# Please help explain this rash, I love this dog!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-explain-this-rash-i-love-this-dog/503552
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 19, 2009, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-explain-this-rash-i-love-this-dog/503552 "2009-07-19T21:01:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Gethsemane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gethsemane)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2009, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-explain-this-rash-i-love-this-dog/503552/1 "2009-07-19T21:01:10Z")
Hopefully that caught your attention…
Situation:
On my forearms, and forearms alone is a spattering of reddish dots, not raised, each between 2-4mm is size. They appear to be scattered randomly, some in small clusters, with no clear disposition towards wrist or elbow. This is only occurring on the inside, hairless portion of my forearm. Nothing above the wrist, or past the elbow. Nowhere else on my body. When the spots first arrive, they are somewhat itchy, though not to a distracting or painful degree.
This only occurs, and has only occurred on the two most recent occasions I’ve visited my mothers house, where she is fostering a female purebred Shar-Pei. I’ve interacted with this dog a year ago without these effects. I first noticed them after my first visit this year, and paid close attention on my most recent one. Within 5-10 minutes of interacting with the dog, and nothing else in particular, the spots appeared. The dog did lick both my forearms, though also my hands where no symptoms appear. (The Shar-Pei is also known for having, I believe, the only other ‘black-blue’ tongue in the animal kingdom besides the Blue-tongued Skink. Am I wrong?)
So, thoughts? Should I wear my hamster ball when I visit from now on?
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### Author:  [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2009, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-explain-this-rash-i-love-this-dog/503552/2 "2009-07-19T21:33:20Z")
Can’t help you with the rash, but I do know about [this](http://www.flickr.com/photos/budak/409492570/)…
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### Author:  [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2009, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-explain-this-rash-i-love-this-dog/503552/3 "2009-07-19T21:46:41Z")
Certainly sounds like contact dermatitis. The skin on the underside of the forearms is thin so it usually gets affected first.
It can be caused by anything however. It could be the lounge as easily as the dog. I used to get it from prolonged contact with aluminium.
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### Author:  [@BoBettie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoBettie)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2009, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-explain-this-rash-i-love-this-dog/503552/4 "2009-07-20T01:05:04Z")
You could very well be allergic to her shar-pei. A vet I was taking mine to once was allergic and within minutes of examining him, his arms were all broken out and he had to have another vet take care of him. He said that it only ever, ever happened with shar-pei and he was just sensitive to something in their dander or fur.
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### Author:  [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2009, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-explain-this-rash-i-love-this-dog/503552/5 "2009-07-20T04:48:17Z")
Is your mom using a new shampoo on the dog that you might be sensitive to?
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### Author:  [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2009, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-explain-this-rash-i-love-this-dog/503552/6 "2009-07-20T05:02:29Z")
> [@Blake](#):
>
> \I used to get it from prolonged contact with aluminium.
:eek: Do tell…!
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### Author:  [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2009, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-explain-this-rash-i-love-this-dog/503552/7 "2009-07-20T09:52:52Z")
> [@Ruby](#):
>
> :eek: Do tell…!
Not much to tell. I used to use an aluminium yardstick for measuring plants. 8 hours a day contact led to contact dermatitis whenever I touched aluminium. Fortunlately it went away after I stopped using the yardstick.
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### Author:  [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2009, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-explain-this-rash-i-love-this-dog/503552/8 "2009-07-20T15:29:35Z")
> [@BoBettie](#):
>
> You could very well be allergic to her shar-pei. A vet I was taking mine to once was allergic and within minutes of examining him, his arms were all broken out and he had to have another vet take care of him. He said that it only ever, ever happened with shar-pei and he was just sensitive to something in their dander or fur.
What she said. Something about Shar pei fur causes reactions in a lot of people, I experience the same problem but it goes away within a few hours. Sometimes other breeds will cause the same problem. The hairs are usually short and stiff and poke your skin when you handle them. Almost everyone I have worked with in vet. clinics has some sort of reaction to shar peis.
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### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-explain-this-rash-i-love-this-dog/503552/9 "2009-07-20T17:36:47Z")
I caught _tinea versicolor_ from the bed of my sister’s mother-in-law. Finally got rid of it after scrubbing myself raw with Selsun Blue. Point is you can pick up all sorts of crap from almost anywhere.
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### Author:  [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2009, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-explain-this-rash-i-love-this-dog/503552/10 "2009-07-20T18:13:46Z")
> [@Gethsemane](#):
>
> (The Shar-Pei is also known for having, I believe, the only other ‘black-blue’ tongue in the animal kingdom besides the Blue-tongued Skink. Am I wrong?)
I believe the Chow also has the dark tongue.
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### Author:  [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2009, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-explain-this-rash-i-love-this-dog/503552/11 "2009-07-21T02:07:22Z")
> [@Blake](#):
>
> Not much to tell. I used to use an aluminium yardstick for measuring plants. 8 hours a day contact led to contact dermatitis whenever I touched aluminium. Fortunlately it went away after I stopped using the yardstick.
Damn, I was hoping for a kinky Reynolds Wrap story… 😃
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### Author:  [@Gethsemane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gethsemane)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2009, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-explain-this-rash-i-love-this-dog/503552/12 "2009-07-24T06:08:55Z")
Thank you everyone, for the replies and info. I’ve come to the conclusion that Shar-Peis are covered in fbreglass, and it is only a matter of time before we see them stuffed between walls to retain heat.
Thanks again!
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### Author:  [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2009, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-explain-this-rash-i-love-this-dog/503552/13 "2009-07-27T10:40:50Z")
> [@Ruby](#):
>
> Damn, I was hoping for a kinky Reynolds Wrap story… 😃
Wellllll, there was that beanie I used to wear 24/7, but the voices told me that couldn’t have been the cause.