Demodex Mange And Alternative Treatments

[peibe]

Onslowsmum is fostering a Shar Pei x Boxer, Blossom is around 8 months and has bad demodex, the mites are easily seen under a microscope

Ivermectin is not working as it should as basically Bloss's immune system is shot

I have been reading alternative treatments but before I outlay alot of money for it I would like to know if anyone else has tried it and if is helps?

Does anyone have any knowledge of immune buidling suppliments and where to get them cheaply?

I also have a young pup coming in with bad demodex so might try it for her too

This is what RM says.

Demodectic Mange (Demodecosis) Herbal Treatment

Demodectic mange is caused by an external parasite that is present in low numbers on all healthy animals. Whether or not a pet shows symptoms of this disease depends primarily on their immune status.

Young dogs under 14-16 months of age who have their immunity compromised by stressful changes, their food and/or living conditions are suseptible to an escalation of these parasites causing damage to the individual hair follicles and small scaling, red patches of hair loss "mange" result. Face and forelegs are common sites for such lesions.

Most dogs can manage this condition themselves. However, certain breeds are more prone to extensive problems and can end up with secondary infections.

In the first instance with small patches of resistant mite infestation then I suggest you treat with the following:-

Canine Conditioning Mix to support internal organs.

Add Millet and Linseed to your dogs diet, 1-5 tablespoons depending on your dogs size.

A course of Maritime Pine Bark to raise immunity levels.

Apply a specific antifungal/ anti parasitic herbal applications which are mixed 40 drops into 20ml of Colloidal Silver and sprayed onto the dogs coat after rinsing in warm water once per day. See:

Anti-Parasitic Spray

Colloidal Silver Antibiotic

In the second instance when the skin is more generally effected with mange as well as secondary infection I also suggest the use of our blood cleanser. At this point the skin's own resistance to parasitic attack has been weakened through the build-up of toxins under the skin.See:

Blood Cleansing Tonic

These toxins can be simply the normal products of metabolism or derived from to many chemicals in feed or from worming over a long period and the body stores them under the skin if other means of elimination are overloaded.

When a course of blood cleansers is given over a complete blood cycle (around 12 weeks) the skin is able to recover its normal resistance and can often reduce the mites to normal levels.

This program can completely and permanently clear up the mange particularly if it is instituted with a natural raw meat and bones diet and you can eliminate commercial dog feed entirely. In my experience mange found in well cared for dogs is more likely to be due to their reactions to the chemicals in commercial dog feed than anything else.

[~Anne~]

Are the products - Canine Conditioning Mix, Anti-Parasitic Spray and Maritime Pine Bark sold by the person advocating them or sold by someone else?

[peibe]

There are testimonials on the site but they are sold by the person advocating them

Robert McDowell

[~Anne~]

I have no experience with this at all. In general, I tend to not trust alternative medicines as much as conventional, particularly when the person advocating it is making profit..however, in having said that, that is exactly what convention medicine prescribers do!

If it isn't overly expensive it might be worth a try. Demodex is not life threatening and so you have that opportunity to trial different things.

Hopefully someone with actual experience in this area (experience in this particular thing with demodex Morgan ...) can give some advice

[morgan]

Haven't had to deal with this mange touch wood, but I can certainly vouch for the blood cleansing tonic - we have used it on a number of very ill or badly injured horses with terrific results, saving every single one of them. We also used colloidal silver in every case.

There are a number of immune building supplements I have used, but most are pretty expensive - would it be worth trying homeopathic treatment? It's one of the cheapest forms around. Diana Hayes in WA would be able to offer advice and supply remedies.

The China Road site has a big section on it - this page has lots of homeopathic remedies, herbs etc plus a homemade lemon tonic to apply daily - cheap if you have a lemon tree!

http://lowchensaustralia.com/health/demodicosis.htm

[Ons]

help would be greatly appreciated. Blossom is really a sweet dog but unfortunately her mites are not getting any better, she has been going to the vet regularly for scrapings. She also had basic blood tests becuase I was really worried about her constant need to drink then constant weeing - and I mean constant and large amounts! The vet initially ruled out diabetes and UTI. The blood tests came back okay except her white cell count is slightly abnormal but the vet put that down to her mange. And over time her constant drinking and weeing has reduced considerably and the vet said that it could well have been psycomatic (sp?) her way of coping and she is less stressed.

She is presently on invermectin daily and cephraxin (sp?) antibiotics twice daily. She has been on invermetcin since mid July and the antibiotics since the first week in August. Since she has arrived she is much less smelly and not as hot as what she used to be, although she has been occassionally smelly and hot. Not as bad though. She has also been bathed once a week in malaseb and the vet said that was sufficient. She has been fed Advance chicken biscuits and I will start feeding her just raw chicken as well because she appears less itchy when she has that.

Apart from that she is a very bouncy happy dog. I have never seen a dog before bounce across the room with all four legs off the ground at once :rolleyes: She really gets on well with my other dogs especially my girl and they play together for hours. Even grumpy Onslow likes her. Loves carrying soft toys around as well and woos woos woos at you - lol - I think the soft toy carrying was from my golden retreiver and the woos woos woos from my coolie Bit slow in the toilet training and does tend to toilet where she likes rather than where my 3 go but half of that is because she doesn't really like grass and she has never been taught otherwise. When I'm home she is allowed in the house and she sleeps in a crate at night which is inside the family room, Tilly sleeps on a couch nearby so she is not alone. She does not mind the crate at all now. Inside the crate is a woolen blanket and a mat.

so all in all I think her stress levels have decreased considerably but her mites havent. So any help would be greatful

[Cavandra]

Unfortuneatly Demodex is an immune system problem, and Ivemectin is the worst thing to use, as it further ruins the immune system :rolleyes:

The mites feed on yeast & sugars in the dog...by eliminating these things, the mites will starve to death. This means eliminating ALL GRAINS, POTATOES, YEAST & STARCH/SUGAR...feeding ONLY quality raw meat & bones, nothing else ........avoid all chemicals & vaccinations too.........

The best therapy would be supplementing with Colostrom, next best thing which isnt anywhere near as potent though would be probiotic for the immune system.

You can also supplement with Fish oil, garlic, Vitamin C, E & A, Grapefruit seed extract or echinacea & put organic apple cider vinegar in the water dishes.

You can mix fresh lemon juice with witchazel & water & apply multiple times a day to the affected areas......There are heaps of different topical ointments that could be used however.

[Staff'n'Toller]

Is it Dectomax injections or straight ivomec cattle?

We have had great success with Dectomax injections, greatly improved in 6 or so treatments. I think it still could be off label but it works so well, it's worth doing.

As well as at the clinic we have treated quite a few of the dogs in our remote community program with it.

Mel.

[Jed]

It is possible to buy bovine colostrum, and I believe it is very good for immune system problems.

Having said that, my dog which was not improving with ivermectin was changed to cydectin and recovered --- and it was looking like pts. However, at about the same time, she was fed raw meat and no dry food.

[peibe]

Unless we can get Blossom under control the options are not good

O is fostering and cannot foster forever and I am not in a position to have her either

There has been some great advise in here and I am sure Onslowsmum and I will work on a way to fix it up

the invermectin is not working so it is time to try something else

[Rysup]

Proban worked for one of mine.

[dog geek]

Question: why would you NOT use Advocate Spot-On treatment???

[Ons]

middle of last month all my dogs including Blossom and the kittens got Revolution spot on treatment as recommended by the vets. This is to kill mites.

[Rappie]

Question: why would you NOT use Advocate Spot-On treatment???

Advocate is the only registered treatment for Demodex that isn't amitraz but the results from using it to treat generalised demodex haven't been that exciting. It's a good choice for treating dogs with localised demodex that need heartworm / flea / intestinal worming treatment. It does make a difference but it doesn't always resolve the mite problem, rather keeps it at a low level.

[Winterpaws]

Henry had those treatments when he first came out of the pound and I have no doubt that they helped his situation along as he was knocking on death's door at the time. From memory we used

Colloidal Silver

Maritime Bark

Blood Cleansing tonic

and there was a food supplement as well.

We spoke with Kate who works for McDowell quite often and she was wondeful and always happy to give us advice and ideas on how to treat his mange. I am not sure how bad your girl is Peibes but you remember how horrific poor H was.

A couple of other things that helped were a good diet and we used Eaglepack and Nutrience at the time.

A bit further along when he had a relapse a breeder suggested we use Transfer Factor as her vet had used it wuth sucess on one of her dogs. That worked really well - it was around $80 I think and we ordered it from her vet in Qld.

The other thing I notice with Henry is that if we go back to kibble his skin flares up again - not mangey these days but more like a fungal infection. We're doing really well feeding the Myella raw chicken with garlic and veges mix and we just add some rice and an egg to that. He also eats chicken wings and the occasional larger bones.

I would not hesitate to use the herbals again and we were supposed to have another DDB foster who was in the same condition as H but sadly he passed away within minutes of us getting him to the vet from the pound. Had he been a foster we would have used herbals on him as well

I don;t advocate herbals as the only solution but I do think they help a lot and especially with these guys who have the shoddiest immune systems

Has the vet offered other treatments other than Ivermectin? Henry actually had injections ad I would have to look up the name. My girlfriend also had a mangey DDB and she was using a new treatment which from memory was topical - I'll ask her the name of it

[peibe]

Thanks WP, Blossom is no where near Henrys state

She is happy and healthy in herself, just shocking skin

The invermectin is being given orally and this has never been my preferred method, my mangy dogs have always had injections

I am off to think about things, the McDowell treatments are so expensive

O, will give you a call over the weekend

[Winterpaws]

They last a long time Peibes - i think we got 3 months worth out of each..?

I''ll try find out the name of that new treatment

[Gayle.]

Dusty had a small patch of demodectic mange near her eye, brought on after an interstate trip in early August. She was stressed by being in a strange house with my son, to whom she took an instant and unrelenting dislike (she growled at the poor bugger the whole 5 days we were there!)

Anyway, being an Australian Shepherd, she can't have ivermectin. The vet was going to look into an alternative treatment and get back to me....but she didn't.

I did some research and found that need oil is supposed to be a natural insecticide and treatment for mange. I ordered some and tried it but it didn't work either. Plus it stunk like rotten garlic. The mange got worse instead of better.

The breeder I bought her from suggested a chemical treatment called Demadex. I bought some, applied it very carefully (much diluted), and the mange was gone in a few days. The hair is now almost all grown back.

[peibe]

Thanks WP

I will probably go ahead, seeing as I can use it on Blossom and the new girl coming in too

I have a 8-12 week old pup with Demodex coming in almost as bad as the pup you had a few years ago

I have heard of that Gayle, but not sure if Invermectin and Demadex might be toxic, it is pretty bad stuff

[stormie]

A few of our clients have had success with the Demadex rinse. It's amitraz so you need to be careful with it, but it has brought infestations under control within a couple of weeks. Some have found success with Preventix Collars.