Alley has Demodex

  oor Alley;  I'm so sorry and hope she gets better very soon. Please don't beat yourself up over the time and money you spent taking her to a holistic vet; if I remember correctly, you hadn't found help for her with traditional vets. By the way, I remember that you said immunotherapy didn't help Alley; there are some breeds that don't respond well to immunotherapy and Westies are one of them;  [linkhttp://www.hillary.net/school/dermatology/derm.lec.11.09.98]http://www.hillary.net/school/dermatology/derm.lec.11.09.98[/link];
 
  " best for dogs under 5 yrs of age w/less than 5 yrs of clinical disease

-some breeds seem more difficult to hyposensitize - boxer, westie"
 
 Alley is so lucky that you're taking care of her; most people wouldn't have spent so much time and money trying to find the answer for her skin problems. I'll be sending healing vibes your way and praying that she gets better soon. Here's some <<Big Hugs>> for you.

 
 
 
 

Thank you so much for your kind words.  Alley is a Scottie....Iv asked Jamie to post her pic next to terrierlover when I post since IM not sure how to do that...
 
Im sick sick sick....Alley is 5 years old and has has such a time of it... we stopped counting after 20 thousand that we have put into this dog. Yip you are reading this correctly its not a typo....
 
Im trying not to beat up on myself but Im very upset over my Holistic vets methods. She started out being wonderful..... kind and caring...... but the past 3 times I had been in I started to see things I didn't like!!!
 
I consulted with Lydia Hiby yesterday she is the pet communicator I use in CA... she is fabulous and well worth read book also. She is more right than any vet Iv used and very helpful with medical problems with my dogs. I had to ask her about an upsetting event with my holistic vet and if it did any damage to my Westie Mattie. ( long story )
 
I keep asking myself why does it have to be this hard? life lessons.... and now I know how parents feel when they have kids that don't turn out right..... you feel so responsible.I feel Iv let Alley down..... And dogs can't tell us how miserable they are and if something is working or not working for them. WE are there voices and when something happens we need to be the ones that stand up and say ENOUGH! My regular vet said if my holistic vet was having a bad day she should go home...what was done to my Westie Mattie was out of line. Thank heavens she is a terrier or Mattie might have had a heart attack is what my Pet communicator told me.... She said being a terrier really saved her.... Well Iv gone on enough... I need to learn and move on. We went back to the speciality Clinic were Alley was treated as a puppy for demodex and we worked with them for 3 1/2 years till the other DR. felt she could do no more for her. A new Dr came on board in Dec... He is fabulous and is taking a different approach to Alley's problem. I really felt good about the direction we going.... thanks again  

Hang in there Kim and try not feel bad. Alley is lucky to have a Mom who obviously loves her very much.
 
Feel better soon Alley

 Alley is really cute; sorry for confusing her with a Westie; so it was a different dog you took to the holistic vet 2 weeks ago and not Alley. I hope the new vet at the specialty clinic finds the right treatment for Alley; good luck.

Wow Kim, it sounds like you and Alley have been thru a rough time lately.  I sure can relate, especially regarding the feeling so responsible for their health and well-being and feeling like you've taken the wrong path so many times.   No matter how much reading and research we do, we still have to rely on and trust the expertise of our vets, until or unless they show they're unwilling or incapable of helping us.  Sometimes it takes awhile to see that though, so please don't be so hard on yourself.  If you've got some answers now, and it sounds like you do, pat yourself on the back for not giving up.  Alley knows you love her, and that's all that matters.  I hope the new meds and treatment give you both some relief [] 

Thanks guys so much for your support. I had actually started with my holistic vet with  just Alley and doing acupunture treatments and they seemed to cool her skin.... but I kept noticing hair loss on the tops of the feet and her side and my holistic vet did skin scraps and found nothing. She did them several times. I was wondering to myself if she new how to read them. Iv heard it really takes a specialist and never rely on a regular vet to read the slide. So we tinkered around with all the Chinese herb stuff (i want to say crap instead of stuff cause I mad!) and what a waste that was..it either upset my dogs stomachs or it plainly mad them sick... tea pills etc...At one point Alley skin got much worse on a tea pill that she suggested in the beginning and it took me a month to recorrect her skin.
 
Anyway I continued for to long as you can tell ... doing the homecook diet....tea baths... all the suggested stuff here on this board and with the holistic vet.
 
I decided to take My Westies to her... Louie has knee problems and so does Mattie.
Mattie has alot of issues personality wise....I will just say the way she restrained and muzzeled her for 40 minutes while this dog contorted her self while the vet did accupunture was inhumane. I can't express the horrible panting and panic this dog suffered through. My communicator told me that Mattie doesn't remember as it was close to the same effects a siesure dog will get. She said she would remember if I went back. My other Westie was running around in a panic under the table trying to tell me to save her while my Vet just continued to tumb through a book.  Its a wonder Mattie didn't have a heart attack. Then after she got her off the table she began doing corrections with the collar and making her sit and so on... Okay I can't talk about this anymore. Iv tried so hard to move on and it really effects me that I let this happen. Im a very out spoken person and I can't believe I didn't haul off and slug her or say something.
 
Anyway Mattie has a very toxic liver and something seems amiss with her Thyorid so Im sending bloodwork off to Dr. Dodds on Monday. Im telling you my pet communicator has always been 95 percent dead on with health issues and things to look for in my dogs. Im giving Mattie Milk Thistle and Dandelion 25 mg for 5 days between the hours of 5-7 that is when the liver regenerates itself.
 
Louie is getting Marshmellow cause he has tummy issues... its working. Lydia asked Louie what was wrong and its acid... so far he is doing great. I worked with the holistic vet for 8 months on this issue and she got no were with it...told me to pick the food bowl up and that's it buddy till tomorrow if you don't learn to eat with the others then to bad... LOVELY HUH...nice advice don't ya think!! And I was paying for this!!!
 
Okay Im done..I think  you all got the picture of what Iv been though. IM going back to my humane vets that treat my dogs with love and respect and kindness. So if the med's are harsh and they live a shorter life so be it.. If they are comfortable that is what is important to me... Quality of life... not quanity and being miserable.
 
thanks again to all of you for listening. I'll keep you posted on how Alley does with all of this.. I just got done bathing her and time to put her tee shirt on so she doesn't scratch herself raw....

So if the med's are harsh and they live a shorter life so be it.. If they are comfortable that is what is important to me... Quality of life... not quanity and being miserable.

 
I totally agree Kim!  I also understand how you feel about the treatment by that vet.  I had a bad vet visit with Sassy and her having to be muzzled and it really bugged me for a long time.  I even wrote the director of the clinic, and he made a bunch of excuses (busy time of day, blah, blah, blah) but I never went back.  Fortunately, Sassy was fine when we found a new vet and has done great ever since.  However, I took her in last week for HW test, thyroid, etc. and asked them to cut her nails.  The vet tech was new and gruff and I had a hard time letting go of the leash for her to take her to the back...but other than them cutting one nail to short and making it bleed [:@], Sassy seemed fne when she came out.  I'm sure with lots of love and a new and better vet, your dogs will be fine too.  Sorry you had to go thru all that though.

So Cathy you understand.....
Im shocked by Pat my holistic vet being this way.....you think holistic to be more kind and caring and HUMANE!!! As much time and money that Iv spent with her Iv heard nothing from her since canceling my apts with her..... live and learn right but not at my dogs expense. Mattie is a problem cause and should have been treated with a kinder hand. She knew better but clearly she didn't give a rip and was going to show Mattie she was boss not matter if Mattie died on the table. Now I ask... what does that prove in life?  Your a top dog! Well I told the girls at my regular vets and found out that one of them worked along with Pat when she was a regular DVM and she told me that she got in peoples faces and employee's faces all the time... OH GREAT now I find out the true her at Mattie and Louie expense.
 
The specialist I took Alley too yesterday was great. Alley didn't shake and get upset at all...she did really well and she had to go through alot of skin scraping and hair plucking.... I took the million dollar baby to Wendy's for a cheese burger. I figured she needed it

I will just say the way she restrained and muzzeled her for 40 minutes while this dog contorted her self while the vet did accupunture was inhumane.

That is absolutely horrible! We muzzle Emma, who is calm in a muzzle, for no more than 20 minutes. She stands on the table, with me at her head, and the vet at her back, very calmly, with the needles in. The problem with her is getting them in. If you hit a sensitive spot, she'll shred you. She's fine, once they're in, and we just stay with her and talk to her.

I'm glad you've found someone who is helping Alley. Poor girl. I agree with the others, though. Don't beat yourself up. You were doing what you thought was best, for your kids. You were working for them, and you've learned something about them.

I hope the Ivermectin works, for Alley. It didn't work, for Emma. It made her sick. Every body is different, though. Emma does great with acupuncture, homeopathy, herbs, and tea tree oil. I haven't tried the Chinese herbs, yet. I have to drive an hour to see the vet that does those, and haven't gotten around to it. I don't have much need for a vet, at the moment (HOORAY!) and I don't really care to stress her with the ride.

Give Alley some extra snuggles, for me, and tell her that I hope she gets some itch relief, soon.

hope the Ivermectin works, for Alley.

 
She is doing great... Alley has a cast iron stomach thank heavens I will keep you guys posted and let you know how she keeps progressing.
 
It felt good to clean out my kitchen cabinet off all the crap that didn't work for her all the tea pills the Holisitic vet that has never acknowledged my emails after all the money Iv spent with her... and I wasn't mean or rude I just canceled my apts and told her we were going to work with Dr. Senter.
 
Hope you all have a great weekend... It was 2 weeks today that horrible incident happened to Mattie and I think I can now move on cause Im in the drivers seat again Taking control and making the right decision that I feel are best for my dogs.
 
Thanks everyone.... SO VERY MUCH....
Kim

Since I dont know exactly what plan you were following to treat this without Ivermectin Ill just say I hope this works.  I would, however, recommend using supplements along with this and hopefully you wont need to treat this every so often as is what normally happens when you treat with Ivermectin.  You need to boost the immne system.
 
Bailey had demodex and Ive never seen it again, never used anything from the vet either.  Not that I doubt your reasons for using this, as your girls comfort is essential right now and apparently its gotten out of hand.  
 
Again, I would suggest you put her on an enzyme like Prozyme or something... and give her fish oil and vitamin E at the very least.

It's great you have another vet working with you who has fresh ideas.
 
Hopefully this vet will look deeper.  When a dog continues to have demodex and nothing helps, it's my experience that there is some DEEPER underlying situation that is causing the immune system to remain bottomed out.  I know with Muffin we battled demodex for YEARS -- but once the deep bacterial ear infections were identified and actually when his ears were *removed* (because the infections were SO long term -- far before we had him the ears literally were too far gone to save) -- the demodex totally went away.
 
We never knew the ear infections were so deep -- my previous vets (note vets PLURAL) always assumed they were yeast, or they'd give a small antibiotic that "should take care of it" -- but it did NOT.  It was ... for Mufferino ... the ear infections that made the demodex so bad.
 
SOMETIMES demodex is like a barometer -- it's simply an external manifestation of something *else* going on in the body.   Something we can't see.  Something not easily diagnosed.
 
I'm SO glad, Kim, that you've got another brain working on this with some fresh ideas.  Go for it!!!

Thanks Callie..... Praise the Lord Alley has never had ear problems but I agree something greater is going on with her..... Geeze she is such a trooper too. She amazes me and there is something to be learned from that...
 
She is doing great with her meds so far so good..... I will keep everyone posted. We go back in Oct for bloodwork and see how her skin is doing with the Ivermectin....
 
Kim