Sarcoptic Mange

Go all the way to the right from my name and click on "Contact" and EMAIL me (not a PM -- actually "email" me) and I'll send you my article.  It covers sarcoptic mange, demodectic mange and others.  My husband and I have taken on several dogs with mange and I've gotten pretty good at treating it.  You are WELCOME to give it to your family -- and my email as well.  I'm glad to help.

I can tell you right now you don't have sarcops.  If your post had started out "my dogs are itching SO bad they can't sleep and now they've even got ME feeling itchy" -- THEN I would have said you probably have a problem.

Sarcoptic mange is actually an immune problem.  That's why it can happen in puppies and old dogs particularly.  But altho it IS contagious (demodex is not, sarcoptic is) MUCH of the problem depends on how healthy the animals are and can they repel the mites.

In other words, that puppy could have been with your dogs but if your dogs were healthier and fully grown then the mites would have been quite happy to remain ON the dog they came on. 

How fast does it show up?  INSTANTLY.  If you were sitting next to that pup cuddling it, and a mite decided you smelled yummy -- it might bite you then and there.  You'd have a firey itchy little rash. 

 But it probably would have jumped right back on that puppy -- because altho you're warm blooded you probably weren't as good a "host" as that puppy was.

You would have seen your dogs doing the "itchy scratchy GOING CRAZY" thing almost immediately.  It doesn't take time to develop. 

I wish I'd known sooner -- I could have helped her treat all those dogs.  IT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN EXPENSIVE ***SIGH***

First off -- **do NOT** bother to get the skin scraping done.  Sarcops are nearly impossible to catch on a slide because they are just too fast (unless they have laid eggs in the skin and then it's usually pretty danged easy to SEE you've got sarcops and then just treat for it!!).  But honestly that's a huge waste of $75 and won't tell you anything anyway.

If your dogs aren't scratching they do NOT have sarcops -- and honestly if your vet isn't owning up to that ... well, I'd be ticked at the vet because charging someone $75 per dog to do a scraping on dogs who aren't itching is just plain "income generation". 

Now -- and I know she lost her pup and I am SO sorry -- but treatment is NOT expensive -- if you'll email me that article I've done will tell you and her how to treat it pretty fast and easy.  And if she wants to email me I'll be happy to help her know where to get everything and what is cheapest.

The old timey Paramite Dip is cheapest -- but it IS an organophosphate and not very safe.  But it's only about $10 a bottle.  Usually you can get that at a feed store or someplace like Tractor Supply.  There are better dips but .... that IS cheapest.

Depending on what type of dogs these are (what breeds) they may be able to use ivermectin.  Ivermectin is faster, and not expensive (and if neither of you have herding dogs you could split a bottle and have heartworm preventive for the next four years and neither of you would ever use up the whole bottle).  BUT you can **NOT** use it on herders usually. 

The article I'll send you is FULL of information.   I can even tell her how to make sure it's not in her house.

Bottom line -- sarcoptic mites don't like to be without food (blood) -- so even if they jump off their "host" -- they want to jump back on something warm-blooded FAST.  So, altho if you get a bit huge infestion of them you might have to treat the house, normally it's not necessary.  And if you and your family and your dogs aren't running around scratching yourselves bloody then *you* don't have to worry.

Many shelters will simply euthanize a pup with mange (sarcoptic) on entry -- because it IS so contagious.  But -- dang, it's also really cheap to treat!

HOWEVER -- and this is my big huge ENORMOUS caution for you to pass on to her.

Very often -- if a puppy has sarcops, then it's probably come from a really difficult background.  The chances are high that the dog could have **both** demodex and sarcoptic manges **at the same time**.  That is not impossible to treat -- you just need to know about it.

If you go to my photos (click on my name and then my photos) you'll see a TON of really difficult pictures of Tinkerbell, my pug.  When we took her last summer, she had BOTH demodex and sarcoptic manges.  She was literally so sore, bloody and infected they didn't think she'd live. 

Yep "grin" -- that's my little "pixie pug in training" who spends all her time zooming around my house with Luna's ear firmly stuffed in her mouth.  She is FINE now. 

You probably would have seen signs by now, because the life cycle of an individual mite is something like 21-22 days.  You'd normally see red scaly patches, and they tend to start on the head/ears, or the belly and sometimes legs.  In the case of sarcoptic mange, it really is better to get your dog checked and treated by the vet right away, if they determine he has it.  Usually the skin scrapes aren't reliable anyway, and they end up just treating the dog if there's reasonable suspicion.  I think these days most vets are using Revolution for treatment.

Are you seeing any suspicious scaly red patches, are the dogs scratching a lot?  Wash their bedding/collars and any other places they sleep regularly - it can be transferred to humans, but we usually handle it much better if our immune systems aren't suppressed.  I suspect you're in the clear, though.

Too bad your sister couldn't afford the treatment, or couldn't talk to the rescue she adopted the dog from so they could offer to pay for it.  Dog ownership isn't cheap.  If the other dogs had it, perhaps they transmitted it to the new pup, rather than vice versa?  If that's the case, I'd stay far away from her house, too.

Good luck with your dogs.

WOW, Thank Yous So Much for the information. I fell a little bit better, but of course still uncomfortable with the whole situation.

Thank You so much for the information. My dog's arent scratching any more then normal, like I said this time of year they seem to get drier in the skin and or course leads to scratching. We live in the high desert of So Cal, so the weather plays a huge part in everyone's skin out here. But no broken skin or red scaley skin. Just dry and dandruffy looking, and their hair doesnt seem to look as shinny, I have already started to add a little olive oil to their food to help with the dry skin and lack of shine. We have a 2 yr old Beagle and a 6 month old Black Lab.

A bit OT, but there are charitable organizations that sometimes help low income people avoid having to euthanize their dogs.  Also, Care Credit if they want to extend payments to save their dog.  Better to try to turn the dog in to a shelter where it can be treated than just to PTS IMO.

If anyone ever needs links, PM me or email.

miranadobe

Usually the skin scrapes aren't reliable anyway, and they end up just treating the dog if there's reasonable suspicion. 

Absolutely -- the bassic tenet is "if you suspect it is sarcops TREAT IT for sarcops"

miranadobe

I think these days most vets are using Revolution for treatment.

REvolution really isn't wonderful for sarcops.  By the time you've put enough on them to kill sarcops you've got a ton of poison in the dog.  Tink had both sarcops and demodex when she was first brought in to the shelter.  They really didn't use their heads -- they SIMPLY followed their standard "formula"

That means they gave her ivermectin (the dose for demodex is almost 200 TIMES the dose for heartworm and it's about 50 times the dose for sarcops).  Daily. 

BUT -- they ALSO put her on Revolution **JUST BECAUSE** she had sarcops and that was their typical drug of choice for sarcops.  But no one ev3en **thought** about the fact that she was on these huge doses of ivermectin for demodex (and the ivermectin for the demodex was MANY times stronger than necessary to kill sarcops too). 

Why did they do both?  Just because no one really thought about it -- and it was ... dare I say it?  "income generation".  They didn't think anyone at the rescue would KNOW that they were double treating.

I have a feeling that this pup had both demodex and sarcops.  I have a feeling that's why they talked her into euthanizing the pup -- obviously I don't know, but with all the talk about expense?  Sarcops are a pain in the butt and they ARE contagious but they aren't at all expensive to treat.  Demodex **can** be -- particularly if they're talking about dips, etc.

But typically the laundry list for sarcops is ivermectin OR Revolution OR Promeris (which again doesn't work well at all for sarcops).  I think they are also using Advantage-Multi (which has the drug in it that was in ProHeart 6 - moxidectin).  Most of us remember how horrible & lethal that was.  Sorry -- I'm not a fan -- http://www.dogsadversereactions.com