Saturday, October 14, 2006

What does it mean when older dogs get mange?

Recently my younger dog, Brownie, got mange and lost his hair on his beautiful wrinkled forehead. It was disturbing to learn that mange usually occurs in puppies. When an adult dog which gets mange, it usually means their immune system is weaker and could not defend against it. Both the dogs are energetic and have not had anything weird happen...no changes in everyday life. Well, Brownie did eat his brother's poo a while ago but I don't think that would cause his immune system to weaken. Also, we left the dogs at the pet hotel when we went on a business trip but we do that regularly and the dogs love the manager there, who has three pugs of her own. Hmmm...

Lately, it has been one thing after another. First Porky pukes and loses his appetite (he is good now!) and now Brownie has lost his hair on his forehead. He is one of those cute pugs that have the best wrinkles and huge, gigantic "Ain't I Cute and Irresistable?" eyes. We are giving him Irvermetin and the Vet says we need to do this for two months! Dog mange is very annoying. I wonder if there is any other way to get rid of it and have the hair grow back...did I mention sometimes the hair doesn't grow back? So sad...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi - which type of mange does your pup have? If it's demodectic, it can be treated with salve (from the vet) with great results and the hair grows back just fine :)

lalagirl said...

Thanks Mickey!

It is demodectic mange and has healed. The wrinkles are slowly coming back (yeah). It's been crazy the last few months with nursing both dogs but now things are settling down and both are healthy. I suspect they were having a lot of problems, including eating poo, due to weight management foods. We have tried several times but we ended deciding to let them be their current weight and eat regular food. They are not terribly overweight and they weight maanagement does not provide enough nutrients which could be why my older one ate his own and his brother's poo, and the younger one got manage. Other than the weight management food, we have not changed anything else in the last few months. Thanks for your message!