Big Paws Only Dog Forums
BPO Medical Forum => Medical Conditions & Diseases => : Bear May 25, 2005, 01:33:32 PM
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Sometimes I worry about Bear because he can be one itchy dog sometimes - primarily the week following a bath, and we've seen a couple of minor cases where Demodectic Mange was the culprit. With medication it usually goes away within a matter of days. In our experience, and it's obvious Bear has a strong pre-dispostion to this mite, one of his symptoms has always been hair loss. My question is could he be scratching because of a mange flare up but have no hair loss associated with his itch symptoms? ,
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I don't know if I quite understand your question. Are you asking whether he could have mange and no hair loss? Please clarify.
V.T.
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The Sarcoptic variety of mange is an interesting disease.. I just read up on that one. It differs from the Demodectic mange in that instead of the mites living inside the hair folicles, the burrow anywhere in the skin. These "Sarcoptes scabiei" mites can also transfer to people - kinda scary. But for some reason I couldn't find, they can not sustain life in human skin like they can in dogs.. instead they burrow down and die. Something else that I found interesting, which may be a dumb thing, but some dogs can actually grow up without Mange.... Since they are transfered thru contact with the mother, the puppy that gets pulled away directly after birth can grow up without it all!
Anyway...
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This is really late, I wanted to add a couple links for anyone who might read this thread in the future in the 'rcommended reading section'. I was recently researching them when I was worried about my Saint's excessive scratching at her hind legs, and I found a site with articles that I found really informative and helpful, especially since they have pictures of actual cases and even a movie of part of an exam.
An article about demodex mites in dogs and humans: http://www.thepetcenter.com/exa/dem.html
And one about sarcoptic mites:
http://www.thepetcenter.com/exa/mites.html