I think my girl has Demodex mange. She has missing patches of fur around her face and on her shoulders and now looks like its on her feet. I have taken her to the vets this morning...

Firstly, I adore my dog and she is important, money is not the issue here, but sometimes I question what my vet advises is the correct course of treatment for my dog.

Firstly she wanted to put my girl to sleep for skin scrapings and anaesthetize her whilst they do the scraping. Ok they wish to minimise the discomfort to my girl, however she is a flat faced breed and i'm not sure this would be a great course of action, as of the difficulties flat faced dogs have with breathing enough.

She gave me some medicated shampoo to rub in her and leave on her for 10 minutes and then rinse.

they gave me a course of antibiotics to treat any secondary infections caused from the infestation (if it is an infestation)

and finally if it is Dermodex then she will have to go into the surgery every week and be dipped? every week? this will be done at a cost of £60 per visit (each week)  and this must continue for 3 occasions after dermodex has gone.

Oh I hasten to add she will be anaesthetized again to do another scraping through treatment to ensure gone...

Maybe some will applaud the vets for their attention to detail... However am I being ripped off?

Can I not put my girl through all this upset? Is there an alternative?

I have come away from my vets with just some antibiotics and some medicated shampoo (I haven't got this item yet as it was out of stock but i have paid for it) at a cost of £115.00. I have not allowed the scrapings as i want to check things out and way up other treatments.

Would Advocate work and be easier??

Would all you dog lovers please advise me...

 

If your dog is very tolerant of the vet it should be possible to do skin scrapings without knocking her out, but it's quite painful to do - they need to get down through the top surface and it usually causes bleeding. Light sedation should do the trick rather than an anaesthetic.

Weekly Aludex baths are the best course of treatment, and yes, they need to be repeated several times, and it's not a nice substance to handle and dispose of afterwards; it's often best if this is done by your vet.

It's also important to discover what has caused the flare-up; all dogs carry demodex mites in the skin but they only cause a problem and get out of control when the dog's immune system is weakened by something. Once the flare-up is under control again then Advocate would help prevent a recurrence.

Thank you for your reply.

I have a feeling the Demodex was brought on by her season as it was approx a week after her season finished the patches started. It was her first season and very late 11 mnths old.

I really don't mind all the payments and hassle, its just all the trauma my girl will have to go through. I asked the vet to do scraping as my girl is lovely and would not bite or cause a problem and the vet said it was cruel... I will have to think long and hard about this overnight.

My boy had skin scrapes done while he was awake. He squirmed a little while being held, that was all. I would NEVER put a flat-face under just for a skin scrape. There is a tiny bit of blood but, the scrape takes seconds to do and is no where near cruel! Demodex Scrapes  often show nothing at all, it's just a tiny part of the diagnosis - the vet should look at the other symptoms too. He was 9 months at the time, had generalized patches of hair loss on face, flanks, shoulders and neck, has had no other flare ups and so was classed as juvenile demodectic mange.

We brought the Aludex home - for our frenchie, we filled a jug with 500 ml of water to 5ml of Aludex, dipped his feet first, with cotton wool balls we swabbed the parts of his face showing hair loss and redness, then with a sponge, saturated his body. He had to wear a cone until he was dry - there was no rinsing - we had to do it weekly.( luckily Eve was wearing a cone as well, at the time having had surgery, so she couldn't lick him either!!!)  It IS horribly strong stuff - you must wear gloves, wash any offf your skin immediately and not allow the dog to lick it. We did it 8 times in all. Luckily we only needed the one bottle as it was £60. We all think his demodex flared up because our girl was in and out of the vet, often staying whole days and he would become very stressed without her, wouldn't eat, play etc. I've pointed out to hubby that we need another one to save it happening again!!! ;-)

We also were given a spray to use when the itching got too bad - demodex itself doesn't cause itching but any secondary infection does - he had a sore place at the back of his neck, a lump that he continually scratched at.

I will say that I've since heard that no bully breeds should be given Aludex, but it was fine for our boy - he had no side affects or worse! from it! What breed have you got?

Our vet said, that if the aludex didn't work, we would have to use ivermectin dips off licence - the vet would have done the dip.

By the way, our dog was already having a monthly dose of Advocate and it didn't stop the demodex from flaring up!

Ask to see another vet at the practice, they may have different views on the scrape. I hope your girl gets sorted soon, they look like little moth eaten jumpers while they're patchy! :-D

Over the years I have had to give the Aludex baths to two different size dogs.
A GSD I divided the mixture between 2 washing up bowls placed in a bath, and put her front feet in one bowl and back feet in the other and soaked her this way, with the small terrier I managed to stand her in one large bowl. In both cases I had a sponge to dip in the Aludex mixture and thoroughly soak them through. Rubber gloves and plastic apron a must.
Not very pleasant but still do-able at home without the cost of paying the vet, although I found I did need a second person to give me a hand especially with the large GSD , with one of us soaking the front and the other the back of her, this got the job over a lot quicker with less ordeal for my dog. With my GSD we had to do the baths every third day, but with the terrier it was once a week.

In the salon i use 'Soothe' from Showseason its very effective along with owners using Advocate. Your dog is very young, is she healthy and okay otherwise? You have said you think she has demodex...the hairloss could simply be from her seasonal cycle.
Anne.

Thank you all for your replies. I took her back this morning and demanded scrape without anaethetising, I received the results this afternoon, it is demodex and have been given the treatment.

I have everything ready for tomorrow. The vet advised the scraping showed only a few mites therefore its not a really bad breakout. Fingers crossed for her, I am not looking forward to the next couple of days. Fingers crossed no side effects.

Once again thank you all x

Mabel is my French Bulldog.

Hope shes feeling better soon xx

My vet was happy to carry out a skin scrape without anaesthetic on a 6 month toy breed with no problems.

It turned out negative, but if needed he had already told me that he would supply what was required, but would insist that I treated outside because of fumes?

Yes we are all ready for morning. Waiting on the weather, hopefully no rain as we have to do outside.

The weather up north has been wet, wet and more wet! Fingers crossed.

our little girl,, went misdiagnosed with demodex for almost 18months......... it was only when we had all but given up,, a return to the vets,, we by chance seen a different vet..... who was able to identify Daisy's problem with skin scrapes,, which we had requested before but had been refused because she was to sore...... because of the severity of the infestation,, she was perscribed an unlicenced drug usually used on cattle & sheep :- 'PANOMEC'...... it was a miracle 6weeks and she was a different dog..... she now has advocate once a month and occasional Aludex washes to keep her all good....... hope our experience is of some help to anyone else, who is as desperate as we were...... P.S we were compensated by our vets for not spotting demodex sooner....... regards Steven & Tonia

Scraping for Demodex can often show nothing, that does NOT rule it out, they are deep and difficult to get to.. clinical signs usually.

Panomec is Ivermectin , a cattle wormer/de-bugger D  I had a dog with Demodex and this was the only thing that shifted it, very quickly too I was amazed.

I was also told that using horse wormer ( that contains Ivermectin )topically on the skin is good, I didn't try this BTW and would not recommend it :/

Always best to seek advice from a vet, but don't be afraid to pester them, my vet knows I wont have all the umming and ahhhring anymore, no faffing about, they are very good I have to say and known them for years, I bet the dread my appointments.