Mange

[katanneswid102]

My family's new puppy, Austin, has mange. If anyone knows of a treatment or any helpful information about mange...please let us know at rswidarski1547@wowway.com or instant message me at katanneswid102 on AIM. The little baby is only 3 months old, very tiny and very itchy. Please help!

[lowmaintwyf]

Dear KateSwid,

I understand exactly what you're going through. It will take some time, but get him to the vet. When we got our black lab, Daisy, she was itching all the time. After several attempts and misdiagnosis, we took her to a different vet and he told us it was mange. We were told a lot of dogs have it, but don't show symptoms because they are born with a natural immunity to it. Unfortunately Daisy and obviously Austin don't have this immunity.

If you get him into the vet he will prescribe some antibiotics and a cream to put on the really bad spots. The treatment can get really expensive if you don't go to the right vet. Luckily for us, we have a great 'farm' vet, who doesn't try to wiggle you out of every penny.

You really have to stay on top of it for a while, but once you get it cleared up his immune system will have figured out how to handle it (kind of like chicken pox for us humans) and you should never have problems again!

[Lou]

A long time ago we pulled into a gas station on a cold and misty day in Macon, Georgia. I looked out the car window and there sat about a 6-7 week old, that appeared to be a chocolate lab, with the greenest eyes I ever saw. The attendant said a litter had been dumped up the road and this little fella had wandered down to them. They had been feeding him cookies, etc. Well, we told him we would take him to the shelter. Found out no shelter in the area. So we took him home with us to Atlanta (where we lived at the time) with the intent to place him there. Well, about 10 miles out of town he had stolen our hearts and even though we lived in an apartment we were going to attempt to keep him (ended up buying a house!) Well, he was covered with mange, scales, fleas and bloated with tape worm. I could not stand for him to be so miserable until the vet was open, so I put him in the bathtub in nice warm water and bathed him in Head and Shoulders shampoo! A lot of his hair fell out and he was pitiful. I just rubbed regular V [img]smile.gif[/img] aseline on all the red spots. When we got him to the vet he was already on the mend. He got all the regular vet attention, but one more bath in the shampoo and another massaging of the Vaseline and he was fine. At night we would wrap him in a towel and he would sleep between us through the night. He ended up having the most beautiful shiny copper coat. We named him Rebel and we had him with us for 16 years. Not very scientific treatment, I guess, but he felt 100% better and the vet was okay with it.... if it works, don't knock it!

[drlilian]

You need to be sure which type of mange you are dealing with - sarcoptic mange is intensely itchy and is transmissible to humans. Demodectic mange is usually the result of an immune system problem.

Dr Lilian

[alpollo]

Austin needs to be treated by a vet. Mange can get so bad that the dog would have to be put down.