Urgent advice needed about possible mange.

Hi there,
I am writing this on behalf of my mum (she registered on here some time ago but is not an active user and found to her dismay that she was unable to log on, so I have created a new user name for her to get her up and running again!)
Sorry in advance for the long post.
I am not a Staffy owner, nor a member per se here, but I own several Huskies and regularly post on a Husky forum, so I can find hopefully navigate around this one and post up what concerns my mum has. (She doesn't know how to add pics, but I can see that the icon above for adding pics looks familiar so I should be 'good to go' on her behalf as it were. )
My mum has a young female Staffy (I think she is just over a year old) who was diagnosed with Mange some time ago. I haven't had a dog with Mange before so although I did a bit of reading about the 3 different types/presentation/treatment this morning, I still don't feel equipped to advise her. That said, what I have read suggests a very different treatment from what her vet has 'prescribed'.
I have copied what she has written (and would like me to post) below:

"Hello, hope some one can advise me about my Staffy, Lilly.
Last October I went away for a week and left Lilly with a relative. When I got back and took Lily home she would not stop scratching her ears and face , previous to going away Lilly had been having frontline, but just as a flea treatment and had not had any problems with it.
I took Lilly to the vets and they told me to treat her with stronghold as she had mange and strong hold was the only thing that would treat it. After about 3 months it started to clear up; her hair was growing back on her ears and so on. I did think that it might have been puppy mange originally and wondered if she’d got it from her mother but I went away again last March for a week again , and 3 of those days Lilly spent with my relative. (Lilly was still on her treatment with strong hold at the time.)
When I got Lilly home she would not stop scratching again. I phoned the vet and they said not to worry as the stronghold was working, so since then Lilly has had stronghold every month - but it does not work! She has scratched so much that her ears bleed. We saw the vet 3 weeks ago and she looked in her ears (they are clear) , and was told to keep up with the strong hold. I have tried Lemon wash and also wipes with tea tree oils, plus wipes with aloe and oatmeal: they do help a little with the itching.
I’m now at a loss as what to do for Lilly. I find it hard to keep going to the vets as I am only on a pension. I do have access to the PDSA but the vet said that the PDSA will not pay for flea treatment. Surely Lilly’s condition wouldn’t count as flea treatment, would it?
Going back to Lilly staying with my relative, she has 3 cats and I believe one of them had mange so I am pretty sure now that is were Lilly got it from.
I have put up some photos of Lilly so that you can all see the problem.
Thank you in advance for any help you can give to me.
Kind regards from a concerned lover of dogs. "

Here are some pic's: - or not! It keeps telling me that 'the connection was reset' even though I'm only trying to upload one at a time. Lol! Advice needed there also!
Many thanks in advance for reading. Any advice is much appreciated.

Hi, to add photos the best way is to use a photobucket account.

As for the mange, you must tell your mother to not leave lilly with these cats again. Mange comes in different forms as you have said, so stronghold will only treat sarcoptic mange.

i think from what you have said its more likely Cheyletiella Mange

have alook here

http://www.organic-pet-digest.com/how-to-treat-dog-mange.html#Cheyletiella

I cant really help with any of the problems you have but am sure someone will be around to offer some help and info soon. I hope your poor little girl gets well soon x

Sorry cannot help with the medical issues but please see the link below for advice on posting pictures, I hope it helps:

https://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com/t12018-how-to-post-a-photos-onto-the-forum

Please see link below for advice on mange :

http://www.dogmangehelp.com/

First things first. How did the vet diagnose mange? Did they do a scrape, or just look at it & say it's mange?

The first thing you have to find out (if it is mange) is what sort of mange is it? Demodectic mange cannot be passed from cats to dogs & vice versa, whereas sarcoptic mange can. If it's demodectic mange then the treatment should consist of several baths with a specific treatment shampoo (sorry, I can't remember the name!). Sarcoptic mange is more difficult to get rid of & will involve quite a lot of treatment, but is far more rare.

The dog won't have caught the mange (if it's demodectic) from the cats, but the stress of staying with your relative might have triggered the attack.

oh poor thing how about a second opinion , and as said above i would fins an alternative for looking after the dog

Caryll, is mange an auto-immune disease for canines? (I know of mange but wondering its cause)

Many thanks for the replies so far!
I've emailed my mum; apparently it is the type that cannot be passed onto humans.
I have asked her to phone the vet in the morning to confirm what has been written down in terms of type; there has been no confirmation via a skin sample I might add.
Could someone, at least in the interim, tell me if flea treatment (as the Vet has prescribed) is a proper course of treatment? Whilst I don't want to contradict the vet, I cannot find, anywhere online, where this would be a suitable treatment.
I am a little wary of the vet practice she is using, as the same practice tried to make my mum pay £200.00 odd for a spay, whilst neglecting to inform her that a rescue down the road from her were offering it for free for OAPs. (The rescue had informed the vets, but they didn't pass the info' on. My mum found out only because she phoned the rescue to see if she could get the spay a bit cheaper. Needless to say, they were not impressed with my mum's vet practice for not passing on the info')

Flea treatment will NOT cure any type of mange. They might have given this to see if it was a flea allergy, but if this wasn't clearing it up they should have automatically did a skin scrape to say its mange. Go to a different vet practice and let them know what has been going on with the other vets!

Could be time for that second opinion from another vet.

Ty wrote:Caryll, is mange an auto-immune disease for canines? (I know of mange but wondering its cause)

Not exactly. All dogs have the Demodex mite, but generally in very small numbers which do no harm. However, anxiety & sometimes illness do seem to trigger an inability for the body to naturally control the mites & they muliply. That's when you get problems.

hipminy wrote:I've emailed my mum; apparently it is the type that cannot be passed onto humans.
I have asked her to phone the vet in the morning to confirm what has been written down in terms of type; there has been no confirmation via a skin sample I might add.
Could someone, at least in the interim, tell me if flea treatment (as the Vet has prescribed) is a proper course of treatment? Whilst I don't want to contradict the vet, I cannot find, anywhere online, where this would be a suitable treatment.
I am a little wary of the vet practice she is using, as the same practice tried to make my mum pay £200.00 odd for a spay, whilst neglecting to inform her that a rescue down the road from her were offering it for free for OAPs. (The rescue had informed the vets, but they didn't pass the info' on. My mum found out only because she phoned the rescue to see if she could get the spay a bit cheaper. Needless to say, they were not impressed with my mum's vet practice for not passing on the info')

Mange can't be diagnosed properly from just looking at the dog because you can't see the mites with the naked eye - they have to be seen under a microscope.

The Stronghold treatment will help to prevent a build up of mites if used regularly, but it won't actually cure a dog that already has an excess of mites causing mange. You need to kill off the excess mites with the shampoo.

I think, maybe, a second opinion would be useful!

hipminy wrote:Many thanks for the replies so far!
I've emailed my mum; apparently it is the type that cannot be passed onto humans.
I have asked her to phone the vet in the morning to confirm what has been written down in terms of type; there has been no confirmation via a skin sample I might add.
Could someone, at least in the interim, tell me if flea treatment (as the Vet has prescribed) is a proper course of treatment? Whilst I don't want to contradict the vet, I cannot find, anywhere online, where this would be a suitable treatment.
I am a little wary of the vet practice she is using, as the same practice tried to make my mum pay £200.00 odd for a spay, whilst neglecting to inform her that a rescue down the road from her were offering it for free for OAPs. (The rescue had informed the vets, but they didn't pass the info' on. My mum found out only because she phoned the rescue to see if she could get the spay a bit cheaper. Needless to say, they were not impressed with my mum's vet practice for not passing on the info')

If it's the type that's not transmissible to people then it is demodex/demodectic mange (supposedly we naturally have the mites in our eyebrows but show no symptoms - this was told to me by one of my professors but not sure if its true ). For the vet to say that, then they should have done a scrape to be able to see the different mites (the demodex mite looks like a little crocodile).

If someone presented a dog to our academic veterinary practice then we would recommend a combination of medicine to treat it:
1) If the dog had a secondary infection/open wounds then oral antibiotics (at least 21 days but most often 28 days) to get the secondary bacterial infection under control
2) We would recommended dipping/bathing the dog with an effective shampoo/dip for demodex mange (here we use Ectodex which has amitraz as its active ingredient) every 5-7 days for at least 3 treatments
3) Then an oral dose with Ivermectin which is titrated up (start of on a lower dose and then increase up to effect) until 3 negative skin scrapes or we have given Ivermectin subcutaneously once a week until 3 negative skin scrapes

There are also other spot on applications for mange e.g. Advocate by Bayer that can also be used.

As to how your dog got it, one of the specialist Small Animal Medicine veterinarians at the hospital told me that Staffies can be predisposed to demodex. What you will probably find as already mentioned is that the stress of you going away may have triggered the mange. If that is the case then you might need to consider treating with a spot on that treats demodex before going away in the future.