Mange

[Sue Bisaga]

My new foster dog who is a 1yr. old pit mix has generalized mange.
He is very under weight and suffers from poor nutrition/breeding.
I am treating him with Batadin scrub baths. I don't want to tax his system any more since his immune system is so weak right now.
What can I give him to build his immune system up?

Thanks,
Sue and Tiger

[Grace Erick]

Hi Sue, I'm on my way out now, but my friend's dog had demodectic manage and I knew someone on some dog site had sarcoptic mange and it was treated with heartworm medicine. I don't know if that's good for a generalized mange. Plus there is a heartworm med called ivermectin that cannot be used on collies or herding dogs as a treatment.

Good food will help boost the immune system along with other things that I would have to look up. What kind of food are you feeding your dog? What kind of dog did you adopt?

If his immune system is weak, this is a bad time to vaccinate him, so hopefully he is already vaccinated or if the humane society vaccinated him recently, it could have made his mange situation worse.

Bye, Grace

[Grace Erick]

This is a link for sarcoptic mange with a link on the left side of the page for demodectic mange.

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_sarcoptic_mange .html

My friend who's dog had demodectic manage was told to give him some kind of dip. The vet had to use gloves, so this was an indication to her that the stuff was not good for her dog's skin, so she didn't have it done. That's the way she felt anyway.

There are holistic ways to deal with it too.

Bye, Grace

[Amber]

I know this is on the Hollistic thread, so please...no one yell at me for posting this, but Sally had generalized demodectic mange when I adopted her 6 months ago and I treated her with Ivermectin once a day for about 5 weeks and one Mitaban dip. I didn't have to build up her immune system, but I ran across this website with immune building supplements for dogs. Here's the link:

Go to http://www.kvvet.com/KVVet/dept.asp?dept%5Fid=8 52&gift=False&0=dept%2Easp%2Cdept% 5Fid%3D198%26Tree%3D %2CComplete%20Catalo g&1=dept%2Easp%2Cdept% 5Fid%3D123%26Tree%3D 0%2CPet&2=dept%2Easp%2Cdept% 5Fid%3D936%26menu%5F id%3D%26Tree%3D1%2CV itamins%20%26%20Nutr ition&3=dept%2Easp%2Cdept% 5Fid%3D185%26menu%5F id%3D%26Tree%3D2%2CS upplements%20for%20D ogs&mscssid=B21CBD81C2E8 48CB9897D0CEB5192EC7 and see what you can find there.

[Amber]

Actually, I think the reason the vet has to wear gloves is because there are side effects to humans if it gets on our skin, Grace. Sally did fine with her dip and her demodectic mange was cured within 5 weeks of us adopting her.

[Grace Erick]

Hi Amber, you know best about the dip since you delt with it. I can see your point. My friend did not trust her vet, so that is also what made her scared of the dip. Her vet wanted to treat her part herding dog with ivermectin which is not good for those types of dogs, so she found another vet.

Awe, your poor cute adorable Sally went through so much!!! You're really an angel of mercy for adopting her!!!

Bye, Grace

[Valerie K]

My girls came with it too although they scratched for quite a while before anyone thought to look for that (allergies were the original suspect). They were put on Revolution for two months -- the topical kind, (which is ivermectin) and the problem went away. One thing I do know you have to do is wash EVERYTHING they come in contact with in hot water or they will get reinfected. The little buggers can hang out for quite a while. We threw out all their soft toys and their fleece bedding as well and started over.

[Amber]

Are you sure that's what you have to do for demodectic mange, Valerie? That wasn't something I was told when I took Sally through her treatment and she hasn't become reinfected yet. All I really know is that it is caused by a mite that embeds itself in the hair follicle and that the dog can relapse if it is stressed too much. We wash all of the dog's beds and such quite often, so that may be why she never relapsed, but I was never told to wash all of their bedding in hot water.

Also, Grace, I'm glad your friend went to a different vet because he/she should have known not to give ivermectin to a herding breed. That is a commonly known fact...probably more well known in that profession than to just dog owners and the vet was probably just out to make a buck at your friend's expense. My first vet took Sally through 4 weeks of treatment, the last two of which he said he only saw ONE mite, but would not tell me if it was dead or alive. He would also only scrape in ONE place the entire 4 weeks. I got suspicious and took her to a different vet a couple days after her last visit with our original vet and the second vet scraped TWO spots and found NO mites! We had to take her through two negative skin scrapings, which meant two more weeks of ivermectin, but as it turns out, she was cured! I really think the first vet would have kept telling me he saw one mite as long as I would have let him. I haven't been back there since!

[Grace Erick]

Hi Amber,

Sometimes the worst part of a dog being ill is dealing with the vet, because if you feel your vet is going to do a good job with proper care and not start bill building, you can have a little relief that in time you dog will feel better. These stories such as yours always anger me. All doggie problems are very stressful for us, then to have to second guess your vet is very perplexing to say the least.

I think I have to start a thread about vets.

Bye, Grace

[Valerie K]

Ok, I am not sure of anything, to be honest with you. That is what our vet told us though, and I do remember reading it when I researched it on the web as well. I am not positive about the difference between the types of mange, but we were told the little mites could live a long time in fabrics. BTW, they showed me them under the microscope at the vet's office. NASTY looking little creatures. People can have a reaction (not as bad as a dog's) to them as well with the itching. Check with your vet. Maybe we overreacted, but I washed everything they slept on (slipcovers, bedding, our bedding, etc.) because I didn't want them coming back. Also, if you used something like Revolution and continue to use it for flea and heartworm control, they won't get it again. But we don't use Revolution as it doesn't control ticks and we have a big problem with deer ticks in NJ.

[Valerie K]

Ok, I looked it up tonight. The manges are different. Sarcoptic mange it is recommended to treat with Ivermectin and wash all bedding, upholstery, etc. in hot water with a bit of bleach. Demodectic or generalized mange is different and harder to deal with. Sarcoptic mange is hard to find, but easy to treat. Demodectic is easy to find, but hard to treat. There is quite a bit about the immune system needing to be supported and this condition is more serious than sarcoptic mange. I apologize for not researching before I posted. But for those who were talking about sarcoptic mange, laundering is recommended.

[Luciann]

Valerie,

When frodo was four months old and i took him to get his rabies shot, what i thought was an allergy turned out to be demadex (not sure of spelling) mange. My vet took the scrapping and showed me the mite under the microscope, nasty looking creatures.

She told me that in the past they had a dip that owner could by and dip the pet in every 2 weeks for 2 months but that the FDA would no longer allow them to sell it to pet owners. I had to take Frodo in every two weeks for two months to get dipped. I trust my vet at least. I understood why the multiple treatments for it. She also explained all the different manges and told me that it was stress that probably triggered it in frodo, with coming to a new home then we had been house sitting for a friend as well and he just had too much stress. They did not tell me that i had to wash bedding or anything in hot water either. They told me to give him benedryl for the itch.

my little boy looked like an old man with a little hair cause it ran from the forehead to the base of his tail about where his hackles would be that he lost most of his hair. But we have had no problem since.