Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
For the past 3 or 4 days my small dog has been itching like crazy!
She is kept on flea/tick/mosquito treatment as well as preventitive heartworm medication, so we ruled those things out. We realized that this wasn't just a skin irritation that would pass (she has no rashes, bumps, etc) and took her to the vet today.
The first thing he asked was whether we have Foxes in our neighborhood, to which I replied Yes. He then told us that she may have "scabies" (which can be transmitted by foxes) and would need to take a skin scraping. He took the scraping and looked at it under a microscope but did not see any scabies.
The vet gave us a new heartworm medication (topical) and a 5 day supply of prednisone for the itching. He said he still thinks it may be scabies, even though he didn't find any and wanted to treat her for it.
Does anyone have any experience with this?
Have you changed his food recently? How old is your pup?
Where have you taken him for a walk, may be some place you've never been before? He might have gotten into something.
Have you used any chemicals around the house? What about weather, any changes there? Grass, pollen, etc??
How long has he been on tick/flea prevention? He could have developed allergies.
If money isn't too much of a problem, i'd suggest to do full allergy testing. I believe it's around $200.00-$300.00 bucks, may be less.
We did change her food last week to a "Sensitive Skin and Stomach" formula. Go figure. It was the same brand of food that she has always had (purina pro plan), just a different formula with Salmon instead of Lamb. We changed her food back after only 2 days to try to rule that out too. I specifically brought this up to the vet and he didn't seemed concerned.
We live in Baltimore and this vet was rated the "Best of Baltimore" last year.
It has been unusually hot here the past 2 weeks, but our dog stays inside and only goes out to do her business when it's really hot.
She hasn't been anywhere new or met any new dogs recently. She's been on her treatments for the past 6 months and never showed any irritations.
I'm perplexed....
One of my dogs had scabies when he was found as a puppy. They were little raised bumps. His were on his ears. You could just rub them off, which I don't advise anyone doing as you can get them too. The vet did the same thing, took a sample. That was a long time ago, so I don't remember what they gave him.
One of my dogs had it when we found her, she must have gotten it from her mother (she was abandoned as a puppy and had a few different health issues).
When we found her, she had a small area of her belly with little tiny red pimples and I immediately thought "mange". My vet at the time (no longer my vet) did not agree and ran me in circles trying different treatments until a few months later - as her fur was falling out - he finally declared "oh, she has mange!". Duh.
The treatment was nasty - this milky smelly solution you have to bathe them in - but it worked. We had to do a few treatments to kill off all the mites, she had it pretty bad by then .
No one else caught the mange, no humans or animals, and her fur all grew back, it's perfect today. Catch it early by treating it now and you'll have an easier time with it .
The dog that was left at the house I bought had a bad case. He had already lost 80% of his fur. From what I understand it is easily diagnosed. I had to treat him with that nasty smelly solution 6 times at 2 week intervals. He started getting relief right away and the hair started growing back except on his feet. He still dosent have all the hair growth on his feet. After that got cleared up, I took him to the neuter clinic (cheaper than my vet) and the vet there scraped him again thinking he may have mange because of his feet.
Here is another thought...I had a dog that became allergic to Grass, I too at the time thought mange, ect. The vet at the time told me to keep her out of the grass like that is really possible. Now I have an Aussie who is allergic to fleas, yes he is on all the required meds but my vet told me to use Head & Shoulder scalp therapy (this is good stuff for dogs) and benydryll at 25 mil per 25 pounds and of course the food is lamb/rice. It helps but you can set flea season to the day with him!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
and wanted to treat her for it. 
.
.
