Help Needed! Please can someone help me help my boy 💔

[Dollys Owner]

Absolutely necessary to switch his flea and tick protection to Nexgard, it helps quite fast and your boy will be out of trouble soon. Démodéx can be cured quite well now, but still do all these things DollysOwner recommended, as démodéx points to weak immune system, so probiotics and immune stimulators are needed to help him to beat disease. Don’t worry, it’s treatable!

If it's mange the Nexgard should cure it and you don't need any steroid injection and antibiotics. Also Nu-Stock ointment is good to rub in for mange. Sounds like the vet is also covering allergic reaction and staph infection, not sure why.

 

[helsonwheels]

If it's mange the Nexgard should cure it and you don't need any steroid injection and antibiotics. Also Nu-Stock ointment is good to rub in for mange. Sounds like the vet is also covering allergic reaction and staph infection, not sure why.

Me neither...... I still have 2big tubes of NuStock. Great stuff.

 

[Lalaloopsie]

I’m also voting against steroid.dont see how it could help if mange is verified, it will further suppress immune system. It helps against allergy, but here allergy isn’t primary cause, mange is. I wouldn’t give steroids.

 

[1Chumly]

Don't forget he is in Scotland. You can't get all the products there as you can here. I may be the odd one out but I never gave my dogs flea or tick treatment and didn't know anyone that did! If they ever got a flea we treated on an as needed basis. The only time we ever had a problem actually was when my stupid dog decided to guard a hedgehog and got covered in fleas! That was fun! Never once saw a tick.

 

[Lalaloopsie]

Don't forget he is in Scotland. You can't get all the products there as you can here. I may be the odd one out but I never gave my dogs flea or tick treatment and didn't know anyone that did! If they ever got a flea we treated on an as needed basis. The only time we ever had a problem actually was when my stupid dog decided to guard a hedgehog and got covered in fleas! That was fun! Never once saw a tick.

Scotland and all territories of GB and NI surely has plenty of forests and therefore plenty of ticks, as everywhere in moderate climate. These bugs carry Lyme disease and encephalitis. When they bite you, it’s painless and if they won’t suck to you, you won’t even know that you or your dog were bitten. Both diseases are serious and extremely unpleasant, not so easy to diagnose and can leave you or your dog with disability. The fact you never saw ticks says nothing. If your veterinarian never recommended you tick protection for your dog, tablets or collar...well, I find it very strange...and surely Nexgard is available in Scotland, or check for other brand name for Afoxolaner - this is the chemical. This medicine given once a month protects from ticks and fleas but also cures mange.
For your own safety, you should also use human repellents against ticks, when you spend time camping or hunting. Lately winters are so warm, that ticks are present even in city parks. Warm winters enable their population growth like crazy.
Being careless about ticks can cost you big time health wise. When you see them on your body, it might be too late. After you take them off, usually you bring them to special disease control center, where they do analysis of the tick and give you recommendations to take antibiotics against Lyme, or not. And for encephalitis there is no prevention measures at all after you were bitten. There are some vaccines, but you must do it before being bitten. So, bottom line is that prevention is always better.
To my humble knowledge, all territory of GB and NI is a high risk area for ticks and requires all year round prevention.


https://health.spectator.co.uk/time...ap-reveals-lyme-disease-hotspots-of-scotland/

https://www.theguardian.com/science...dentified-as-high-risk-areas-for-lyme-disease


https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/aug/22/ticks-lyme-disease-matt-dawson-harm

 

[1Chumly]

I am from Lincolnshire. It is farming country so there were plenty of bugs around but again, I never saw a tick, ever. I did however, become very familiar with them when I lived in NC and here in Texas! Nasty things. I understand what you are saying and I do not disagree but just making the point that not all things recommended on this site are available in the UK. My vet had to special order heartworm pills to pre-treat my dog for our move to Texas. But, things are changing rapidly with the internet, Amazon, etc so the choice is greater now than what it was.

 

[helsonwheels]

Scotland and all territories of GB and NI surely has plenty of forests and therefore plenty of ticks, as everywhere in moderate climate. These bugs carry Lyme disease and encephalitis. When they bite you, it’s painless and if they won’t suck to you, you won’t even know that you or your dog were bitten. Both diseases are serious and extremely unpleasant, not so easy to diagnose and can leave you or your dog with disability. The fact you never saw ticks says nothing. If your veterinarian never recommended you tick protection for your dog, tablets or collar...well, I find it very strange...and surely Nexgard is available in Scotland, or check for other brand name for Afoxolaner - this is the chemical. This medicine given once a month protects from ticks and fleas but also cures mange.
For your own safety, you should also use human repellents against ticks, when you spend time camping or hunting. Lately winters are so warm, that ticks are present even in city parks. Warm winters enable their population growth like crazy.
Being careless about ticks can cost you big time health wise. When you see them on your body, it might be too late. After you take them off, usually you bring them to special disease control center, where they do analysis of the tick and give you recommendations to take antibiotics against Lyme, or not. And for encephalitis there is no prevention measures at all after you were bitten. There are some vaccines, but you must do it before being bitten. So, bottom line is that prevention is always better.
To my humble knowledge, all territory of GB and NI is a high risk area for ticks and requires all year round prevention.


https://health.spectator.co.uk/time...ap-reveals-lyme-disease-hotspots-of-scotland/

https://www.theguardian.com/science...dentified-as-high-risk-areas-for-lyme-disease


https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/aug/22/ticks-lyme-disease-matt-dawson-harm

Errrrrrr been to UK a few times and trust me there isn’t much forest. And I am NOT comparing to Canada cause I live here. Timber was depleted during both World Wars. Scotland has even less. Here in Canada when it gets cold it is not necessary to give any flea or tick med and Scotland is sure cold too. Ok that was my 2cent on history. Lol. Oh here’s a funny short story....first time I visit was in 1999. Back then i was traveling with a Brit. He said....”this is Robin Hood’s forest Sherwood Forest”. As god is my witness I looked and couldn’t see anything. I’m there looking n looking n asked “where” ? He says...there....I said...that stip of trees? YES! Omg...I’m there looking for a massive forest. Lollll. Sure not like the movies on tv!

 

[Lalaloopsie]

Ticks don’t need Sherwood forest:Dactually their favourite is Bush like growth or even grass, that’s why you have to put your pants into socks, and shirt into pants etc, as they crawl from bottom up looking for a nice soft spot to suck into

yeah, for sure, in Canada you don’t need tick meds in winter...minus 30 is good prevention :D

 

[oscarmayer]

You've been given solid advice. However, I'd be inclined to keep things as simple as possible until the infection and demodex are under control. Continuing with the Raw may be unnecessary, wasted $.
Nexgard to treat the demodex and Cephalexin to treat secondary staph infection. On most bad cases of demodex we also see yeast. Yeast presents as sticky, swollen, & smelly. Ketoconazole for yeast.
The Vet that diagnosed ‘puberty acne’ is lacking in experience.
Steroid will knock back inflamation but can/will suppress the immune system. I recommend declining future steroid therapy.

 

[cefe13]

Don't forget he is in Scotland. You can't get all the products there as you can here. I may be the odd one out but I never gave my dogs flea or tick treatment and didn't know anyone that did! If they ever got a flea we treated on an as needed basis. The only time we ever had a problem actually was when my stupid dog decided to guard a hedgehog and got covered in fleas! That was fun! Never once saw a tick.

Oh dear, Castor has had a close encounter with a hedgehog too! He wanted to say hello and the hedgehog responded by giving him lots of fleas. We called the vet hospital and they said hedgehog fleas are hedgehog-specific so won't hurt dogs but will fall off and die within a few hours. So we just rinsed off the fleas in the shower...

We do have lots of ticks in Scandinavia, though, so wouldn't be surprised if they have spread to Scotland too...most dogs in Sweden have tick prevention during the summer (and many people get shots) but fleas are only treated if needed (although some tick preventives help against fleas too, I think).

 

[2BullyMama]

He’s currently fast asleep been taking photos daily and will continue to do so for me to check the progress. Our 10 year old daughter wants to be a vet, we can only encourage her and save us a whole lot of money in future lol

Any update?

 

[Lalaloopsie]

Totally agree!

 

[manecya]

Hello from Ontario, Canada - welcome, as a newbie I know here you will find plenty of knowledgeable, generous EB owners to help you. i hope your Bruno is feeling better, damn vets sometimes they are clueless. Which I would forgive if at least they were frank -like, "Ok I am not sure what this is let me ask somebody else / do some research". Anyway, is there anything that may have "triggered" the infection? It is my understanding that these mites inhabit our bullies' coat normally, what causes them to infest like this? Were you given any light on this? Hope he is doing better by now! Keep us updated!

 

[Brunosmummy]

Once again thank you for all your advice and help. Bruno has dramatically improved. I feel I’ve attached a pic for you guys to see this is difference from 5 days antibiotics.
Vet told us likelihood has been he has been passed it from his mother and it lies dormant with a trigger as he is still only 9 months his immune isn’t fully developed and hopefully after this clear up will be great again!
Our environment isn’t the Scotland countryside you might imagine we stay in a town and although we have our garden and parks these aren’t anything like you see on braveheart unfortunately lol
Diet wise we changed to raw and it actually works out cheaper for us, for 20 bags of 454g it’s £14.50 this lasts 2 weeks which I thought was brilliant and he seems really happy on it. We did use royal canin as a puppy which is what the breeder had given him but we found he wasn’t enjoying it, we then went to tails wjich is a company in the uk who cater to your dog and they were £50 per month.
I think I’m going to try focus getting him better before introducing fish oils however reading the benefits is great!

 

[Brunosmummy]