How contagious is Mange?

There's a dog in my neighborhood that has mange and his owner walks him around off leash. I don't think the dog has ever been to a vet, the guy at 7-11 told me the dog had mange and I notices some blue flakey patches of missing fur on him so I don't know for sure if he's got it. I would just rather be safe then sorry, you know? He's a gorgeous dog. A black shepherd mix with ice-blue eyes and he's super friendly and that's the problem. He come around the corner and starts running towards Saxon and I wanting to say hi. His owner can't control him and he just ignores his yells. Luckily both times I was close enough to home to just jump inside. I've never touched the dog and neither has Saxon.

How contagious is Mange? Can Saxon get it from touching noses with the dog or do they have to be really close to each other for it to spread to him?

I'm sorry but I'm really not sure, I would hope that if your dog is up to date with its inoculations and flea treatment then he should be ok, although I still wouldn't be keen on them playing but I'm not too sure but would also be interested to know.

Demodectic mange is not contageous (all dogs carry the demodex mite so being near a dog with demodectic mange makes no difference at all!), but sarcoptic mange is. This article may help.............

http://www.sniksnak.com/doghealth/mange.html

Thanks for the link! I'm going to try to avoid this dog as much as I can.

It all depends on whether the dog has demodectic mange or sarcoptic mange. If it's sarcoptic, then the dog will also be in poor physical condition & its skin will look terrible. If it's demodex, then your dog won't catch it off him.

Nice link Caryll. Short but great info
Think it's like when someone mentions nits....I read it but now im itching

BlueStaffBlue wrote:Nice link Caryll. Short but great info
Think it's like when someone mentions nits....I read it but now im itching

I know, it does that to you, doesn't it?

*scratch, scratch*