# Poor Frank's Demodex Picture Diary



## ellielouise1 (Dec 29, 2009)

My 6 month old pug puppy has recently been diagnosed with demodex, and yesterday he spent the whole day at the vets drying off after his first of many "sheep dips"! He's going to have one once a week for six weeks, and I'm going to post pics of his condition, and hopefully his progression back to his normal handsome self. He's feeling very sorry for himself today... (pics from phone so dont really show the full extent but theyre still quite nasty)
**he also has a touch of acne aggravated by the mange which is quite evident on his hind legs


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## ellielouise1 (Dec 29, 2009)

i would love to hear from people who've head this problem and would be able to answer my questions! (seen as its now too late to ring the vet!)
After he came home from the vet he threw up a couple of times. Should I be worried?? He's not throwing up now and he's managed to keep food down. He has been extremely off colour today and hasn't done much but sleep, although he did have a little play with my other dog for a couple of minutes but i had to stop it because he was stretching his neck and it was cracking and bleeding. Also, his skin looks TERRIBLE! it's got worse since i took the photos and is very very red and obviously extremely uncomfortable for him. Does the treatment make him worse before he gets better? Has anyone else had similar experiences? I'm getting a bit worried about him!


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## BoxMeIn21 (Apr 10, 2007)

My first word of advice is to DO NOT continue with the the dips. They are extremely toxic - and if it's mitaban, you should know that it was removed from the market for use on animals about 10 years ago. It astonishes me how many vets still have a stock of that stuff. It's horrible crap and the side effects your seeing could very well be from the dips. 
Find another vet who knows what they are doing. 
The best way to combat dmange is through boosting your dogs immune system, dipping further is only going to hammer the hell out of him even more. Your best bet is to get your dog on a good diet and keep his life stress free. A raw diet did the trick for my girl. If your not up for that then look into home cooking or feeding a high quality food that is grain free.


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## LilOllie (Jun 2, 2009)

My puppy Jayda is just getting over her demodex mites. They never got very bad though like the pics of your pup. To recover they put Jayda on a liquid oral medication called Ivermectin. It seemed to work quite well, maybe you could ask your vet about Ivermectin and see if it's an option? Also like BoxMeIn already said, try and feed a high quality diet to help boost his immune system. Poor guy


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## jinnyretr0 (Oct 13, 2009)

Demodectic mange is NO fun and I am so sorry you and your boy are having to deal with it! My girl is just now getting over her bout with demodex, even though her mange wasn't quite to the extent of Frank's. 
My vet also put Ella on Ivermectin, an oral medication, once a day for two weeks. After the first two weeks, we had to go in for another skin scrape. They recorded the results, gave us more medicine, then we kept going for another two weeks. The goal was to get 2 skin scrapes that were negative for the mites, then finish out treatment for two weeks after the second negative scrape. Luckily for us, our first two skin scraps were negative. All in all, the treatment took about 7 weeks from start to finish.
We also kept an eye on her diet, made sure she was ingesting only good healthy stuff, no crap. 
I'm not very knowledgeable about the dips, but do your research. Ivermectin totally did the trick for us. I agree with LilOllie, maybe bring it up to your vet.
Best of luck to you and your lil dude, I hope he starts getting better soon!


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## 5 s corral (Dec 31, 2007)

hi 
your poor baby i would not do the dips either at our shelter we also use ivermection 
jamie


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## w8ing4rain (Sep 4, 2008)

Nanuq has demodex. Our vet is treating her with Ivermectin. He isn't dipping her.


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## ellielouise1 (Dec 29, 2009)

Thanks guys, after spending hours researching alternative and complementary treatments I have read about Ivermectin and it's something I would definitely bring up with my vet. As far as his diet is concerned, we have always fed him Purina Pro Plan as his breeder advised, believing that the more you pay for the food the better quality it is. He's been on oral antibiotics recently and I have been feeding him on the puppy versions of Wainwright's or James Wellbeloved so i could slip them in. I have to be very careful as he has an extremely sensitive stomach and can be sick for days after eating a puppy treat so I'm always dubious about what to feed him and have sort of stuck with what suits us both. I'm not entirely convinced on the pro's of a raw food diet as yet... So if I'm feeding him wrong what would be the suggested food for a puppy with a sensitive stomach to boost his immune system? Thanks again


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## jinnyretr0 (Oct 13, 2009)

ellielouise1 said:


> Thanks guys, after spending hours researching alternative and complementary treatments I have read about Ivermectin and it's something I would definitely bring up with my vet. As far as his diet is concerned, we have always fed him Purina Pro Plan as his breeder advised, believing that the more you pay for the food the better quality it is. He's been on oral antibiotics recently and I have been feeding him on the puppy versions of Wainwright's or James Wellbeloved so i could slip them in. I have to be very careful as he has an extremely sensitive stomach and can be sick for days after eating a puppy treat so I'm always dubious about what to feed him and have sort of stuck with what suits us both. I'm not entirely convinced on the pro's of a raw food diet as yet... So if I'm feeding him wrong what would be the suggested food for a puppy with a sensitive stomach to boost his immune system? Thanks again


Let me preface by saying, I am no expert on food. However, I'll share a little of my own research. After adopting Ella and finding out about a lot of her food and skin sensitivity issues, I did a lot of research on different kibble (raw is a possibility in the future, but not so much now, so kibble it is!) What I found was a lot of your more readily available "grocery store" brand foods, have lots of grains and byproduct in them. Personally, I was turned off by all of them, your Iams, Purina, Pedigree, etc. Grain free was the route I took with Ella, since it really helps out her skin. I would really suggest looking into some higher quality foods. No offense to your vet, and I'll admit I am not entirely familiar with Purina Pro Plan, but do some research into other options and take a good look at the main ingredients in the kibble. I feed my dog Taste of The Wild. But other ones to check out are Innova, Wellness, Blue Buffalo, Solid Gold...I know there are others (look around the food forum?). Good luck 
edit: sorry if this is getting a little off topic*


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