Sarcoptic mange

[jones1100]

Could anyone help. We have a 9 month old B.C. He is constantly scratching on his skin between his back legs and onto his stomach. It is now spreading down his front legs and is causing him a great deal of destress. The skin changes from off white to violent pink. The area affected is generating a lot of heat, and the skin is broken, like it has been rubbed with a scrubbing brush. We have been told that it isn't a flea allergy, and that it could be a form of mange. We have looked up mange in the dictionary and SARCOPTIC MANGE read: a form of mange chiefly affecting the abdomen and hindquarters. We are really at a loss and would be greatfull of any comments or advice that anyone could give. Or any other ideas as what this could be.

[urge to herd]

Hi, there,

 

Sorry to hear your pup is so itchy. I've got an itchy dog, also, and I've tried many different things to help her. I noticed you're in England, do you have veterinary dermatologists there? If so, that would be the first thing to do.

Shoshone's itchiness is caused by both environmental, (pollen, dust mites, etc) and food (dairy, wheat, corn) allergies. Her skin got raw and weepy from her itchiness also, she was itching pretty much non stop.

How do you know it's not flea allergy? What does your vet say? Mange can sometimes be identified via a skin scraping that's examined under the microscope, your vet might be able to do this.

How long has he been doing this? What else have you tried?

 

Ruth n the Border Trio

[AK dog doc]

I'd definitely see a vet on this. If it IS Sarcoptic mange, caused by the Scabies mite, this is potentially transmissable to other animals and people. (In fact the very first case of this I had after I graduated was in a cat that the owner brought in because it had a single tiny scab on its side. The owner said "I think she has Scabies." This is unusual - most people have never heard of this, and to suspect it from one itchy scab is quite unique - but on questioning, the owner said she'd gotten Scabies from one of her clients - she was a hairdresser - and she thought she'd given it to the cat. She was right.)

 

Anyway, a skin scrape will sometimes reveal this mite, though it is notoriously difficult to find on scrapes. However, there are a number of other possibilities as well, so a vet visit is definitely in order, and a specialist (like a veterinary dermatologist) may be in your best interests as well, as Ruth suggested. I've had a couple of guinea pigs I've not been able to find the mite on, but was highly suspicious of them being Scabies cases, so I treated them for it. Since they got well on treatment, I'm presuming my suspicions were correct. One of the children in the house was also itchy, but she recovered with treatment from her M.D. There are other itch-prodcing mites, such as chyletiella, and other stinging and biting insects such as mosquitos and gnats and so on. (These kinds of bugs usually do the most damage on the non-haired or thin/short-haired areas of the body, such as the abdomen and underparts, the legs and the face/ears). In addition, you could be dealing with allergies, or bacterial skin infection (either primary or secondary... primary skin infections usually have the skin change FIRST, to be followed by itching, and secondaries have the itching first, to be followed by skin changes. Secondary skin infections usually occur because something else - such as incessant scratching - has injured the skin and allowed an infection to set in.)

 

At any rate, you can see there are a lot of possibilities here, so seeing the vet is the first place to go with this, particularly in view of the fact that some of the mite diseases can be transmitted to people and other animals.

 

Good luck with this - I hope it turns out to be easy to track down and cure.

[jimahall]

Three of our 8 wk old litter started itching late last week. I took them to our vet. She said allergies but took a skin scrapping anyway. Results: an allergy to the pine shavings I was using in the puppy pen. She prescribed a three day allergy medicine, oatmeal shampoo baths, amino acid gelcaps and fish (fish oil, sardines, tuna etc.). The amino acids and fish will restore their coat's shine. I also moved the puppies. Sadly the only "pen" I now have is the front yard and I have a litter of pups sleeping on my deck! It is very difficult to walk out the door with the little hoodlums hanging out.

 

If for no other reason than peace of mind: VISIT YOUR VET ASAP! Best of luck!