I have a 9 month old SBT red bitch, all was well until approx 3 months ago, she had her first season just before 6 months old, all was ok during her season no issues. She then began to lose hair on her head, neck, feet, nose and rump. We took her to the vets without delay, the vet did a skin scrape with the results not showing much. Her litter sister has had the same problems and the same veterinary care. She has also had a biopsy that showed Demodectic Mange. Anyway after discussing this the vet gave us advocat,  this had no effect and the patches became larger and more irritable to her. She then statrted scratching and chewing the areas that she could reach, obviously straight back to the vets, the vet advised that we should now try Stronghold as the advocat was showing no signs of helping. This we did for a further 4 weeks, needles to say no improvements had been made, with no improvmenst and the more she scratched the infected areas asecondary infection became another problem, the vet gave antibiotics and advised that we could try Aludex!!!! . So i suppose grabbing at any hope we diecided to give this a try. We waited a further week to allow the antibiotices chance to help with the secondary infection caused by her scratching.

So her first Aludex bath happened 23/01/10 and all was well, her second bath on 01/02/10 has seemed to do something else!!! The following day she is really down, head lowered, very unsteady on her feet, leaning against the wall in the front roon, withdrawn and not wanting her daily walks and tug or war games. She tried to jump onto the sofa(her favorite spot on her rug) and her front legs seemed to have lost their direction, in this i mean that she went throiugh the process of the actual jump but did not push her legs forward, therefor she just landed on the arm of the sofa chest first!!!. On seeing this we took her back to the vets again, temp ok, muscular skeleton condition is ok, etc etc. The vet can find no reasons as to why she should be like this other than a possible reaction to the aludex bath.

Now i have bred, shown and worked Clumber Spaniels for many years with very rare visits to the vets and only lost my last boy in October 2009 at 14 years old, so as you can imagine i am becomming increasinly worried about our new SBT.

Can anyone give me any advice or words of wisdom on what could be wrong with her and why she is just not the happy playfull SBT puppy we had not so long ago.

Thank you in antisipation of your help Dave  

Nothing much to help I am afraid but I have googled side effects  although rare include cns depression lethargy slow heart and breathing  It does say if side effects suspected to bath dog again in just soapy water.
Dont know ifthat helps at all hope she is better soon

Dave
Is she health tested for all the 'usual' Stafford health issues?

Skin problems do seem to be quite a common occurence in some Staffords.
Have you also thought about perhaps changing her food and seeing if that helps?  Did the vet suggest this at all?

Hi all, thanks for your responses, Marni is slowly comming back to her normal self< back to the vets today just to check her over, she is not showing any further signs of unsteadyness on her feet, no more leaning on walls etc, it appears that the 2nd bath in the aludex was possibly the problem. As you may be aware this is pretty powerful stuff and the reaction she had appears to be down to this. Anyway shes been out today chasing her tennis ball and having fun, my only concern now is how are we going to control the hair loss caused by the demodectic mites if we cant use aludex??? I am hopeful that the vet will now refer her to the dermotologist for further investigations. I,ll keep you updated, once again many thanks

Dave

Sorry to hear about your girl, and I don't have dogs with skin problems, but I do know that all the drugs your dog has had are really strong and can affect the nervous system.

My feelings would be to get your girl to a homeopathic vet and get some help that way, you could also have a look at:
http://www.neemgenie.co.uk for their natural products.  Also might be worth looking at Monty's story on this website who has been treated successfully and naturally for the same illness as your girl.   http://www.irishretrieverrescue.com/2008pros/monty2.html

Good luck with your girl!

I would have a big moan to the breeder if I was you, It's passed down from the mother normally and it's not advised to breed from dogs with demodex, you might clear it up now but there's a chance it will re-occur at later stages.

Has the vet suggested anti parisitic injections? Programme on tv today piglets had pigmange sold by an unscrupulous pig breeder. 4 weeks later they were looking alot better. I hope there is such a thing for doggies

Ps have a look in the your dog mag at the adverts for skin conditions They are herbal remedies too.

Get your vet to prescribe you with some panomec which you add to the food (don't have it injected). Most pups get the mite from the mother so inform your breeder to so that they can get the same treatment for their bitch, panomec will kill the mites & any eggs etc , it will never come back, however panomec is unlicenced in the UK and most vets will get you to sign a disclaimer.