Annual Visits, With a Breed-Specific Twist
A healthy adult Chinese Crested should have one routine veterinary checkup every year. Puppies visit several times in their early months for vaccinations, growth checks, and a first assessment of skin and teeth. Seniors — this is a long-lived little breed, so from around age eleven — do better with twice-yearly visits, when eyes, heart, kidneys, and joints can be reviewed more often.
The twist is what the annual exam must concentrate on. A Chinese Crested, especially the hairless variety, presents things no other common breed does, and a checkup that treats your dog like any small breed will miss exactly the points that matter.
Skin: The Hairless Body Is the Exam
Exposed skin is this breed's defining veterinary topic. Hairless Cresteds are prone to clogged pores, acne-like breakouts, dryness, and sunburn, and their skin thickens and changes with sun exposure over the years. Your veterinarian should look the skin over properly — folds, belly, ears, and the crest and furnishings where hair does grow — and help you distinguish ordinary breed skin behavior from infection, allergy, or a lump that needs sampling.
Come ready to describe your skin-care routine: how often you bathe, what you apply, whether you use sun protection for outdoor time. Over-bathing and heavy products cause as many problems in this breed as neglect does, and the annual visit is where that routine gets calibrated. Powderpuffs need a different conversation — their full double coat hides skin entirely, so the vet's hands have to do the looking during the exam.
Teeth That Break the Usual Rules
The hairless variety is genetically linked to incomplete, widely spaced, or missing teeth, so a Crested's mouth often looks alarming to anyone expecting a normal dental arcade. Your vet will map what teeth are present, check the remaining ones for tartar and gum disease — the teeth they do have still decay and loosen — and record the baseline, because knowing what was always missing prevents confusion at every later visit. Jaw comfort, bite, and any retained baby teeth in a young dog belong in the same check.
Eyes and kneecaps complete the breed list. Cresteds can suffer inherited eye problems, including lens displacement in some lines, so an annual eye check matters, and any sudden squinting, cloudiness, or pawing at an eye is a same-day call. Kneecaps that slip are the standard small-breed joint check. Weight, heart, and parasite prevention are reviewed as for any dog, with the addition of cold and sun sensitivity — a hairless dog's outdoor exposure is a genuine health topic, not a wardrobe joke.
Why the Written Baseline Matters So Much Here
In a breed where normal looks unusual, last year's notes are this year's diagnostic shortcut. A vet who can read that the skin pigmentation, missing teeth, and ear texture were all present and unchanged a year ago can focus entirely on what is actually new. KinsLe's Pet Passport keeps those baselines — skin notes, dental maps, vaccinations, and exam findings — together in one packet, so even a clinic meeting your Crested for the first time starts from your dog's real normal rather than guessing at it.