Malaysia Veterinary Forum (Archive)

exanimo · Joined: 13 Mar 2008 Posts: 6 Location: KL

I adopted my dog JJ off the streets about 2 years ago. He is now about 2.5years old. When I found him, he was suffering from severe generalized demodex (skin scraping was taken) and secondary infections. He hardly had any fur- with the typical pink dog look!, was crusty and greasy from skin bacterial infections and had skin lesions. He was actually dripping in pus. He was treated with antibiotics, ivermectin and later amitraz.

Since then his skin condition has not been very stable. Some months it seems to be recovering and the fur regrowing then he suffers a relapse and starts to loose fur and becomes spotted again. His appetite is good.

I have just started treatment again and he is on Ivermectin, antibiotics (Cephalexin) and Malaseb. He's just been put on a lamb and rice dried food diet. Just 3 weeks ago he had some lesions (see photo below) which he did not have before and they don't look good. His skin has also sprouted some icicle-like growths. One broke off when he was bathed with Malaseb leaving behind a raw patch. My guess is this is due to some bacterial infection of the skin.

I've been reading about Doramectin for the treatment of demodex. Can anyone tell me if it's available here and if anyone has used it with any success compared to Ivermectin. If it' available here please tell me where I can get it as my current vet does not prescribe it or have it.

Does anyone know what the icicle-like growths are? (see last photo)

Thank you.

Dr Nat · Joined: 07 Dec 2005 Posts: 1834 Location: Klang Valley

Firstly, you must know that there is really NO CURE for demodex. There is only methods for control of this disease. What your treatment regime seems to be is on the right path, except that you did not mention the timing of the medication (or dosage) used. You will also need routine skin scrapings to monitor the progress.

Like I said, demodex can only be controlled, and not cured completely. So, to hear about another relapse is not a surprise. In some cases, there may be other factors promoting the relapse - such as stress.

Secondly, the growth is definitely not caused by the demodex - although it could be aggravated by demodex and the scratching. No one can tell you what the growths are, unless you do further diagnostic tests. It could be anything from a viral infection to tumour.