A Spot of Mange

Pregnant vixen with mange.

Gideon just came down with what I believe is a spot of mange caught from one of the local fox, probably the pregnant vixen seen above, and which was been seen in the neighbor's yard in broad daylight last week.  In any case, Gideon rubbed himself raw in a single morning and afternoon while I was at work.

Step one in Gideon's treatment was to wash him with pyrethrin-based shampoo, and then to treat the mange patch with a straight dose of a 0.05% dilute solution of Ivermectin worked well into the coat and edges of the bald patch, and then left on.

Step two was to give him an internal dose of Ivermectin (the same dose as for heartworm) and to chase that with an antibiotic (Fish Flex cephalexin) to make sure his skin did not get infected. 

To knock down the itch, I also dosed Gideon with a single 25 mg. dose of benadryl every 12 hours (sold as a "Nighttime Sleep Aid" mini-caplet at Walgreens).

I repeated these steps every day for four days until good pink skin appeared.  Gideon still has hair loss at the site, but that will grow back over the course of the next two weeks.  

Mountain has been washed every day as well -- no symptoms on her, but precaution is always the best medicine.  With all the dens that the dogs are in and out of, and all the mangy fox running through the yard (and your yard too, no doubt!) this is the first possible spot of mange any of my dogs has have ever had. 
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