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some of this sample placed on your slide.
Demodexcanis is most commonly seen in young dogs. It is believed to have an hereditary basis and sire, dam and puppies should not be used for breeding after diagnosis is made. In my hands, treatment, although, expensive is usually successful and very few dogs are euthanased compared with 30 years ago. Young dogs can relapse later on in life especially if immunosuppressive drugs are used.

In older dogs, treatment is usually less successful and the dog may need to stay on maintenance therapy. Finding the underlying cause is always helpful as this makes the prognosis much more hopeful if treatment can be given. Underlying causes include: neoplasia, hypothyroidism, hyperadrenocorticism, serious systemic disease and allergy

Diagnosis

Made by clinical impression and the presence of large numbers of mites on skin scraping or hair plucks. The mites are usually found in the hair follicles so skin scraping should be deep and capillary ooze should be noted and some of this sample placed on your slide. Sometimes scrapings are negative but you are very suspicious of the mite. This can especially happen in feet and in certain thick skinned dogs such as mastiffs and Sharpeis. (I usually biopsy most of my sharpeis with skin disease as it helps me very quickly differentiate the different types of skin disease this dog commonly gets). Don"t feel bad if you miss it on a skin scraping.

Treatment

As previously mentioned, dogs with localised demodicosis do not usually need treatment. I recommend waiting to see if they progress before starting treatment.

In generalised treatment, it is very important to get the client"s co-operation from the start. This is a frustrating and expensive disease to treat but success levels have risen dramatically since I qualified. Most dogs will have a secondary infection and will need at least one month"s antibiotics at the appropriate dose. Good nutrition with a high quality fixed formulation diet high in essential fatty acids and treatment of fleas and worms are also important.
Some dermatologists use cat milbemax tablets at 1-2mg/kg of the milbemycin and ignore.


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