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Is this mange?

15K views 16 replies 10 participants last post by  JeanKBBMMMAAN 
#1 ·
Hello,
hoping to find out if my 10 month old pup has mange.

Im not sure if it is that or just some battle wounds he has left from taking down the screen door at my new house. He did have some issues with scabby elbows before so maybe these 2 are related?

Im planning on taking him to the vet in a few days, but would like to be more informed before I go in if this is the case.

I attached two recent photos.
They are the ones of the side of his mouth, and the shot of his face from above looking like the hair is a little thin there, and the other 3 photos are his scabby/pimply elbows from before that I was told was just that exactly, scabs, however, now Im thinking they may have been an earlier sign of the current problem?

Thanks in advance.
 

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#2 ·
My guess is yes. Is it itching terribly, or does he not seem to mind it?

Scabby elbows can happen from laying on concrete or anywhere really, usually nothing to be concerned with.
 
#4 ·
Demodectic mites don't itch. WD had it a few months ago and was successfully trested with Advantage Plus (every two weeks 4 times). Your vet will most likely do a skin scraping to determine the cause. I hate these annoying health conditions. Good luck with your pup. Don't forget to bring tons of treats to distract him from the scraping in the office.
 
#6 ·
That's why I asked. Sarcoptic mange mites will be terribly itchy, and I believe they can transfer to humans, scabies, and are very contagious to other dogs.

Demodex is more of a immune system issue. Yes it is a mite, but dogs have them and their immune systems keep them in check.

Finding Demedex can actually be tricky and treating it as well. They will often do skin scrapings and then if they don't see anything, they might do a hole punch, and send it to a dermatologist. They may still not find anything, but changing foods didn't help so now they are going to do mitoban baths even though they found no mites. The baths will dry out the skin and the mites will intensify before they die, so they tell you to give the dog vitamin e and fish oil. After 4 baths, each 2 weeks apart the dog is looking somewhat better than he looked at his worst -- after the baths started. Or you are hoping he looks better and trying to believe he looks better.

After six weeks, he does look better. But then they tell you that with treatment or without treatment it seems to get better in about six weeks. Really? Yeah, unless it is getting worse, that would be generalized demodex. But advantage multi actually works on demodex mites, so after getting them somewhat controlled, using that once a month might help the immune system keep them in check. Though it might make better sense to boost the immune system with some good supplements.

The dog can be itchy with demodex if he gets a secondary staff infection to go along with it.

Anyhow, good luck with the vet appointment. This is totally treatable or fixable or at least not life-threatening.
 
#8 ·
I'm dealing with something like this right now so I'll just say what my vet told me on Thursday. Demodex (especially localized....meaning a few small patches in one area that don't grow or spread) usually does not itch. The dog doesn't seem to know it's there and the skin might be a bit flaky but usually doesn't look weepy or that inflamed. Demodex is usually very easy to find and identify with a skin scraping, in part because many dogs have it on them whether they are suffering from it or not (they only suffer when their immune system is underdeveloped or there is an immune system problem).

Scabies however can itch terribly, or it can act more like demodex where it is on the dog but latent, and some other reaction or immune problem has to happen before the dog itches. Scabies is hard if not impossible to find on skin scrapings. My vet said if they suspect scabies "we scrape, and scrape again, and scrape again, and scrape six times and if we still find nothing, then we still treat it for scabies." Scabies can be contagious but just because one dog has it doesn't mean other dogs and people will.

There are a lot of other possibilities though....flea allergy, staph infection, ring worm....
 
#9 ·
i'm also dealing with demodex for the past month or so, i only used apple cider vinegar rinse with his last bath and applied ACV on those spots every day, they cleared up and now i'm just waiting on the hair to grow to it's normal length. if it is in fact demodex it should clear on its own.
 
#10 ·
Wonder if Colloidal silver would help get rid of it? I'd give it a try if all else seems to fail!


Colloidal Silver
There are many mange treatments available. Many of these are hard chemical treatments. If you prefer a natural method, colloidal silver is often used as a natural treatment for mange.

Colloidal silver is a natural antibiotic. It fights viruses, bacteria, parasites and fungi by destroying the underlying cause of the problem. It is purported to fight more than 650 disease-causing organisms. Silver has been used for centuries as a health supplement and is used both topically and orally. Colloidal silver is a mixture of small submicroscopic particles of silver held, via electromagnetic charge, in a liquid.

Colloidal silver is available in gel and liquid form. Liquids are available in mist or drop applications. The silver can easily be added to daily food or water supplies. Follow manufacturer directions carefully
.



Read more: Colloidal Silver for Red Mange in Dogs | eHow.com Colloidal Silver for Red Mange in Dogs | eHow.com
 
#11 · (Edited)
its not itchy, from what I have seen, he doesnt try to go at his front elbows where the pimply spots are, theyve actually improved somewhat on their own. the vet gave me animax for his elbows before, however, I dont believe it did anything, and the scrape found nothing as well.

the patches on the side of his mouth started as one spot the size of a pea, and has just grown over the last 2 weeks or so. the spot on top of his muzzle/nose is pretty recent, last week Im guessing. I was hoping it was just the result of him scratching himself from destroying the screen door, but I guess a vet visit will be in order.

I think before I make it to the vet I will try the collidial silver, and someone else here suggested trying iodine? I will try both, every other day, any suggestions as to how much to use?

I forgot to mention earlier, he eats TOTW high prairie puppy, which has been the first in probably 4-5 different foods that his stomach has tolerated well. some of the cheaper foods were ok, but it seemed like his droppings were substantially bigger and he wasnt retaining/gaining weight at a healthy pace on them either. I bit the bullet after a lot of research on here and the dog food adviser website and tried the more expensive but better food. TOTW and a lot of running seems to have done him a lot of good in a progressive healthy weigh gain, but I also supplement it with raw chicken breasts (2-3) every 2-3 days.

I attached one of my favorite shots of him because I wanted to end this on a positive. Im determined to figure this out, although it is stressful, I really appreciate the help here.

Btw, he passed his AKC CGC test a few weeks ago, so this has been a pretty exciting time for us!
 

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#12 ·
The Iodine i use is 10% iodine 90 % rubbing alcohol.

I put a few drops on each area of mange using a dropper.

After a day or 2 the redness, scaly skin and bits of dry skin should disappear and within 2 weeks or less the hair should be growing back

If i was you i'd try the Iodine and Colloidal silver on different areas so you know which one worked best

I've heard neem oil works on mange too. I use that for flea prevention.

You might want to boost the immune system as well considering the mange
 
#13 ·
I would just go to the vet. Some of the possibilities can be quite contagious so you don't want to wait. Some remedies work for one thing, but make another thing worse. If it's localized demodex, then you don't need to treat it at all (there are tons of home remedies but it normally clears on its own in the same amount of time) and you should focus more on the immune system than the patches of hair loss.
 
#14 ·
what do you guys recommend for the immune system? and maybe a brand of collodial silver that you have used? theres a ton of options on amazon, I wasnt sure which one would be good.

I was getting excited because the big spots on the side of his face and top of his nose were looking better, then I saw two more, new, pea sized bald spots had popped up in the last few days. this sucks..
 
#15 ·
I would see about going to a dermatologist vet - usually easier in the long run. That one with the blistery looking stuff looks odd to me. It could maybe be a secondary staph infection which needs to be seen/treated. But I have no idea and would say that a derm vet is the quickest way to get answers. You don't have to follow all their instructions - I just take the information, check it out myself, talk to my regular vet, but to get a diagnosis...good way to do it!

Boosting the immune system is great, unless it's something autoimmune, which will only make things worse.

https://www.acvd.org/locator/locator.asp is a derm vet locator.
 
#16 ·
I actually got to see the dermatologist at my vet's office. He said he's pretty sure its demodex, they wanted to do the scrape but my dog was being a little unruly, so he wants to bring him back another time to sedate him and do a scrape safely.

I got some prescription cream that he said we should try for a few weeks, and then possibly use a prescription they had in mind and keep scraping until demo is gone.

sounds a little extensive but anyways, I thought it was interesting that he said that it was a theory that it was immune system based, but they actually dont know exactly what causes demodex..not something that inspires confidence in my opinion.
 
#17 ·
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