Hi all,
I was wondering if anyone had any experience treating sarcoptic mange. I have a 1 1/2 year old boerboel who started scratching at his left elbow around the end of August/begining of September. He was giving himself some pretty good wounds, so the vet perscribed some Tamaril P and antibiotics. They also did a skin scraping, that came up negative. The meds helped for about a week, but as soon as we started backing off on the Pred, the itching came back. It progressed to all 4 legs, his abdomen, and his chest and neck. So environmental allergies were suspected, and more Tamiril P and antibiotics perscribed. Again, after backing off on the pred, the itching comes back with a vengence.

I've been trying to manage this with the meds, baths with oatmeal shampoo, soothing skin spray, Elizabethan collar, socks on his rear feet, Fish oils, you name it. It was only getting worse. We've had a couple of hard frosts around here recently, so I thought the symptoms would be resolving! SO it's probably not environmental (well, at least not from the outdoor plants and grasses) I've tried changing his food to California Naturals Herring and sweet potato in case of food allergies. No help.

Our other dog started itching a few weeks ago. I blamed it on us turning the heat on and drying out the air. The humidifier wasn't helping. Then my husband and I started waking up with what looked like flea bites in the morning on our abdomens. We don't have fleas! So I started doing some more research and found that scabies are only found on a skin scrape about 30% of the time. Truman had also developed this bumpy rash pretty much all over his body, except on the top of his back. I talked to the vet who gave me some ivermectin for the dogs. I gave them one dose yesterday and am to give the other in 2 weeks.

If anyone could give me any advise of more I can do to soothe them I would sure appreciate it. My boerboel, is so covered with scabs and that horrendus rash, I can't even pet him without setting off a scratching frenzy!

Also, if this is scabies, does anyond know how long until I see results with the ivermectin Tx?

Thank you all in advance!

Tracy

My dogs came down with this many years ago after killing an infected rabbit in my back yard. They developed this terrible pus filled rash on their bellies. They did come up positive for scabies by skin scrapings. They got ivermectin shots that clearly started working almost immediately.

The thing with scabies is they release whatever it is that makes them so itchy all at once when being killed by the ivermectin and some dogs will just about scratch themselves to death from this. One of my dogs was like this. He was then started on pred for the itch and antibiotics for the pus. Unfortunately, he developed a GI bleed after just two days of this and then had to be treated for that. Except for that bad side affect, they were well on their way to getting better after about a week.

Thanks for the response Elaine. I guess I am just an instant gratification kind of girl! I wnat him fixed NOW!!! Do you know if any of the lime sulfur shampoos are safe/effective? I would ask my vet, but I am now in the process of switching to a homeopathic vet, since I am so fed up with the one I had been using. I should hav not been the one to suggest mange for the dogs, after spending almost 1K on Prednisone, antibiotics, shampoos, food, vet visits etc....

Thanks,
Tracy

If you really want to treat for scabies, just go with the ivermectin shots and get it over with. This is a highly contagious mange and can readily be transmitted to you or any other dog that gets close. The shot kills the mites very quickly and then it's all about supportive skin care which can include pred, antibiotics, and/or medicated shampoos, depending on the dog. Your dog can not get better until the mites are killed.

If your dog doesn't get better after the shots and you never did get a positive scraping, you probably have something else going on.

my adopted dog has SM last winter. At first didn't know what he had, thought he was allergic but when I got some bites on my belly the vet realized it was SM. He got the oral ivermectin for 3-4 weeks (they don't use the injectible anymore) BUT he is not a herding dog and I understand that its not good for them. In that case they use topical Revolution, even my holistic vet said she uses it for SM on herding dogs with success. I washed all bedding etc daily while he had it, fortunately only had one dog then. My vet told me to use green tea on all itchy areas plus vitamin C and salmon oil for inflammation. Hope this helps, I know what you are going thru but its not that bad so try not to stress too much - you will read alot of stuff and scarey info but my dog got better and btw they don't live on humans so I put gold bond powder on my bites and they soon disappeared but after that he was not allowed to sleep right next to me and I washed the bedspread every day anneh

Thanks guys for the advice,

As of today, I am hopeful that the Ivomec is working. Their sratching has greatly diminished, as well as the rash on my Boerboel. He is still pretty scabby, so I gave him a bath with an anti-seborhic (sp?) shampoo containing sulfur. He seems more comfortable and playful. They both get another dose of Ivomec next Friday. Wish us luck!!

Thanks again,

Tracy