Demodectic Mange

Demodectic mange, also called “red mange,” is a fairly common skin disease that has been around for a very long time.

It still is one of the most difficult medical conditions to manage successfully in some cases.

It is caused by a tiny parasite, a mite called Demodex, which lives in the hair follicles and skin glands of the dog.

Puppies are infected with mites from contact with the skin of their mother while nursing.

The mites are present in the skin of  many healthy dogs and do not cause disease. It is thought that dogs diagnosed with demodectic mange are “immunodeficient”, unable to fight off the mites as a healthy dog would do. This allows large numbers of the mites to appear.

Symptoms Of Demodectic Mange:

Demodectic mange occurs almost exclusively in young dogs (3 months to l year of age).

When the disease is seen in older animals, there is usually a more serious underlying problem responsible for weakening the dog's immune system and causing mange.

Demodectic mange is seen in two forms:

• Localized mange is confined to a few small areas usually involving the face or front feet, and is relatively easy to treat.
• Generalized mange is one of the most severe canine skin diseases, and treatment is not always successful!

Initially, symptoms may include small localized areas of hair loss. There may be only one or two of these areas, or they may be more numerous.

The skin may eventually become infected with bacteria, allowing the hair follicles to rupture and expel pus.

The skin may become dry, crusty, brittle, and ooze serum, blood, or pus. A strong, offensive skin odor may be present due to the secondary bacterial infection.

Diagnosis Of Demodectic Mange:

Diagnosis of demodectic mange is made through examination of your dog's skin.

Your dog's veterinarian may need to do skin scrapings or in some cases biopsies of your dog's skin to make an accurate diagnosis.

Your dog may also need to have blood tests performed to attempt to identify the source of any immunodeficiencies which are contributing to the skin disease.

Treatment Of Demodectic Mange:

Animals with small, local lesions of demodectic mange usually recover well without recurrence. Some may even spontaneously recover without treatment.

Diligent, time‑consuming therapy is required for full recovery in the severe, generalized cases. Because a defect in the immune system plays a part in this disease, some dogs do not recover!

If the skin infection spreads to other parts of the body, the dog may become systemically sick and even die.

Severely affected animals that do recover may not show signs of the disease again. However there are some dogs that require a periodic treatment for the rest of their life to keep the disease under control. Stressful situations tend to cause flare-ups of the disease for these dogs.

Your dog may look worse for 2‑4 weeks after treatment is begun. This is because there are likely to be hairs and hair follicles that were already affected before treatment was started which need to mend before the lesions can begin to improve.

Complete recovery usually takes a minimum of 6‑12 weeks in the cases that do recover.

Your veterinarian will help you determine the most appropriate treatment for your dog.

Treatment may include

• medicated shampoos,
• ointments,
• dips, or
• systemic medications, such as ivermectin which helps to kill the mites which cause the disease.

It may be necessary to treat your dog for several weeks or even months.

If secondary bacterial infections are present, these will need to be treated as well. Antibiotics are usually needed to control these infections.

Periodic examinations by your dog's veterinarian will likely be necessary to assess the efficacy of the treatment process.

A hereditary predisposition is suggested. Affected dogs should be spayed/neutered to prevent passing the disease on to their offspring.

Even though some pups in the litter may not show signs of demodectic mange, they still may be a carrier capable of passing on the disease to any offspring they produce.

Female dogs suffering from demodectic mange or those who have recovered from demodectic mange should also be spayed to reduce the stress of the estrus (heat) cycle, which may cause acute flare‑ups of this disease.