Mia And Demodetic Mange / Mites

[Falgall]

My Mia went to be desexed today and I asked them to check her neck and around her eyes as there was inflamation. I washed her last week in Aloveen and she did tug her fur after that (it also happened the first time I washed her, it was thought it was a hot spot and treated as such). Anyway the Vet said to wait till today and they could have a better look. I had been using Pyohex Shampoo and Lotion and antibiotic cream till today. She was ages on the table as she bled heaps but they took a skin scraping. Result is Demodetic Mites. I thought it was something I had done but the Vet said most dogs have it but only under 1 year old tend to show symptoms. When I asked how she got it I was told it would have been from suckling from her Mum. Many of these dogs that have it also are a half gene short (?). The upshot is minimum 4 weeks on antibiotics and washing in Pyohex.

I am devatated as I have just gotten Wags 90% fit after months of treatment and operations and now poor Mia is looking at a long road to recovery too.

This is not food related as she eats chicken raw necks or Allergen Free (as Wags has to be on that as well), she has had extras but I am sure they have not affected her. Stress is not a factor in her case either.

I know the Breeder should I tell them that it is more than likely the Mum passed this on? I wonder if her litter mates have been affected? It maybe useful for them to know in case others contact them? Or am I asking for drama?

I am going to be divorced if my OH twigs how much I have spent on Vet bills over the past few months too

Some times I wonder whether I am good for my animals.

Any tips on clearing this up wll be greatly appreciated as I said she will be on antibiotics and washed weekly in Pyohex Shampoo and lotion used as well. I will watch her diet as well.

Regards

Karen

[KitKat]

If it was passed on...then I'm guessing the vet has said that it's Generalised Demodex? as in more then five spots on the body? or is it Localised Demodex...generally being under five spots...?

Localised Demodex can just happen...usually puberty bring it out and the mites get rampant and start at it..usually they live happily without making the dog look mothbitten (happens with us to).

There are a number of ways of treating the mite...but they can depend on if it's generalised or localised Demodex...

There have been heaps of threads on this problem as it seems to be either becoming more common...or I'm just hearing more about it..lol

[Falgall]

Thanks KitKat I will ask tomorrow but they said it was quite severe?

I could only see her eyes, under her chin and an area in the middle of her back where she had tugged and I thought she had made it crusty (no hair loss there though).

She did have an area near her tail when 3 mths old but the Vet thought it was a hot spot.

I will find out heaps more when I pick her up and then do searches in this area.

The Vet did say she would have picked it up when suckling. Maybe they found more areas? Her fur is so thick it can be hard to detect at times what is going on.

I am silly as I always thought neglect caused these things.

Thanks for the heads up on the info and I will search when armed with more info.

Karen

[KitKat]

My pup only had localised demodex but his spots went pretty much hairless pretty quickly...and noticiable as all get out...and the dogs i've met who had/have generalised have also ended up looking pretty darn naked.

There are several people on DOL who have gotten their dogs thru demodex (both generalised or localised) or are currently getting their dogs thru it...so either way this place will be a wealth of information and support

[Nadia]

The Demodectic Mite occurs naturally on dogs, it can however become a problem when the the dogs immune system is compromised or stressed.

Weaning, vaccination, medications, illness etc, can all stress the dogs immune system.

When the immune system is compromised the dogs body is unable to naturally deal with the parasite, so it gets out of control and you see the results.

There is a lot of information on DOL about this, put the jug on you will need a couple of cuppies to get through it all.

[peibe]

So sorry to hear this, my boy suffered from Demodetic Mite as a pup. We tried everything and nothing worked he still had his spots.

But low and behold once he was desexed and turned 1 it went away.

We still feed allergin free but have had no outbreaks.

[haven]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Demodex is kind of like cold sores in humans. Most people carry the virus but it only comes out when the immune system is low.

Yes I would tell the breeder, as the mites are only passed from bitch to pups during the first few days of life. It matters not for your puppy, but some breeders won't breed from a bitch carrying demodex.

[KitKat]

Cold sores are a form of the herpes simplex virus (you have to have caught the virus, say kissed/been kissed someone with a cold sore, shared a glass etc etc)...rather then a natural organism that lives on the body...and yes we also carry demodex mites..lovely huh? lol..from what i can gather they tend to break out in our eyebrows if they are going to though.

Cold sore info

Localised Demodex is one of those things...it might happen to one pup in a litter and may even only happen once, to one pup, in a number of litters. Generalised Demodex is the one to watch for, from everything i've researched, as it's the one that can be hard to treat and it's a matter of watching for it for the rest of the dogs life...

[goldchow]

Hi Falgall,

Caught up on my emails, well some of them, last night and found a previous one from you re Mia and Demodex.

Firstly she's a Chow and this breed is notorious for low immune system problems and are also VERY sensitive to stress. You may even find the anaesthetic will increase the mites activity.

You will need to watch or amend her diet, a good quality biscuit without wheat, soy or corn, and many chows react badly to beef and roo.

I have had tremendous success by adding kelp, powdered sulphur and dolomite to their dinner and lots of omega oils.

The addition of a buffered Vit C, or Ester C also helps because it encourages the system to produce its own cortisone and therefore helps fight off the mites.

Chows do best with all natural shampoos and particular care must be taken that every trace of shampoo is rinsed off

I used Phyohex once and wasn't at all happy with it, neither was the Chow.

AllersebT or Sensodyne are both good soothing shampoos.

A wash I have used with great success and is recommended by Pat Colby in her Natural Pet Care book is also very good and sooths the sore spots very well; a tablespoon of copper sulphate and a tablespoon of cider vinegar dissolved in half a litre of water and the sore spots bathed about three times a week.

Edited November 22, 2005 by goldchow

[eljaric]

Advocate (available from vet or online) clears up Demodex. It is one of those treatments you put on the back of the dog's neck once a month that treats fleas, worms etc. If you believe in these medications, you could ask your vet about it. It worked like a charm for my dog.

[Sonny]

I've used Advocate for generalised mange and it didn't work at all - very diappointed in this product.

His mange was very bad and he lost a significant amount of hair.

Ivomec worked brilliantly (we use 1.5ml a day as he dribbles a lot). We started to notice the difference in about 1-2 weeks

We have been on Ivomec for 8 weeks, he was then desexed and then we had to use it for another 2 weeks just to make sure the operation didn't make his mange worse again (he only has nine days left).

He is looking a lot better now and he is a lot happier.

We have found that because the Advocate didn't work properly our boy has some scaring so his hair will not grow back as thick in some areas. I have considered phoning the producers of Advocate to complain but I'm not sure that is going to help.

I am hoping that over time his hair will get a little better but I'll have to wait and see.

My recommendation is to stay away from Advocate for generalised mange!

[haven]

Sorry Kitkat, how is that different from what I said

[Nadia]

Advocate does work but it is not an instant cure.

It does take time.

Sometimes with Demodectic mites there is no fast solution.

The hair can sometimes also fail to regrow no matter which treatment is used, if the skin is damaged badly enough.

[KitKat]

Haven - I was meaning that Demodex mite isn't a virus nor is it contagious (as cold sores are)...it is part of the body's natural system (which cold sores aren't)...all dogs have it (same as people) it's just when there is an immunity problem, stress, puberty etc the mites get out of hand (this is the only thing that is similar between the two)

[goldchow]

I too have used Advocate for a girl with severe demodex and as Nardia says, its not an instant fix but worked very well.

I found it took 3 months, along with diet, stress free, the washes etc but she was almost bald to begin with.

The Ivomec and Demodex washes tend to flatten the immune system even further and in this case the girl was rapidly becoming so bad I was considering euthanasia.

[Sonny]

We ended up having to use Advocate every 2 weeks and we were on it for 6months and still it didn't work, very poor product with little effect on generalised mange - use at your own risk!!!!

[KitKat]

I used it for my pup's localised demodex but only used it once a month...it took it's time but it all cleared up...but then again localised demodex will clear up eventually on it's own anyway.

With generalised demodex it might have been that the dose wasn't enough to even keep up with that particular case of GD...as with all things sometimes each case is different.

[Nadia]

The only case I have seen the Advocate not work on was a young dog that was a very long standing generalised demodex case.

It did not resolve with Ivermectin either and we ended up euthansing.

Demodex can be a trial, but you have to be consistent with your treatment and with diet etc. The immune system is compromised for the dog to be suffering from it in the first place, and that will not improve without looking at the big picture.