Mangy dog!!

Literally!
Well~ I thought getting a mongrel this time would keep us out of the vet. No such luck~ she has issues related to her less than sanitary beginnings rather than her breeding!

Poor girl was an UGLY adolescent. Just this last Saturday I was thinking she was starting to come into her own and turn into a decently good looking dog:


But when I gave her a bath Saturday I noticed sores on her skin. A lot of them. So many that if I didn't know any better I'd say the dog was covered with bruises!! So I took her to the vet. The vet said first to stop kicking the dog (I don't kick the dog!) Second~ she has MANGE

I didn't think dogs got mange anymore! I guess this is some type of mite in her skin that is pretty normal for a dog to have~ but the environment where she was born must have been pretty filthy and she has more of the mites than she can "outgrow." (I keep telling her how greatfull she should be living in the lap of luxury here considering she was born to be a street dog! But she believes she deserves to be spoiled like a diva)

So~ the answer to the dogs skin issue?
Shave the dog down and dip her every ten days in some RANK stuff.
Naturally~ no groomer would shave the dog. She has sores (and a staff infection from chewing at the sores). So I had to do it. The dog has BIONIC hair.

I SWEAR she has BIONIC hair! I bought NEW $90 clippers! It would have been faster to CHEW the hair off the stupid dog. There is more dog hair in my house (even though I did the work in the yard) than there is ON the dog!!!

Back to FUGLY dog~




I really don't understand why my kids won't let me cut their hair. Thats not bad for 2 FULL days work on BIONIC hair! LOL! (even the cats are laughing at her)

HAHAHA!!! Sorry.... I'm a dog groomer, and I would have shaved her for ya, just cause I like ya... not at MY shop mind you.
There are tricks to shaving a dog, but hopefully you won't have to. Sorry to hear about the poor pooch's problems.
Wolfy

Aw jeez, poor girl!! It actually looks like you did a pretty good job with her haircut, considering those double-coated breeds are tough to do in the first place, lol.

Are they treating her with anything besides the dip? Ivermectin can be a good addition to the dip, as well as a steroid type med to help with the itching.

did you find out what kind of mange she has? Be careful with the ivermectin if it is used. She kinda had a collie looking face(I'm looking at the widow's peak and see a hint of white on her feet) and collies are very sensitive to that drug. If the vets are using it, they should give an injection and keep her in hospital for a day to see her reaction. Mind you, while she is going through the treatment she will actually look worse before she gets better. Good luck with everything. Make sure she has two negative skin scrapes before they stop her treatment or it may come back with a vengeance.
As for the steroids, it can actually make the situation worse and allow the skin to become worse. I don't remember how but it does.

Jessica, that is an EXCELLENT point....I didn't even think of her possibly being a collie or sheltie mix....and you are absolutely correct that she does look like there could be some collie or sheltie in there.

As for the steroids, I was under the impression that a steroid type skin spray could be used once the other dips were completed to help with the itching, but I could very well be mistaken there as well. It has been years since I have even seen a case, and they may have gotten smarter with the treament since then.

I'm going to guess it's demodectic mange, I believe sarcoptic usually becomes first evident more on the extremities? But then, I was wrong about everything else I said here...LOL.

I wish someone else would have shaved her! Porr girl~ she looks funny! I told her now that I shaved her....@$$...I would teach her to walk backwords! LOL!

They gave her "Mitaban dip 10.6 ml" for 4 treatments (every ten days) and 10 days worth of "Cephalexin caps 500 mg" for the staph infections (where she itched so much she chewed).

The dip is a real CHALLENGE. I wore gloves as the Dr instructed......but once the dog shakes thats pretty much just protects my hands.....I was carefull not to get it in HER face but she showed no such courtesy in return! I think I wore as much dip as she did!!

I suspect there is some border collie in her as well~ so I will remember what you said about the collie and the ivermectin if it comes up. Unless something changes she is not scheduled to go back for another 40 days (4 treatments every ten days).

I'm hoping once her skin clears up I can convince a groomer to give her a real decent looking lion cut!