
constant battle. It has been observed by instructing my puppy buyers to leave
the ears alone, and let nature build up its own defense mechanism to fight back
naturally, that this has been the most successful approach to ear maintenance in
the breed. How bad does it or can it get?? It can get very smelly, lots of
bacteria and yeast discharge.........but how is the body to build up any type of
natural defense if we keep taking away what the body is to fight and battle
against, in order to bring it to a controllable level within their own body
immunity....making it more likely to be worse, the next time around, and now
becoming resistant to many of the ear ointments, antibiotics etc. Many of the
old time breeders have also adopted "leave the ears alone methods" with the
same results. When there is a wax plug in the ears sometimes I will see my
adults take their toenails (which are naturally long) and pick these chunks out. It
is safe to just clean the inner ear flap with an oil alcohol solution of choice. I
know for a fact if for some reason there were no more humans left on this
planet, my dogs ears would be fine - would yours? If and I say IF, a dog has or is a candidate for familial shar-pei fever and swollen hock syndrome, amyloidosis, or a condition that is an immune system problem, I feel ears will be right there in the thick of it, and if the ears of the shar-pei do not clear up on their own, then I would again, put it in the category of "NOT FOR BREEDING" for my experience nows tells me by way of my dozen dogs here, that ears of a healthy shar-pei require very little maintenance. It certainly is not a matter of lines or pedigrees here, but common sense. And if it IS, a "genetic" thing, which is not out of the question, then why are breeders breeding dogs that require heavy duty ear maintenance - to me this is no better than breeding dogs with skin problems etc. Do you all syringe your ears and clean them the way many clean a shar-pei ears, if you did, believe me you would have chronic ear problems also. Again my experience and opinion and, it will be left at, what works best for the breeder and buyer, and end result rests with what procedures the owner is comfortable with doing, or not doing. Again some all natural food for thought, and if one does note that after the onset of an ear infection, and left untouched, it starts to clear up on its own, you have gained new knowledge, if is does not start to clear up between 1 - 2 weeks, then you have lost nothing in returning to the ways of modern day medicine. One all natural hint to cleaning up ears ~ add Yogurt or Acidophilus to the diet and switch diets completely, the closer to all natural diet the dog eats, the cleaner the ears. If you have any questions please feel free to email me, and again this is my breeder opinion and this information is not meant to replace or deter anyone from following their veterinarian's advice or another breeder opinion. These opinions are copyright of Shar-Pei Canadiana (C)2009.
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