[Sindyeli]

Hello,
Malik, my GSD, is 3 years old. I thought he had an eye infection on his right eye, and the vet treated him with an ointment first, but it didn't get better, so today he checked a scraping and diagnosed him with localised demodex mites (mange). His suggestion was to let it run its course and make sure no other spots start showing up, and offered to do another scraping in 2 weeks for free.
He even showed me a mite on the microscope, nasty thing!
I'm a little worried as this shows his immune system is down, although he eats fine and has good energy (sleeps a lot but he's a big sleeper). The vet gave me a printout that explains that it's more of a puppy thing and on adult dogs, it may be a sign of some disease. The vet didn't mention that, though.
So I'm just wondering if any of you have had such an experience with your GSD and if you have any advice.
thanks
Aude

 

[BowWowMeow]

Rafi had demodectic mange when I adopted him. I fed him really good food (homemade and preprepared raw), gave him Ester C and an overall immune booster and it resolved very quickly.

What is your dog eating?

 

[djpohn]

My male had demodex at 2 1/2 and a year later was diagnosed with lymphoma. My vet feels this may have been a "indicator" that the lymphoma was starting. His resolved itself. Make sure you keep a close eye on your dog from now on and I would suggest you be careful with vaccinations in the future.

 

[arycrest]

Bo, a mutt, had demodetic mange on his muzzle when I adopted him. He was somewhere between 7 and 10 years old. After his human father died and the mother put in a nursing home, the family boarded him at the vet's office for about 4 months while they tried to find him a home. When they were unable to find a home, they finally took him to the shelter where he spent another 2 months or so.

I put him on the same diet the other Hooligans were eating at that time (I think it was Chicken Soup kibble w/CS canned) along with treats, etc. My vet told me not to do anything except allow him to settle into his new home and then watch and see. And sure enough, after a couple months or so the mange dissappeared.

 

[Sindyeli]

I searched the forum for more info and decided to get him on this
http://www.onlynaturalpet.com/product_detail.aspx?item_guid=a291c1a1-1851-406d-b584-2a7e083d2abb
as an immune system booster. Can't hurt.
For food, we're switching from Innova Evo Large Bites (no grain) to Blackwood Catfish and Potato, as he has mild allergies. The vet thought Evo was to rich in protein for him and he needed more carbs. So we're switching really slowly, over 2 or 3 week, most likely.
Thanks for your comments, we'll keep a close eye on him and see how it goes.

 

[BowWowMeow]

That's what I put Rafi on. I think I probably posted that on another thread. It worked great. I put Chama on it when she was having some immune problems and it worked great for her too.

It's weird that he would get it when on good food, etc. His immune system could be depressed from the allergies though.

 

[Sindyeli]

It's true, his immune system goes on overdrive because of allergies, so I'm dealing with two opposites here. I hope that supplement will balance things out.