puppy mange

Question
I have a new puppy - 12 weeks old. She has a moth eaten look to her coat. The vet said it was an allergy, but it is getting worse. I have another dog in the house and am worried about him. Could this be mange?

Answer
Did the vet do a skin scraping? You can't tell what it is unless that is done to diagnose which kind of skin problem you are dealing with. Demodectic mange is very common in puppies and it can spread all over the dog and kill it if not treated.

Ringworm looks a lot like mange and takes a whole different treatment and that is why you need to get a skin scraping done. Sarcoptic mange is yet another parasite that can cause this look and it is contagious to humans. Most of us are born with demodectic mange mites in our skin but our immune systems fight it off. In some puppies that doesn't happen.

So the first thing to do is another trip to the vet's for a skin scraping. It was wrong of him not to do one the first time if he didn't. Any good vet would have done that first off.

Get it done then you will know how to proceed.
Let me know what you find out.