[blonde ambition]

my young chow chow bites her fur out in places and makes a real mess of herself she ends up with sores where she has done this, the vet is at a loss, we've changed her diet as the vet said and she still does it, its not boredum as she'll do it in front of me, she is ruining her beautyful coat. anyone with a chow chow seen this before, and if so any advice please.

[FroggyMommy]

When I was younger we had several Chows. My favorite was Munchkin, a beautiful red. At about 9 months old she started chewing on herself and digging till she almost bled. She had sores and terrible looking places on her that took away from her gorgeous coat. Our vet said he would look into it and after consulting with a german vet, called us in with Munchkin, who by then was also getting tempermental with her condition. He started her on a controversial treatment...a shot of bovine ivomectin under the skin. He did this once a week for the first month, then every two weeks for a month, then we went to once a month. I am not sure how long that went, but I do know she took the shots regular all her life and lived to a ripe old age. We were told it was a type of red mange that runs or is hereditary in chows. The ivomectin cleared her up and kept her happy and beautiful, but I know it is said to cause liver and kidney damage. The vet I work for uses it on extreme cases of mange. I would research it and extensivly get several opinions from doctors. I am having a similar problem with my golden retriever, after spending $300 on allergy testing we found out she is allergic to everything on this earth. We now have her on allergy shots every two weeks and you would not believe the difference in my baby! I hope this helps.

[Shonna]

Has your vet done a skin scrape to test her for mange?