My dog's mange isn't improving after weeks of treatment. What now?

Sometimes it takes more than one round of treatment to treat mites. If your dog has demodectic mange your veterinarian will have to look at the underlying cause of the repeated outbreak as demodextic mange usually lies dormant until the dog has a compromised immune system. If it is sarcoptes mange then your dog may have reinfected himself. Your veterinarian can prescribe Bravecto, a chew that covers fleas, ticks and all types of mange, even demodectic mange.

At this stage it seems your veterinarian covered and prescribed everything Mazore needs. After treatment is over, a shampoo could be useful to re-established normal skin hydration. That can be discussed on a later stage with your veterinarian, depending on his skin condition. Please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation (where you can post pictures ) if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

The absolute best way to know is if you see resolution of skin lesions and also when there are no mites detected on a skin scrape/cytology. Mites can still be present on the skin, even when the skin looks great on the outside. This will cause people to stop treating presumptively, and this results in treatment failure as the mites will come back quickly. You must have 2 negative skin scrapes done 2 weeks apart, plus resolution of skin lesions, to determine if a pet can come off medication. I hope this helps!

They can get a secondary infection from demodex and it usually gets worse before it gets better. The mites live in the hair follicle, so as the treatment works and the mites due, more hair falls out. Around week four after treatment is stated is usually as bad as it gets then things start to improve from there. A good bath in a shampoo with benzoyl peroxide helps flush the mites out but can be drying if done more than once a week. If there are scabs with a discharge it is best to get rechecked

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, and thanks for your question. This could be due to an allergy, although it could also be infection. First of all, you will need to ask the vet to perform a skin scrape (or similar test) - this might reveal an infection. If all of those came back negative, the next step is to treat the allergy symptomatically and try to discover the cause of the allergy. Three main type of allergies are usually affecting pets: food allergies, flea and parasite related ones and environmental type (allergens coming from trees, pollens, dust etc etc). Some medications can be given by the vet in order to repair any possible skin lesions (like steroids and antibiotics). Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further. If this answer was helpful please let us know, this will be used to improve our service!

It isn't uncommon for dogs going through mange therapy to initially get itchier as the mites die and cause inflammation. However secondary infections are also very common with mange. It is common for a dog to be on antibiotics and perhaps an anti-itch medication in addition while being treated for the mange. You could call the veterinarian that prescribed the mange treatment to discuss antibiotics and/or medication to help with his itching. Sometimes a topical shampoo helps but often oral medications are needed.