Mange

[Guest Anonymous]

My 6 month old heeler pup has been chewing ferociously at his tail this past weekend (started Thursday I guess) I woke up Friday morning and he had chewed most of the hair off of his tail and it was raw, slightly swollen and oozing. So, I called the vet, vet said give him some benadryl and paroxide his tail. I did this, but as the weekend has gone on it's gotten worse and worse to where he's chewed it bloody and the skin is coming off in pieces. Talked to a vet at PetsMart and she said it is more than likely mange and that it's easily to treat it. I can't get into the vet until Monday, is there anything I can do to help him? I've tried Cortozone, Paroxide, betadine, etc...he just licks it off. Vet said dont' get a muzzle, try this spray...no luck....anyone ever delt with this before? Help!
HeelerMom

[Peng1zrule]

I had a dog with mange, demodex mange. (this is the kind humans cannot get) I held her and gently pulled her head back, told her "don't do that, you'll make it worse." of course, I had the luxury of staying up all night to keep an eye on her...if you can't, you can make an E-collar out of a stiff peice of cardboard, like from a box. measure the circumfrence of your dog's neck, give him enough cardboard on either side that he cannot turn around to get the tail, and cut out the circle (try to use a box cutter, not scissors, and don't cut through the box to get to the circle, just put the cutter down on the cardboard and move it. cutting through the cardboard makes it weak and foldable, and easy for the dog to slide off) Slide it over his head and see if he can reach the tail--he should have enough that it collides with his side when he twists around to chew his tail. never leave him unsupervised with this on.

[Guest Anonymous]

There is no way for a vet over the phone to know that the condition is mange. It could be a number of things. The use of peroxide is great for preventing infection but does not ease the itch for the dog. I would try Gold Bond's medicated anti itch ointment. (you could use the powder form but real messy) Don't get ointment form get cream form. The problem with any of these products in ointment form is that they lay on the skin and the dog licks them off. plus messy. With a cream you can rub it in totally and it does not leave a greasy film residue. So dog can't lick off...it is absorbed in sick. Gold Bond is the best but you can also get hydrocortisone in cream form to stop the itch. Sometimes you can get it along with antibiodics.

The condition itself can be any number of things. It might be something you can fix yourself. If it is mange, that takes a number of vet visits for treatment. I once had a dog with that condition but worse and it turned out that he did not have a skin condition but was allergic to certain food. It could also be parasites. But for now I would concentrate on relieving your dog. You can diagnosis it later.

[Guest Anonymous]

Thanks for all the suggestions! One vet told me allergies, one said fleas, and another said the mange. I ruled out fleas after bathing him and practically combing him over without seeing any. I don't think it's allergies because he hasn't had any food changes, weather changes, or anything unusuall like that. I checked for ticks, he doesn't have any. I thought he may have possibly been bit, but this mess is spreading up to the top of his rump. I'll try some goldbond and see if it will help relieve the itching, so far one teaspoon of benadryl relieves the itching for a couple of hours.Called the vet today, they said it would be 20$ examination fee, 5$ skin scrape test, and then however much the medicine cost. So, anyway, thanks for the great ideas, I hope to get him feeling better soon.
HeelerMom

[Guest Anonymous]

HeelerMom napisał(a):

Thanks for all the suggestions! One vet told me allergies, one said fleas, and another said the mange. I ruled out fleas after bathing him and practically combing him over without seeing any. I don't think it's allergies because he hasn't had any food changes, weather changes, or anything unusuall like that. I checked for ticks, he doesn't have any. I thought he may have possibly been bit, but this mess is spreading up to the top of his rump. I'll try some goldbond and see if it will help relieve the itching, so far one teaspoon of benadryl relieves the itching for a couple of hours.Called the vet today, they said it would be 20$ examination fee, 5$ skin scrape test, and then however much the medicine cost. So, anyway, thanks for the great ideas, I hope to get him feeling better soon.
HeelerMom

Trust me the treatment and exam now will be worth it no matter what the root cause is!
Flea allergies can continue to bother a dog long after the fleas are gone - indeed one bite can make a dog itch all over and base of the tail is a common place for it to start.
Think about a bug bite on an allergic person - the bug is long gone but the itch lingers on and on... :lol:
if its mange you don't want to wait to treat for that either particularly if its the contagious kind and what if its ringworm that you and your family can catch too? (thats a skin fungus not a real worm)
I think your vet is on the cheap side by the way :-)

[Guest Anonymous]

I think your vet is on the cheap side by the way

I thought he was very inexpensive too. Wish my vet charged like that.

[Guest Anonymous]

Okay, took Roscoe to the vet today. The vet showed me so flea "dirt" in his skin so that he probably does have fleas. Gave him a shot for the itching and sent me home with some anti-biotics, itch easer, and topical for the skin to heal, de-wormed him while we were there and I bought a 4 month supply of Advantage :) Total bill, $87 :) Thanks for all the help guys and I'll be sure to check back here often!
HeelerMom

[Guest Anonymous]

You have a great vet to get all that for that price. I'm surprised that it was fleas since they are so easy to detect...between the fleas themselves, eggs and dirt.

[Guest Anonymous]

HeelerMom napisał(a):

Okay, took Roscoe to the vet today. The vet showed me so flea "dirt" in his skin so that he probably does have fleas. Gave him a shot for the itching and sent me home with some anti-biotics, itch easer, and topical for the skin to heal, de-wormed him while we were there and I bought a 4 month supply of Advantage :) Total bill, $87 :) Thanks for all the help guys and I'll be sure to check back here often!
HeelerMom

if it makes you feel any better that would probably have run me closer to 200 than 100 :-)
I am so glad you went to the vet to help him out! I bet you both feel better!

[Guest Anonymous]

Oh I know! I was suprised I couldn't find any fleas when I bathed him, but having thought on the fact that one flea could have done it, I put two and two together. I never know if he's going to go visit the neighbors or what. I'm so happy, his poor lil' tail is looking so much better. The green ick is gone and it's only slightly red. He still licks it, but several people told me that heelers and hounds will chew and scratch at anything and everything. Roscoe's sister went in to be spayed and we had to keep an elizabethton collar (or "bucket") on her for a week or more, she wouldn't leave the stiches alone. Well, anyway, I'm so glad I found this site! Thanks again for all of the support!
heelermom

[Guest Anonymous]

Perhaps you dog is very sensitive to fleas. I had a cat once that if she had one flea on her for a second, she would lick, scratch and bite herself in a freezy. Then I see other cats & dogs loaded with fleas...and it doesn't seem to bother them and they don't have any skin irritations.