Lady's bald spot!

[vgaffney83]

Lady recently developed a little round bald spot about the size of a dime on her head between her ear and eye. I took her to the vet and they said it was Demodex Mites! She explained that we (dogs included) have microscopic mites on us at all times and certain things, like a weakened immune system can cause an 'outbreak'. For Lady, that 'certain thing' she thinks, was going into heat. Makes me more sad that we missed her spay by only 4 days! :-(

Any how, Lady now has an even bigger bald spot as they had to shave the area to do a skin scraping to confirm. Poor girl...she gets ointment twice a day. The vet said it could take 2 to 3 months for her hair to grow back. Has anyone else had any experience with this

[Kate H]

My first Cavalier had demodectic mange from an early age - as your vet said, all dogs get the mites from their mother, but only a few develop the disease. The one plus about it is that, unlike sarcoptic mange, it isn't itchy, just occasional hair loss (my Charlie, a tri, on one occasion lost his brown eyebrows and looked very odd!). I'm sure medication has improved since Charlie's day - all the vet could do for him was a small daily dose of steroid and regular smelly baths! Hope your vet can get something more effective out of the medicine chest!

All the best

Kate, Oliver and Aled

[team bella]

Bella got ringworm when she was about 7months. Don't know how she got it but could have been where I was walking her as there was livestock around. Anyway it left a little bald spot and I had to give her medicated baths. It soon went and the patch grew back

[Pat]

Here's a good link about demodex:

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body...tic_mange.html

Generalized demodex is pretty awful. I have a friend who had an accidental breeding (Salukis) where the sire had demodex and all six puppies developed it as there is a hereditary component. She kept all six puppies as she felt she could not place them - the ones who are still alive (some are gone from old age maladies) are seniors now. She has treated them with oral ivermectin when the demodex got completely out of control.

Hopefully you are just dealing with localized and it will never spread to become generalized.

Pat