When Do You Say Enough is Enough

Bettyboop

DBB wrote: »

The dog has been diagnosed with Demodex mites, so whilst a longer-term plan to change diet to help balance his immunity is certainly worth serious consideration, no advice to change diet is going to help this dog with the immediate problem at hand.
Perhaps our vet/vet nurse posters can correct me on this, but I'd be concerned that Bravecto is not indicated for the treatment of Demodex. It's licensed as a flea and tick treatment, and whilst ticks and mites are related (they both belong to the sub-class Acari, and Bravecto is an acaricide), Demodex tends to need very targeted, regular, strong treatments to get to grips with it compared to ticks. The lack of licensing for it in the treatment of the dog's immediate health problems has me worried.
Hopefully my concerns are unfounded, but if he were my dog, I'd want to know for sure about the soundness of the rationale for using this product.

I agree with everything you have said. Indeed it said nothing about mange on the tablet box only mites and ticks.I personally feel a few dips in some solution might have sorted it out earlier but I am no vet. I have looked up alternative treatments myself. Borax and peroxide mixture cider vinegar , vegetable oil etc but now he has taken the tablet I am afraid any of these treatments might aggravate the mange even more.

Satori Rae

Bettyboop wrote: »

I agree with everything you have said. Indeed it said nothing about mange on the tablet box only mites and ticks.I personally feel a few dips in some solution might have sorted it out earlier but I am no vet. I have looked up alternative treatments myself. Borax and peroxide mixture cider vinegar , vegetable oil etc but now he has taken the tablet I am afraid any of these treatments might aggravate the mange even more.

I would deffo leave his skin alone just for the sake of making it worse natural remedy or not. I have known a few people who try tackle their pets problems with all sorts only for the dog to get worse or sadly die in one case. If in doubt ask another vet. Hope pooch gets better

DBB

I'd definitely not go down any home remedy routes, his skin looks just too sore, so your instinct to avoid them is good. Instead, I'd have a very frank and open conversation with the vet, and if I wasn't happy after that, well, I'd change vet.

Alicat

I too thought the Bravecto was a weird choice. That's why I thought the OP was going to say it was Ivermectin.

boomerang

doubter wrote: »

odd though that the vet didn't pick up/think about it first, rather than doing all these tests.Would have thought Mange would have been ruled out first thing..happy it's resolved though. well done for sticking with him.:)

A skin scrape won't always show up a demodex mite... But it doesn't mean they're not there, elsewhere on the skin. Just they're not in the sample you took. Vets take repeated scrapes in the most-affected areas but a positive can be elusive.

ETA: Looks like the Bravecto is being used off-label:

http://www.parasitesandvectors.com/content/8/1/187/abstract

Vets aren't inclined to prescribe Aludex anymore and actually it's hard to find. Maybe it's no longer in production so both Bravecto and Ivomec (which isn't licensed for treatment of demodex in dogs either) are acceptable for exceptional use, under the cascade system?

DBB

That's really interesting Boomerang, thanks a million for bringing me up to speed on it!
The paper you link to should help the op know what to expect in terms of when the skin should look better

shaymus27

I would avoid using any oils or natural remedies or anything you see or hear about as it may react with what your dog has been prescribed and most of these things are over-rated.

Make a detailed history of what has happened and what you have given your dog yourself, so if you do change vet they will be able to have all the history, not just what the other vets did.

It seems ludicrous that after all the delay and lack of proper diagnosis from day one, that you now find yourself wondering if the treatment is correct.

Research the treatment for the mange on-line and the research the treatment your vet has prescribed. If you have big doubts you might get an opinion from another vet. As you are fairly broke from all the bills you might try ringing a radio station for their vet to give an opinion. I wouldn't rely on that opinion as a vet on a radio station isn't necessarily better than any other vet. Q102 Aidan Cooney used to have a vet on his show and you could ring up, go on air and tell him what happened. Your main point could be on the treatment for the mange. TV3 has a vet on every now and then and you could email or text in your query. You could just chance calling in to a different vets and ask could they give you a free answer to your doubts about the treatment prescribed.

I would consider changing vet but make sure it is to a vet that comes highly recommended. Make sure you always see the best vet in that practice and not one of the juniors.

I used to go to a vets who have their own mini-lab (don't know for sure if they could do a test for mange) as they have 4 different practices and I can't believe they would have let that situation go on so long.

It's possible that your dog may have more than one thing wrong with him. He may also have an allergy which might complicate things. Hopefully he doesn't.

I don't know anything about medications interfering with each other but your dog may need some sort of painkiller or something to cope with his condition.

Try pin your vet down re: how soon your dog should be recovering and what that progress should look like.

kathleen37

Hi Bettyboop - any updates?

I really hope there has been some improvement?