Can my 11-month-old dog with bald patches get a skin scrape for mites?

The only way to definitively diagnose mange (Demodex) is by skin scrapings which should be repeated every 2-3 weeks during treatment until 2 negative skin scrapings are found. Make sure that the flea and tick medication prescribed will also treat mites (milbemycin or moxidectin) and keep in mind that the dosage frequency is different for mite treatment than it is for flea preventative. Treatment needs to continue for 1-2 months after there is a negative skin scraping. Steroids are usually contraindicated in treatment of Demodex. Demodex mites are not contagious to other animals so your other dogs may not be affected.

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Mites are microscopic. If you can see something it isn't mites. Vets diagnose the mites by doing a skin scrape and looking under the microscope. There are 2 types of dog mites: Demodex and Scabies. I treat them with the monthly flea and tick preventatives Nexgard or Simparica or the every 3 month oral Bravecto. I wish you the best!

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I would worry about something infectious like fleas or scabies. The dogs could have gotten scabies from a fox, fox den or another dog. Scabies is very infectious and affects the ear pinna, pressure points like elbows, legs, etc. It is very itchy. I would ask to have a skin scrape done and consider just treating all 4 dogs for Scabies. They all need to be heart worm tested if they are not on prevention before treating and all will have to be seen by the Vet. But just finding the mite on ONE dog is enough to prove the point. I wish you the best!

Mites and allergies are usually the top offenders for itching and hair falling out. If Snowball has not been checked for mites, then I would be surprised, because we (vets) usually want to rule this out as a cause for itching, before treating for allergies (especially food allergies, which are a more rare cause of allergies). A vet can check for mites bay scraping the skin and looking for the mites under the microscope. This requires about 10 minutes to do at a veterinary clinic. I definitely recommend consulting your vet about this, if it hasn't been done before. I hope that helps and Snowball gets better soon.

Hi there. Has your veterinarian performed a skin scraping looking for mites yet? Many types of mites can be really difficult to find. I will occasionally still treat a dog for mites even if I can’t prove that they are there. That would be my recommendation moving forward. If she is really just 4 months old then skin allergies are much less likely, although not impossible I treat all of my itchy puppies like mites until proven otherwise. I hope this is helpful! Good luck to both of you!

Prescription monthly Nexgard flea and tick preventative also kills mange and is approved for a 4 month old dog (monthly Simparica and Bravecto every 12 weeks also work off label to kill mange but are labeled for dogs 6 months and older). She can be just on monthly Nexgard without the ivermectin therapy but both are safe as well. I recommend inquiring with your vet about monthly Nexgard for Winter and seeing if she may have underlying allergies as well which can predispose dogs to getting mange. Prescription Apoquel pills or monthly Cytopoint allergy injections Injections are both very effective in treating itchiness from environmental allergies (typically characterized by paw licking, scratching, chronic anal gland issues, chronic ear infections). Good luck!

Poor guy. There are really only 2 types of mites that we see in veterinary medicine- Scabies and Demodexx mites. Scabies (a type ofmite) is infectious to people so if you yourself are not itching then you can kind of rule that one out. The other mite, Demodexx isn't infectious to people or other pets, and nowadays it can be treated with oral flea preventatives such as Bravecto, Nexgard or Simparica + a medicated topical shampoo through your vet. I would recommend just starting Baileys' on one of these to cover any kind of mite issue. Then I would suggest getting Bailey on an oral antibiotic to clear up the skin infection that is present. The ears look to be infected as well. This will require a topical ear medication and cleaner from your vet to resolve. Skin allergy testing is not commoonly used anymore due to the poor overall response to allergy immunotherapy shots. THe most common allergy medication used nowadays is Apoquel. I would ask your vet about this as well, especially if mites are not the underlying problem, which can be easily confirmed or denied with a simple skin scraping test done through your vet. I hope that you can get Bailey's skin issue resolved soon. Best wishes and take care!