URGENT!!! Fur Loss due to D-MANGE.....

[chitownbully]

Hello All,
My 5 month old bully was diagnosed with D-mange yesterday. As of today i've included coconut oil into his daily feedings and I would like to apply coconut oil on his skin, especially where fur is thinning. My question is after application do i need to rinse him off? From what i've read it'll probably get worse before it gets better. I'm trying to do what i can to prevent this from happening. He is currently on a Ivomec.
Also is there anything else i can don or give him to stop the hair loss, as i know it takes forever to grow back

 

[CCandMurray]

Poor baby get well soon Kingston! I know some also use Vetericyn for loss of hair due to hot spots not sure if it helps the hair grow back but I would think it should help with healing. Good luck and let us know how you make out!

 

[Vikinggirl]

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[h=3]The Truth about Demodectic Mange and Demodex Mites[/h]Demodex or Demodectic mites are responsible for Demodectic mange, also known as demodicosis, red mange or puppy mange. Demodectic mange is simply a population explosion of a naturally occurring mite that burrows deep in the hair follicles and pores of dogs. Demodectic mange is not contagious like Sarcoptic mange. It is developed because a dog has a weak or compromised immune system. Demodectic mange is the (much) more common and persistent of the two types of mange.
Demodicosis a complex and often confusing disease. An amazing amount of disinformation surrounds the condition. Some is parroted but well-meant misinformation that gets more distorted with each repetition while some of the things we hear from trained professionals (and see them do) is just plain shocking. You are to be commended for digging this deep to learn all you can to heal your beloved pet.
Causes
One of the big misconceptions about Demodectic mange is that it is caused by the dog’s living conditions, its care, or something the owner did or didn’t do. Don’t buy into this. It is not caused by unhygienic living conditions or environmental contamination. It is not contagious. It’s is developed, not caught. There’s absolutely no blame to be thrown around about who caused it. Demodex is caused by outside factors beyond your control.
Demodectic mange is a population explosion of a naturally occurring mite that the dog has always had. They are transmitted from mother to pup. Nature means for dogs to have them. Even though they are parasites, a few are normal and cause no problems. A healthy immune system keeps the mite population in check very nicely and everybody does just fine.
However when the dog’s immune system can’t keep the mite population where it should be, they get out of control and overrun the dog. Then, the more mites there are, the lower the dog’s immune function dips. A nasty cycle ensues. The mites spread. Yeast and secondary infection worsen. The dog becomes more toxic. Physiological conditions throughout the body topple like a row of falling dominoes. The immune system dips even further. Repeat.
The Thing About Puppies
Puppy mange is one of the many nicknames for Demodectic mange, and for good reason. Out of all the dogs we help, juveniles under the age of 2 are victims more that all other ages combined!
Puppies are such huge targets because in the natural course of development, their immune and digestive systems are immature at birth and develop with age. Both of these systems are huge factors in regard to Demodectic mange. A puppy's immune balance is so delicate that it doesn’t take much to tip it. The dog naturally has some mites but then a combination of seemingly innocuous events or perhaps one major thing can push the pup to a point where it is defenseless against a hostile takeover. Demodectic mange is more common now than any prior point in time, probably due to exposure to today's breeding practices, non-native stresses, vaccines, toxins and foods.
Adult dogs that have gone through heavy stress, traumas, have chronic medical conditions, or a host of other things that can damage their immune system are also in the high risk zone but young dogs are by far have the worst odds of developing Demodex.

Symptoms
Demodectic mange is truly confusing. There are some classic features but in truth, every situation is different. Symptoms vary and a dog can have none, an assortment, or all of them. To make it worse, its symptoms overlap other health issues so it’s nearly impossible to tell what’s what. That’s one of the reasons for the large percentage of initial misdiagnoses.
Demodectic mange can appear as innocently misleading as dry thickened skin or a few flakes. Occasionally it’s unmistakable but usually it’s not. Some dogs lose their hair, others don’t. The same goes for itching. The laundry list of common symptoms that may (or may not) appear includes itching, hair loss, reddened and/or flaking skin, bumps, scabbing, rashes, sores, skin discoloration, wrinkling skin, secondary infection, unpleasant odors and lethargy. The disease can range from mild localized spots to very serious generalized infestations. In progressive cases, hair loss can spread over vast areas of the body, the skin may become painfully inflamed and secondary infections can quickly develop. In serious cases, lymph nodes can become swollen. Some dogs develop symptoms such as a fever, lethargy and lose of appetite or become very ill. If left untreated, 10% of Demodectic mange spontaneously goes away. The rest stand a good chance of eventually becoming chronic - even life threatening.
Localized demodicosis occurs as isolated patches, often on the dog’s face. Localized disease does not involve more than two body regions and no more than 4-5 spots on the whole dog. (One spot or two on the face and one spot or two on a leg would still qualify as localized even though the spots are not close together.) The best chances of spontaneous recovery are in localized cases.
When localized demodicosis evolves into the generalized form, the majority of the dog is affected. Sometimes large patches of affected skin are present, other times multiple “polka dots” of lesions cover the dog, and other times the entire body is involved. It is usually accompanied by secondary bacterial infections that make this a very itchy and often smelly skin disease.
If you are wondering about the difference between Demodectic and Sarcoptic mange, you might find our Mange Symptom Checker helpful.

Diagnosis
The clinical test for Demodex is a skin scraping. Scrapes are the only real tool a vet has unless a biopsy is done, however, scrapings are often misleading so an owner can easily get a misdiagnosis or end up in a guessing game. The mites hide deep in follicles, barricaded behind layers of protection, making it hard to pick them up by dragging a scalpel across the top of the skin. It’s no surprise that 80% of scrapings turn up negative, even when mites are actually present.
A scenario we hear almost daily is that the trusted vet got a negative scrape, immediately diagnosed allergies and treated accordingly (think steroids, antibiotics and antihistamines). When allergies or dermatitis are diagnosed, steroids, antihistamines and antibiotics are nearly always administered. The problem with this is if it really is mites, (which is often what it turn out to be), the steroids basically disable the immune system ultimately causing a much worse situation. If antibiotics have been prescribed, they may temporarily relieve certain symptoms but once they wear off, problems return with a vengeance. The antibiotics have killed off the good bacteria in the gut, which encourages even more yeast problems; they lower the dog’s immunity even more and cause pathogens to become resistant to antibiotics in the future. The other problem with misdiagnosis is the loss of time. While everyone is chasing down the wrong path, the mites are becoming further embedded.
Sadly, too many of our customers echo this scenario. When nothing else works they are forced to figure it out for themselves. If you find yourself in a situation where your dog has skin issues and your vet says it’s not mange, insist that steroids be omitted from the treatment plan. Regardless of diagnoses, before moving forward with any type of treatment, please research the risks of the proposed treatments as many can have unintended side effects.
Conventional Veterinary Treatment
Most veterinary treatment for mange involves pesticides. These are systemic neurological toxins that turn your entire dog into a poisonous food source. What’s scary is the dog is a poison bomb even though the mites aren’t actually eating the dog itself.
Demodex mites don’t eat flesh and blood, they feed on cellular proteins, systemic yeast, dietary yeast and/or sugar in the system. These are essentially by-products that your dog’s system produces. Nobody knows exactly how the pesticides work but the main theory is that they damage the mites’ nervous system eventually killing them. That means the poison must be in the dog’s system for a long enough time and at a high enough concentration to become part of the dog’s edible by-products. This can take a while. Vets will acknowledge that if the dog can tolerate the treatment, it might take up to a year. Sadly, only a few explain the risks and possible side effects or the cure rates for chemical treatments. And fewer explain the disease's root problems, let alone help you with them. Is it any surprise that Demodectic mange has abysmal statistics when chemical are used. They riskily treat symptoms while ignoring the real causes that are more difficult to see.
Certain herding breeds like Collies, Shetland Sheepdogs, Old English Sheepdogs, and others known to carry the MDR1 (multi-drug resistance) sould never get Ivermectin, as well as most of the other pesticides that kill mites. These dogs react poorly to many drugs on the MDR1 list and can suffer serious side effects, the worst of which is death. Breeds known to carry the MDR1 gene mutation as well as mixed breeds of unknown heritage should be tested before being given any chemicalst to treat mange that are on the on the MDR1 list. Also, no dog should be administered Ivermectin unless a recent heartworm test has been performed because dogs with existing heartworms are potential victims of a fatal side effect characterized by symptoms of shock including vomiting, hypothermia and depression.

Natural Treatment
There is no fast and easy road to curing Demodectic mange if you want it to stay gone. Demodicosis is complicated. The safest way to treat it is with a holistic natural process. We've laid one out for you that's as simple as we could make it. Just know that the process of resolving Demodex is just that, a process, and may need adjustment along the way.
The Mite Avenge portion of our program takes out the parasites in layers — much like peeling off the layers of an onion. That limits the likelihood of die-off effect from too many toxins being released and is much easier on the dog.
The first part of beating Demodex is to kill the overpopulation of mites. Do this at least twice a week. (More is fine.)

1. Start with a benzoyl peroxide shampoo bath (here’s how to do one right).
2. Immediately follow up with a deep application of Mite Avenge. Do these twice a week. (More is fine) until the overpopulation of mites is under control.

When to stop: The average time it takes to kill the overpopulation of egg-laying adults is 12-14 treatments. Your sign that the overpopulation is under control is that your dog’s skin looks completely normal. Everywhere. The only exception is if skin discoloration has occurred that may not have faded yet. There should be no sign of prior mange symptoms such as flaking, odors, inflammation, irritation, bumps, secondary infection, excessive itching, etc. There should be a respectable amount of hair regrowth. Even after the overpopulation is gone, there are eggs left behind. The nymphs that continue to hatch from these leftover eggs must be killed. So after the criteria above of perfectly normal skin has been achieved, an only then, you may drop back to bathing with benzoyl peroxide shampoo and doing Mite Avenge applications once a week for 4 weeks.
How long to treat: 12 to 14 treatments is the average. Some dogs take less, some more. We cannot promise a particular timeline because every single situation is different. Just like humans, no two dogs are physiologically the same nor are the underlying factors that are at the root of the disease. Some of the individual factors that affect how it will take to you to beat back your dog's parasites are the length of time that the dog has had too many mites (usually long before your dog showed symptoms), how impacted the plugs that protect them are and how deep the mites have managed to burrow, how many there are, the overall condition of the dog & whether there are other health issues, and most importantly — the severity of the dog's yeast issues, digestive health, toxin load and immune strength as well.
Critical to know: While it's impossible to do without killing mites, here's more to beating this disease. As we covered earlier, the fact that your dog developed Demodectic mange is essentially a serious symptom of another problem entirely. And that would be a weak or compromised immune system. Many things can cause this to happen and if you're dog has Demodex, it has already has. And its immune health will continue to decline because as long as there overpopulation rages on the mites continue to suppress your dog's immune system.
The mites are just outward evidence. Essentially they are a serious symptom of an immune system breakdown. Aggressive immune work is vital because and you can't cut the legs out from under the disease by treating only its symptoms. Clearly, resolving the underlying problem by aggressively improving immune health at the same time is critical to recovery and remission.
The most important areas of immune health that affect Demodectic mange are digestive health, yeast production, toxicity and overall immune health. (Click on each link to learn more.) Combined, these are 100% responsible for how long recovery takes and whether the mange returns. Dogs on immune support programs that address all those areas recover faster and with fewer complications. If treatment fails to progress or stalemates, those are the culprits must be assessed and their treatment adjusted accordingly.
One more tidbit: All dogs go through a healing crisis as the mites die (often called die-off effect). This is inevitable when you kill them naturally or chemically. Unfortunately, chemicals bring with them a host of other things that make it much harder on the dog and can intensify this phase. Mite Avenge's ingredients are far more gentle on your pet plus it's controlled kill rate limits the release of toxins that can overwhelm and sickening a dog. Here’s a great blog post that explains it and will save you a lot of worry as you heal your dog. Please read it so you know what to expect.
Mite Avenge gives you the best odds
Our natural approach kills mites without being caustic to the dog. Its effectiveness is due to the holistic program that we preach. Mite Avenge is the most effective natural mite killer you can buy and Happy Dog Naturals is the only source that explains all the facts and offers a proven solution. We also have the supplies (all carefully vetted) to do it right and get them to your doorstep remarkably fast and usually free. We’re honest enough to be up front with what’s involved even though it costs us business from those not willing to undertake a multi-pronged approach. Our site, free e-booklet and blog are meant to help you be the best guardian advocate a dog could have and our products are selected to give you the expert tools to help you win the battle against mange. We want you to have everything you need throughout your journey.
Now go forth and save your dog!

 

[chitownbully]

Thanks for the info. I see alot of info regarding bathing with benzoyl peroxide. Our vet did not mention bathing him in any type of medicated shampoo. I will call and ask if this is something she wants me to start doing. He is not itching at all and besides the hair loss and some small bumps on his chest he shows no other symptoms. I want to apply the coconut oil to help prevent more of the hair loss while he is being treated. I'm just not sure if its necessary i rinse him off after a certain amount of time, or is it ok (safe) to leave the coconut oil on spots and bumps.

 

[Vikinggirl]

Thanks for the info. I see alot of info regarding bathing with benzoyl peroxide. Our vet did not mention bathing him in any type of medicated shampoo. I will call and ask if this is something she wants me to start doing. He is not itching at all and besides the hair loss and some small bumps on his chest he shows no other symptoms. I want to apply the coconut oil to help prevent more of the hair loss while he is being treated. I'm just not sure if its necessary i rinse him off after a certain amount of time, or is it ok (safe) to leave the coconut oil on spots and bumps.

Hi, the article I sent you was general information on what D-Mange is, it's causes and how to treat it naturally. D-Mange is caused by mites which live naturally on all dogs, and in most cases do t bother the dog, or they go away on their own, but in dogs with a weakened, immature or compromised immune system, the mites take over and cause the D-Mange and the sores. Most vets will treat them with strong medications which in some cases cause more problems with side affects, especially when they use strong medications like steroids or toxic dips. There are many natural remedies that are easier and safer on the body that don't cause these side affects. You can use Benzyol Peroxide, Hydrogen Peroxide and warm water rinses, Apple Cider Vinegar and warm water rinses to help kill the mites, but the best way to help keep them at bay is to boost the immune system of your dog so they can better fight these mites. I have a male EB named Bulldozer, he is allergic to 7 proteins, and is prone to yeasty ears and itchy skin. I give him plain unsweetened yogurt on his morning kibble for his digestion and for the probiotics, which helps boost his immune system. I also give him Apple Cider Vinegar, there are many health benefits to ACV, it is a natural anti inflammatory, and a natural anti fungal and anti bacterial, it kills the bad bacteria in your system which helps boost the immune system, and it also balances the Ph levels of the blood. My guys also get kelp powder on their evening kibble and I give them a cranberry pill to prevent bladder infections. There are many natural supplements that we use, that are also safe for dogs, and they can be bought over the counter from the drug store, which is cheaper than getting them from your vet.

 

[RiiSi]

No need to rinse him after applying Coconut oil. Get well soon Kingston!

 

[Biogirl71]

It is safe to leave the coconut oil on. We have never had issues with hair loss due to mange, but I think applying coconut oil helped to keep Frank's skin moisturized and healthy, allowing hair to grow back after he was shaved for a surgery. I hope Kingston gets better soon!

 

[chitownbully]

Thanks everyone for the well wishes and the advice. Im trying not to introduce too much to his diet all at once. I just started him on a small amount of coconut oil which he loves! I tried the apple cider vinegar in his water & on his food and he refuses to go anywhere near either. Any advice on how else I can get him to take the ACV

 

[Donnam]

Two of my dogs that I have now have had Demodex mange. I had a boxer many years ago who had it, so I just always keep an eye on my young dogs for the telltale spots. Winnie, my bulldog, was a puppy when I noticed a small hairless spot on her side, about the size of a pea. With Gus, it was two small spots, one under his chin and one on his face. He was under a year old, a rescue. The spots weren't red or sores, just hairless. As soon as I saw the spots, I took them in for a scraping. Both dogs took ivermectin drops once a day for 3 weeks, then back for another scrape. My vet likes to have 3 negative scrapes (two weeks apart) before she clears them. They had no discernible side effects from the medicine and no recurrence so far. I think that puppies' immature systems make them susceptible to Demodex mites getting out of control. Also, in Gus's case, the stress of being in a shelter and being adopted could easily weaken his immune system. I give all my dogs a powdered probiotic on their breakfast meal, a tablespoon of non-fat Greek yogurt every night and a teaspoon of coconut oil several times a week. I also give 1/4 cup of Answers Fermented Fish on their evening meal. Good luck with Kingston's treatment. Depending on how early you caught the mange, his hair may not take that long to grow back. By the time my guys went for their last scraping, their hair had grown back so well, the vet couldn't find a place to scrape. [MENTION=15112]chitownbully[/MENTION]
[MENTION=6311]Vikinggirl[/MENTION] Monica, thanks for the great information!

 

[chitownbully]

Thanks We caught it early Vet said there were only a few seen on slides He too only had a couple bumps one on the top of his head and one on his chin His hair looked thin on his forehead and arms and the skin on his belly was more pink than usual We noticed this after his bath the night before his recheck appt for his cherry eye surgery he had 2 wks prior.

 

[ddnene]

Walter had mange, and we decided to do the dips… everything worked out great for us. It DOES take some time for the hair to grow back, and what is funny is that he had a larger spot on the back of his neck and the color is a lighter red brindle then the rest of him… Lol I think that coconut oil is a great idea, just remember that it takes time for mange to be cured but it can be done!!!

 

[2BullyMama]

Ugh! Sending lots of positive thoughts for a quick healing