I took my dog to see the vet nurse yesterday to get some Advocate as he seems really itchy the past few weeks and I wanted rule out any type of fleas or parasite before considering things like alergies .

I sat thinking last night I am 99.9% sure he doesnt have fleas , so what could this be ? He scratches under his front legs and his ears , Ive looked several times under his arms and only found one sore which looks like it was made by all the scratching , and a scabby like patch maybe the size of a 5p on his hock which I put cream on and didnt think too much of at the time .

Im now thinking he has fox mite after a further look on his ear the skin all around the edge of one of them is all dried up , ear mites cant cause that cane it ?
What am I to do now ?  I have other dogs in the house one who may be in whelp  , the others do not seem itchy and do not have any sores/scabs/dried skin on them .

The dog who may have fox mite has had Advocate yesterday is there anything else I can do ? how long does it take to get control of and for it to clear up , how likely are the others to catch it ?

Any info is much appreciated !

IF it is fox mange - ie. sarcoptic mange, then it is contagious, to humans too! The only way to find out is a skin scrape at the vets. The Advocate will help, but treatment is usually with vet prescribed washes. It will clear up relatively easily with treatment, but can take a while. I think another visit to the vet is in order. HTH

Try this site - it does looks like your dog could have it, from the symptoms you describe!

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

I will ring the vets back today , can my girl (possibly in whelp) have Advocate ? will I need to treat the others too ?

Once I have cleared this up how likely is it to happen again ? I have foxes quite regularly pass through my garden as the silly woman next door likes to feed everything and anything !

Sorry, I'm not sure about the Advocate and dog's in whelp, you'll have to ask the vet. My pup has demodex mange and was having Advocate every month, but it didn't stop it coming - he is on weekly baths at the moment.

I know with demodex it can reoccur - so pretty sure it can with sarcopties - especially as you have foxes regularly!

Gosh Ive just looked at the link you gave where it says "Note: Many dogs do not develop the classical ear margin crusts until later in the disease." which is what we have noticed on one of his ears , so he would have had this possibly for quite some time before we even noticed , Im very worried about the others especially as we have not long mated our girl , couldnt be worse timing !

What are the baths , is there anything I can use whilst we wait on skin scrape results before the vets will even dip him ?

Thank for all the replys and help !

Try and get a scrape as soon as possible, keep the other's seperate and wash your hands before touching them, wash all the bedding etc - it is contact spread. The vets provide a wash that you dilute and coat the skin with. Hope you get it sorted soon - it's not nice watching them in discomfort from the itching. Try not to worry - not all dogs are classical cases and yours may have only just got it but developed the ear margin thingy quite quickly. xx

My vet gave us the result while waiting there, so we could start the treatment as soon as we got home.

Ive put him in the kitchen they are seperated by a stair gate but the others will have to pass through the kitchen to get out the back :/ I cant seperate them any further unfortunately . Does it take long for the results from a skin scrape to come back ? I will have to take him later this afternoon as my car wont be back untill then .

I feel absolutely awful that he has got this and could possibly spread to the others , I never even imagined that we would ever have to deal with mange :(

Oh I missed that bit , thats good - fingers crossed ours will give us the results at the same time too !

back from the vets , he done a skin scrape and couldnt see anything . He said he does have an ear infection which he has given him drops for and steroids to ease the itch . He did say the advocoate will sort anything else and will need to repeat it at the end of the month .

Is there anything else I can be doing in the mean time incase it does turn out to be mange ?

Hi curwon, sorry, had to go to work. Glad you got to the vet so quick. As the vet couldn't see anything on the slide BUT your dog is showing symptoms that could be mange, I think I would keep them seperate ( at least from the one who might be in whelp) until you are sure. Did the vet take several scrapes, or just from the one area? Sometimes a scrape will be negative as there are no mites there...but they could be just a few centimetres away from that site - hence usually taking more than 1! Fingers crossed then, it's not mange, the drops will sort the ears....but why the itchy armpits unless it is an allergy? Maybe a dilute hibiscrub or malaseb bath or other shampoo for itchy skin conditions might help

Oh, and don't feel awful, it's just one of those things  and you do have lots of foxes around :)

I felt that folks would think my pup was 'scummy', with mange being thought of as a dirty thing, 'til I found out ALL dogs have demodex mange their whole life, from the moment their mum first snuggles them, the immune system keeps it in check usually and it's only when the immune system can't cope, that they proliferate! ;-)

This is a UK site ( the other is American - saw Advantage multi which is their name for Advocate )

http://www.provet.co.uk/petfacts/healthtips/sarcoptes.htm

It does say several scrapes should be taken and often they are negative unless read by a skin specialist who knows what to look for. It looks like the same sort of baths would be used too - we were told if the Aludex didn't work, we would have to use ivermectin dips off licence - luckily it seems to be working.

The vet I saw today wasnt going to take a skin scrape as he said even if it showed nothing there it didnt rule it out , I had to persist and eventually he took one and only one . Ive booked another appointment to take him back in two weeks .

I really want to start bathing him now just incase it does turn out to be mange , then we can get a little bit of a head start on it . I looked earlier for Aludex to buy on line and seems you can only get it with a prescription , I wonder if there is something else I can use to do the same job which is easily available ?

The vet said two treatments of advocate will sort it if it is mange and didnt suggest any kind of bathing lotions .

How is your pup , has it taken long to get in control of the demodex using the Aludex , I hope he is starting to feel much better ! :)

Thanks for the link Ive just had a read of it it was very informative , I did wonder how long it would take for other dogs to show signs of it if it had spread (3-6wks) I was hoping as the others hadnt shown any sign maybe they would be ok .. I guess Im going to have to be very vigilant and keep a very close eye on them .

As you said above , the  vet did mention it could possibly be an allergy , I hope it is !.. but the signs are all right for former of the two

Hi curwon - we've been bathing him once a week for 10 weeks now - the redness has gone and no new patches of hairloss. He's booked for a scrape tomorrow - 2 clear scrapes and we're done! :D

He hasn't been at all ill with it, it started with a hairless lump on his head - we thought our other pup had bitten him - then he lost fur around his mouth and small patches on his flanks and back.

I could be wrong, but I'm sure the Advocate alone won't get rid of it - you have to have the special baths, and yes it is prescription only as it is very potent. For mange of any type, it is prescription only, I've not heard of anything over the counter that can treat it. The mites are in, on and under the skin - it takes something quite strong to kill them and it is a legnthy process.

Maybe read online and speak to another vet at the practice - voice your concerns about the bitch in whelp and spreading to your other dogs - go armed with information - lots of sites say vets will treat as 'maybe mange' as the scrapes can be inconclusive - and of course your dog is showing a classic sign with the ear margins. They also say mange should be ruled out before going down the expensive allergy route.

BTW we have still been using Advocate on and off during Taffy's treatment, but it is the baths that have done the job!