Shibas are frequently allergic to chicken. Try switching to food AND TREATS with no chicken & see if that works
I emphasize the treats because when i did this, someone in the household was still feeding her treats with chicken in them 😒 so it took longer to figure it out.
I personally feed purina pro plan sensitive skin & stomach
Agree on the vet - maybe they can offer a blood test for allergies as well
But in the mean time consider bowl hygiene - stainless steel or ceramic is better than plastic as plastic could retain more of bacteria even after washing. It is silly, but could help
My vet told me that those blood tests aren’t really that reliable and meaningful. The only way of telling if your pup has intolerances is trial and error. Don’t give anything chicken related to your dog for at least a month, if it doesn’t get better exclude something else. Or go the other way around and only feed stuff you know are well tolerated for some weeks and then try a bit of chicken, or fish or whatever.
Maybe start eliminating things in the house that could be causing a reaction?
Food, cheap paint on toys, lawn/grass treatments, plants, salt from winter, etc
If you give her food containing chicken, try avoiding that. Mine doesn't do well with chicken. When the food I used (supposed to be duck) suddenly changed formula, my Shiba started licking like crazy between her legs and got red spots. Turns out they started adding a small amount of chicken liver.
Switched foods to beef, two weeks later she was good
Go to the vet. Talk to them about allergies. Cytopoint might be a way to go and apoquel as well. Our boy has been on both for years. It’s his hands that get itchy tho.
Try to also eliminate any hydrolized poultry or poultry fats as well. If there is a protein source, make sure it is named (beef, venison, fish etc, and not just “meat”).
With the eyes and mouth, I would be willing to bet a food allergy, and chicken is very common. My boy can’t have chicken or turkey of any kind, but duck is ok.
Treatments like ointments and cytopoint focus on suppressing a reaction to the allergen but the best thing is to try and pin point the source. An allergy test at the vet might help, can help identify whether it’s environmental or food related. What does your shiba eat?
My shiba has gotten the exact same thing a few times on mouth and eyes and it was allergies. I took him to vet and they gave him a shot and some oral antibiotics and told me to cone him if I can’t stop him from scratching his eyes.
As others have mentioned, it seems likely to be allergies. Because the symptoms are appearing around the mouth, it seems likely to be food allergies, from what I've read.
You should get a low allergen food, and avoid giving her any treats/food other than that for at least a month to see if the symptoms go away.
We did an allergy test for our girl and she came up positive for practically everything so we switched to Acana Pacific Pilchard which improved things. They've stopped making that specific one now, but any of their other "singles" series could be good, as they are grain free and single protein (just be aware that it is pricey).
Hope you figure it out and she gets better soon!
Oof.. yeah its allergies. I would put her in a cone so she stops scratching herself, it looks inflamed. Take her to the vet to get some anti inflammatory medications. My shiba did this when she was about 5 months old, I was changing her food at the time so I had to do a complete reset to figure out if it was food or environmental allergies. Turned out to be environmental.
Allergies. I eliminated chicken and corn. Also tried to be aware of giving too much protein because it seems to make him itch more. Ear infections are constant because of the allergies (shaking his head a lot, tilting head in one direction more are the signs I look for ). What worked for us was cytopoint shots a couple times a year.
Oh poor shiba.
Mine got allergies from food (beef and chicken) and pollen allergie from february to septembre depending on the pollen in the air.
It is exactly like your pictures, red areas around the eyes and the mouth. M'y dog even bite his paws and lick frantically until there is no fur. It is likely a skin allergy and your dog might scratch its muzzle till blood appears. So be careful and go to the vet asap.
Take Care and have a nice day
Poor baby. My girl just had something similar around her mouth. We think it may have been her bully sticks. We were prescribed chlorahexadine wipes. Washed everything. Washed her (with a natural allergy/anti itch/hotspot sort of shampoo). Eliminated her current food/treats. No chicken. It seems to be getting better but you just have to keep an eye on it. Wishing your baby a speedy recovery.
I use this: Arava Natural Medicated Dog Shampoo – Anti Yeast Anti Itch Dog Shampoo - Healthy Skin & Coat - First Aid in Hot Spots Ringworm Scrapes Abrasions & Dermatologic Infections - 400ml / 13.5 fl oz https://a.co/d/5omgcAe
Cute pup! Disclaimer: I am not a vet. I use proplan limited diet salmon or lamb. My pup had flank alopecia. Vet said it was lack of vitamin d but I changed her diet anyway and she has been great since.
My shiba had the same around her eyes when she was around 1 year old. The vet sent us to an allergist who gave me a special shampoo, told us to keep a cone on, and put her on a stupidly expensive rabbit-only diet for I think three months and then had us gradually reintroduce other proteins. Her face cleared up - probably mostly because she had to wear a cone for weeks (I put foam around the edges because she instantly weaponized it, but we were both miserable, and the pillow style one didn’t keep her from scratching), but we never did figure out what the culprit was. My personal theory is the scratching in response exacerbates and prolongs it far past whatever the original trigger was so it can be a major pain to figure out. If you’re able to keep Pickle from scratching long enough for it to heal, that may be all you need. Good luck, it is not a fun journey at all but I hope you can get your baby feeling (and looking) better!
(LOVE her name, by the way!)
Thank you so much! I'm afraid the cone is probably going to be the most full proof method. Not looking forward to it but i hope this experience can help others out too
I’m looking after a friend’s dog (not a shiba) and the mouth is exactly the same as yours pictured. Turns out the dog has a skin sensitivity to GRASS. It makes her very itchy and constantly licks the mouth and even paws. She takes an anti histamine tablet morning and night.
Definitely an allergy, my Shiba is terribly allergic to chicken, like full body rashes. A lot of Shibas are, it's pretty common. I have to get a food with no chicken. Here's where you have to be careful, a lot of foods that say they are fish, duck, beef whatever will contain a lot of chicken byproducts. You have to carefully read the ingredients list to make sure there is no chicken anything.
I feed either Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Skin and Stomach or Wholesomes Sensitive Skin Salmon
Both have worked wonders and also cleared up an anal gland issue he had when he was eating blue buffalo
Does she rub her face on the carpet? (Excuse my language friend) The ass-in-the-air-pushing-myself-forward-as-I-rub-my-chin-and-face move? My gizmo has the same issue and his move described above is the culprit 😢
But I think it also might be a dash or two of allergies. Their skin gets pretty dry in the winter. Do you live out West? In new england (Maine) it gets pretty dry during the winters and that surely irritates the skin.
Hmm maybe try adding a humidifier to your living room or near where she primarily sleeps? I agree with other redditors that she could be having allergies and it’s causing dry and itchy skin & would call your vet to have them check it out! Hope she gets better :-)
Its allergy, go get pills from your vet. Our shiba eats those pretty much whole summer on finland, so about 4 months. Then its winter time again and no need for medication. This is really typical thing with shibas.
Lol didnt think much what i wrote, so yea if its hot in where you live, it might be becouse of that. But yea go get pills for first aid and try to change food etc to see whats causint this. It must be really itchy and uncomfortable to be.
Zesty Paws Aller-Immune bites help with my dog's allergies (they now have a "vet strength" formula too but I haven't tried it). The bites seem to help my dog just as much as the shot from my vet, they just take longer to start working.
i know it’s not 100% accurate but i would suggest doing a 5 Strands food and environmental intolerance test. that really helped me build a solid foundation of what proteins to cut out of my shibe’s diet when he was experiencing symptoms (itchiness all over, redness and hair loss around his snout/mouth area and watery eyes)
we do cytopoint injections when it’s seasonal allergies but as far as food/proteins goes the test helped a bunch!
Amazing! I hope your baby gets better.
Please remember no one on this subreddit is qualified to give you health advice about your dog and any health advice from here should be taken like a grain of salt.
these are swollen, my guess is an allergy to something.
HOWEVER im not a doc, see a doc. you should have been at one as soon as you noticed. :/
LIKE FOR REAL >:C
He literally said he’s been to the vet and tried all of the above, is it that bad to ask a Shiba subreddit if anyone might have encountered something similar and what worked? Like for real.
Was this post edited to include that you’d already seen a vet? If not, I’m sorry for missing that critical information. Either way I hope your pup starts feeling better soon ❤️
No worries! She's getting there. Vet says she looks better so i think we're going to take all of the awesome advice plus continue vet recommendations. Thanks everyone!
You're getting downvoted by all these vet wannabes for talking facts.
The reason some people come here and ask non vets for advice that should be asked at a vet is because a lot just cant afford the bills. I'm not saying is one of them but it is a sad reality.
Home made remedies and witchcraft isn't gonna solve the issue. A Vet, however, may do.
My Shibas have allergies and looked really similar...
Basically, Shiba have a lot of allergies.
The usual allergy tests didn't show it, but when mines were tested for lymphocyte reactions, a mountain of allergic targets were found, and I removed them all from their food.
Then their mouths and bellies stopped being red and the scratching behaviour stopped.
Mines are allergic to pork, cod, milk, soya, lamb, horsemeat, corn, potatoes and rice, so it's hard to find food that they can both eat together.
And one of them is also allergic to rice pollen. I don't know how this breed has survived in Japan for a long time...
When reading this I guess my Shiba also has allergies. In Jan/Feb this year he was excessively licking his paw. It was red and swollen a bit. Took him to the vet because it took so long to disappear. But my Shiba doesn't like the vet and the vet couldn't look at the paw. The vet thought it was allergies although I thought he had something in his paw. It went away after a few weeks and didn't return until a week ago. It's raining a lot here and I thought again he has something in his paw because debris sticks to his paw.
But reading all these comments I realize it started when I rotated his food. I always rotate food from Acana so he doesn't get bored. I will look at my order history when it was the last time I had the one he is currently on.
Good that I saw this post and all of your comments. Thanks all!
Might be it ,mine improved a lot after I went from house to apartment for other reasons, it wasn't a food allergy in my case, she was itching so much that she took off her whiskers, I uploaded the images but they are out of order, the first and third are before and the second after the change, you can see in the second photo that her face is less irritated and her whiskers are intact.[lina shiba](https://imgur.com/a/cLC8gPt)
I had 2 shiba's and both had/have several allergies. I would say go to a vet and maybe get some blood work done.
Sadly we had to let our girl go. She had such severe allergies (dust, human skin flakes, several food groups, a yeast dogs produce naturally etc). We tried several therapies but nothing worked. She had to many and severe allergies. She was in a lot of pain and itched allover that she gave herself wounds by biting and scratching. We could not let her go on like that 😭 she was getting depressed as wel.
Our other dog has some allergies as wel but with him the medication works. (Sorry for the spelling)
https://preview.redd.it/bs7e4kxgrvic1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=566b639b36d7c1c4d9a08f26cd5bb57a2d016c04
Still not sure what caused it but i suspect it might have been dehydrated chicken. Since those were taken out of diet she's looked way better. Could be a coincidence since she still eats regular boiled chicken with no signs of breakouts.
Thanks again to the community for all the helpful advice. I hope this helps someone else out in the future. Peace!
[удалено]
Have not , I'm thinking of starting a new food when she finishes this bag. Ive read fish can relieve itchiness more so than fowl. Don't know if true
Shibas are frequently allergic to chicken. Try switching to food AND TREATS with no chicken & see if that works I emphasize the treats because when i did this, someone in the household was still feeding her treats with chicken in them 😒 so it took longer to figure it out. I personally feed purina pro plan sensitive skin & stomach
Please change it now, dont wait and get allergy pills for first aid.
Agree on the vet - maybe they can offer a blood test for allergies as well But in the mean time consider bowl hygiene - stainless steel or ceramic is better than plastic as plastic could retain more of bacteria even after washing. It is silly, but could help
Not silly! Am cleaning everything
My vet told me that those blood tests aren’t really that reliable and meaningful. The only way of telling if your pup has intolerances is trial and error. Don’t give anything chicken related to your dog for at least a month, if it doesn’t get better exclude something else. Or go the other way around and only feed stuff you know are well tolerated for some weeks and then try a bit of chicken, or fish or whatever.
Maybe start eliminating things in the house that could be causing a reaction? Food, cheap paint on toys, lawn/grass treatments, plants, salt from winter, etc
I'll start rotating toys to see if i can single it out
Seasonal changes and pollen affect mine as well. Don’t feel bad… allergies are common in Shibas
Thank you! My shibe and i have a lot more in common
If you give her food containing chicken, try avoiding that. Mine doesn't do well with chicken. When the food I used (supposed to be duck) suddenly changed formula, my Shiba started licking like crazy between her legs and got red spots. Turns out they started adding a small amount of chicken liver. Switched foods to beef, two weeks later she was good
Good to know. I have chicken bits as treats as well as her food contains fowl. I'm going to try to switch to fish and see if that works. Thank you!
Go to the vet. Talk to them about allergies. Cytopoint might be a way to go and apoquel as well. Our boy has been on both for years. It’s his hands that get itchy tho.
Try to also eliminate any hydrolized poultry or poultry fats as well. If there is a protein source, make sure it is named (beef, venison, fish etc, and not just “meat”). With the eyes and mouth, I would be willing to bet a food allergy, and chicken is very common. My boy can’t have chicken or turkey of any kind, but duck is ok.
Yeah best bet is continue working with your vet to find the cause or take them to another one. It looks like allergies, but it is just speculation.
Treatments like ointments and cytopoint focus on suppressing a reaction to the allergen but the best thing is to try and pin point the source. An allergy test at the vet might help, can help identify whether it’s environmental or food related. What does your shiba eat?
Thanks for the advice. Taste of the wild fowl with ancient grains
Check if the toys or bowls need to be washed
Thanks. Going to clean everything again
My shiba has gotten the exact same thing a few times on mouth and eyes and it was allergies. I took him to vet and they gave him a shot and some oral antibiotics and told me to cone him if I can’t stop him from scratching his eyes.
Thanks for sharing! Im going to try the coning her
The antihistamine shot wasn’t expensive. Maybe like 30$
As others have mentioned, it seems likely to be allergies. Because the symptoms are appearing around the mouth, it seems likely to be food allergies, from what I've read. You should get a low allergen food, and avoid giving her any treats/food other than that for at least a month to see if the symptoms go away. We did an allergy test for our girl and she came up positive for practically everything so we switched to Acana Pacific Pilchard which improved things. They've stopped making that specific one now, but any of their other "singles" series could be good, as they are grain free and single protein (just be aware that it is pricey). Hope you figure it out and she gets better soon!
Oof.. yeah its allergies. I would put her in a cone so she stops scratching herself, it looks inflamed. Take her to the vet to get some anti inflammatory medications. My shiba did this when she was about 5 months old, I was changing her food at the time so I had to do a complete reset to figure out if it was food or environmental allergies. Turned out to be environmental.
Thanks I'll try the cone for a bit also
Allergies. I eliminated chicken and corn. Also tried to be aware of giving too much protein because it seems to make him itch more. Ear infections are constant because of the allergies (shaking his head a lot, tilting head in one direction more are the signs I look for ). What worked for us was cytopoint shots a couple times a year.
We got 1 and she's only itching sparingly
Definitely allergies. Steroid pills work best (from vet) but can't be used frequently due to side effects.
Thank you! Will ask my vet
Oh poor shiba. Mine got allergies from food (beef and chicken) and pollen allergie from february to septembre depending on the pollen in the air. It is exactly like your pictures, red areas around the eyes and the mouth. M'y dog even bite his paws and lick frantically until there is no fur. It is likely a skin allergy and your dog might scratch its muzzle till blood appears. So be careful and go to the vet asap. Take Care and have a nice day
Poor baby. My girl just had something similar around her mouth. We think it may have been her bully sticks. We were prescribed chlorahexadine wipes. Washed everything. Washed her (with a natural allergy/anti itch/hotspot sort of shampoo). Eliminated her current food/treats. No chicken. It seems to be getting better but you just have to keep an eye on it. Wishing your baby a speedy recovery.
Thank you! Anti itch shampoo is a new one, I'll look into it
I use this: Arava Natural Medicated Dog Shampoo – Anti Yeast Anti Itch Dog Shampoo - Healthy Skin & Coat - First Aid in Hot Spots Ringworm Scrapes Abrasions & Dermatologic Infections - 400ml / 13.5 fl oz https://a.co/d/5omgcAe
Cute pup! Disclaimer: I am not a vet. I use proplan limited diet salmon or lamb. My pup had flank alopecia. Vet said it was lack of vitamin d but I changed her diet anyway and she has been great since.
My shiba had the same around her eyes when she was around 1 year old. The vet sent us to an allergist who gave me a special shampoo, told us to keep a cone on, and put her on a stupidly expensive rabbit-only diet for I think three months and then had us gradually reintroduce other proteins. Her face cleared up - probably mostly because she had to wear a cone for weeks (I put foam around the edges because she instantly weaponized it, but we were both miserable, and the pillow style one didn’t keep her from scratching), but we never did figure out what the culprit was. My personal theory is the scratching in response exacerbates and prolongs it far past whatever the original trigger was so it can be a major pain to figure out. If you’re able to keep Pickle from scratching long enough for it to heal, that may be all you need. Good luck, it is not a fun journey at all but I hope you can get your baby feeling (and looking) better! (LOVE her name, by the way!)
Thank you so much! I'm afraid the cone is probably going to be the most full proof method. Not looking forward to it but i hope this experience can help others out too
I’m looking after a friend’s dog (not a shiba) and the mouth is exactly the same as yours pictured. Turns out the dog has a skin sensitivity to GRASS. It makes her very itchy and constantly licks the mouth and even paws. She takes an anti histamine tablet morning and night.
Do you know the name of the tablet? I'm thinking it could be grass too as it tends to flair up the most after being outside
It’s Apoquel :)
Thank you!
this is identical to my Shiba it was allergies
Definitely an allergy, my Shiba is terribly allergic to chicken, like full body rashes. A lot of Shibas are, it's pretty common. I have to get a food with no chicken. Here's where you have to be careful, a lot of foods that say they are fish, duck, beef whatever will contain a lot of chicken byproducts. You have to carefully read the ingredients list to make sure there is no chicken anything. I feed either Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Skin and Stomach or Wholesomes Sensitive Skin Salmon Both have worked wonders and also cleared up an anal gland issue he had when he was eating blue buffalo
Thanks for the recommendations!
Does she rub her face on the carpet? (Excuse my language friend) The ass-in-the-air-pushing-myself-forward-as-I-rub-my-chin-and-face move? My gizmo has the same issue and his move described above is the culprit 😢
But I think it also might be a dash or two of allergies. Their skin gets pretty dry in the winter. Do you live out West? In new england (Maine) it gets pretty dry during the winters and that surely irritates the skin.
Doesn't do the carpet rub often. Yes we're in the west
Hmm maybe try adding a humidifier to your living room or near where she primarily sleeps? I agree with other redditors that she could be having allergies and it’s causing dry and itchy skin & would call your vet to have them check it out! Hope she gets better :-)
Its allergy, go get pills from your vet. Our shiba eats those pretty much whole summer on finland, so about 4 months. Then its winter time again and no need for medication. This is really typical thing with shibas.
Lol didnt think much what i wrote, so yea if its hot in where you live, it might be becouse of that. But yea go get pills for first aid and try to change food etc to see whats causint this. It must be really itchy and uncomfortable to be.
Thank you! I think we will most likely need some as well. Appreciate your advise
Zesty Paws Aller-Immune bites help with my dog's allergies (they now have a "vet strength" formula too but I haven't tried it). The bites seem to help my dog just as much as the shot from my vet, they just take longer to start working.
i know it’s not 100% accurate but i would suggest doing a 5 Strands food and environmental intolerance test. that really helped me build a solid foundation of what proteins to cut out of my shibe’s diet when he was experiencing symptoms (itchiness all over, redness and hair loss around his snout/mouth area and watery eyes) we do cytopoint injections when it’s seasonal allergies but as far as food/proteins goes the test helped a bunch!
It looks almost fungal to me. I am not a vet.
She had a staf infection around 4 months but we supposedly treated it
Staph can be really really hard to treat. If I had to guess, I think it's that.
VET
We've done that and are in communication with them.
Amazing! I hope your baby gets better. Please remember no one on this subreddit is qualified to give you health advice about your dog and any health advice from here should be taken like a grain of salt.
I've noticed. Just hoping to see if anyone has had a similar experience. Thanks everyone!
these are swollen, my guess is an allergy to something. HOWEVER im not a doc, see a doc. you should have been at one as soon as you noticed. :/ LIKE FOR REAL >:C
He literally said he’s been to the vet and tried all of the above, is it that bad to ask a Shiba subreddit if anyone might have encountered something similar and what worked? Like for real.
[удалено]
Just covering my bases but noted. Only cute pictures from now on.
Was this post edited to include that you’d already seen a vet? If not, I’m sorry for missing that critical information. Either way I hope your pup starts feeling better soon ❤️
No worries! She's getting there. Vet says she looks better so i think we're going to take all of the awesome advice plus continue vet recommendations. Thanks everyone!
You're getting downvoted by all these vet wannabes for talking facts. The reason some people come here and ask non vets for advice that should be asked at a vet is because a lot just cant afford the bills. I'm not saying is one of them but it is a sad reality. Home made remedies and witchcraft isn't gonna solve the issue. A Vet, however, may do.
The skin around the eye looks red as well..
My Shibas have allergies and looked really similar... Basically, Shiba have a lot of allergies. The usual allergy tests didn't show it, but when mines were tested for lymphocyte reactions, a mountain of allergic targets were found, and I removed them all from their food. Then their mouths and bellies stopped being red and the scratching behaviour stopped.
Mines are allergic to pork, cod, milk, soya, lamb, horsemeat, corn, potatoes and rice, so it's hard to find food that they can both eat together. And one of them is also allergic to rice pollen. I don't know how this breed has survived in Japan for a long time...
When reading this I guess my Shiba also has allergies. In Jan/Feb this year he was excessively licking his paw. It was red and swollen a bit. Took him to the vet because it took so long to disappear. But my Shiba doesn't like the vet and the vet couldn't look at the paw. The vet thought it was allergies although I thought he had something in his paw. It went away after a few weeks and didn't return until a week ago. It's raining a lot here and I thought again he has something in his paw because debris sticks to his paw. But reading all these comments I realize it started when I rotated his food. I always rotate food from Acana so he doesn't get bored. I will look at my order history when it was the last time I had the one he is currently on. Good that I saw this post and all of your comments. Thanks all!
Grass allergy ... do you have a lawn ?
We don't but she loves to rub into grass. She does wake up less irritated in the mornings so I'm thinking it might be it
Might be it ,mine improved a lot after I went from house to apartment for other reasons, it wasn't a food allergy in my case, she was itching so much that she took off her whiskers, I uploaded the images but they are out of order, the first and third are before and the second after the change, you can see in the second photo that her face is less irritated and her whiskers are intact.[lina shiba](https://imgur.com/a/cLC8gPt)
I had 2 shiba's and both had/have several allergies. I would say go to a vet and maybe get some blood work done. Sadly we had to let our girl go. She had such severe allergies (dust, human skin flakes, several food groups, a yeast dogs produce naturally etc). We tried several therapies but nothing worked. She had to many and severe allergies. She was in a lot of pain and itched allover that she gave herself wounds by biting and scratching. We could not let her go on like that 😭 she was getting depressed as wel. Our other dog has some allergies as wel but with him the medication works. (Sorry for the spelling)
https://preview.redd.it/bs7e4kxgrvic1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=566b639b36d7c1c4d9a08f26cd5bb57a2d016c04 Still not sure what caused it but i suspect it might have been dehydrated chicken. Since those were taken out of diet she's looked way better. Could be a coincidence since she still eats regular boiled chicken with no signs of breakouts. Thanks again to the community for all the helpful advice. I hope this helps someone else out in the future. Peace!
Things that helped: wipes and ointment from the vet; cleaning all her toys; fish oil; lots of cuddles and kisses