My dog's hair is thinning. Is it mange? What can I do before the vet?

The only way to definitively diagnose mange (Demodex) is by skin scrapings which should be repeated every 2-3 weeks during treatment until 2 negative skin scrapings are found. Make sure that the flea and tick medication prescribed will also treat mites (milbemycin or moxidectin) and keep in mind that the dosage frequency is different for mite treatment than it is for flea preventative. Treatment needs to continue for 1-2 months after there is a negative skin scraping. Steroids are usually contraindicated in treatment of Demodex. Demodex mites are not contagious to other animals so your other dogs may not be affected.

Poor guy. There are really only 2 types of mites that we see in veterinary medicine- Scabies and Demodexx mites. Scabies (a type ofmite) is infectious to people so if you yourself are not itching then you can kind of rule that one out. The other mite, Demodexx isn't infectious to people or other pets, and nowadays it can be treated with oral flea preventatives such as Bravecto, Nexgard or Simparica + a medicated topical shampoo through your vet. I would recommend just starting Baileys' on one of these to cover any kind of mite issue. Then I would suggest getting Bailey on an oral antibiotic to clear up the skin infection that is present. The ears look to be infected as well. This will require a topical ear medication and cleaner from your vet to resolve. Skin allergy testing is not commoonly used anymore due to the poor overall response to allergy immunotherapy shots. THe most common allergy medication used nowadays is Apoquel. I would ask your vet about this as well, especially if mites are not the underlying problem, which can be easily confirmed or denied with a simple skin scraping test done through your vet. I hope that you can get Bailey's skin issue resolved soon. Best wishes and take care!

Poor guy. Based on the patchy areas of hair loss, this may be demodex. YOu will need to visit your vet to have him tested and then treated with prescription medication. There is no over the counter oral medication for demodex unfortunately. There may be some shampoos available at your local petstore. but topicals alone wont' resolve demodex in dogs. Another possible cause for these lesions is allergic dermatitis. I hope that Spade's skin issue resolves soon! Best wishes and take care.

Allergies and mange would be at the top of my list. A vet can easily check for intestinal parasites (mange) and then figure out a treatment plan for allergies if you don't have any parasites. There are many many different way to treat allergies, depending on how much you want to spend on medications/testing.

It probably is demodectic mange. I suggest you talk to your vet about putting him on Nexgard or Bravecto. Both are oral flea tablets that coincidentally also treat demodex. Easy to do and relatively inexpensive. They are prescription drugs though so you need to get them from your vet. So much easier than all the things you are doing and it works better. Hope this helps. Best wishes.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I do not recommend that you start any therapy without confirming this diagnosis with a veterinarian first. While mange is possible, other diseases such as allergies for example need to also be considered and these are treated differently. Best of luck!

You are absolutely correct that mange or allergies are possible. The doctor may recommend a diagnostic called a skin scrape to check for mites. For now just protect the area from any itching. It doesn’t look really inflamed so I’m not sure there’s much you can do at this point. As a general recommendation, starting Lexi on an omega 3 fatty acid for dogs can help improve skin health and it certainly won’t hurt anything. I hope this is helpful and please feel free to post any additional questions.