2 week old boxer puppy losing hair

Question
I have a litter of 7 beautiful boxer puppies, I have the mom, who is a wonderful mom, and the dad. When we took them to the vet to have the tails docked the vet noticed fleas as the parents were outside he told us to use frontline and we treated the mom and the yard and brought the mom and babies inside. That was when they were 3 days old. Now they are 2 and a half weeks old and I have one boy who is losing hair all along his back. It is scabby and just flaking off, my parents think it is just from fleas since the hair underneath is real thin and his skin looks healthy, they think it should grow back. Is there anything I can do to help this, do you think it could be mange? I am just wondering should I rush this baby to the vet or sit it out and wait?

Answer
Christina,
Congrats on your litter of boxer pups. I too raise boxers and enjoy them greatly. A common occurance in boxers, especially puppies, is mange. This occurs a lot in boxers and should be considered a problem, but is usually easily treated. I would wait a day or two and see if the condition clears up, if not take them to your vet to have them tested for mange. It is possible that the fleas did cause an allergy (flea bite dermatitis) and thus the loss of hair. If you can't see new hair coming in on the area in a day or two after the first occurance take them to the vet and have them checked out. The most common mange mite is Demodex and this is naturally found on the skin of the adult dog and is passed from bitch to her offspring during the birthing and nursing processes. Usually the dogs immune system keeps the number of mites under control and thus no clinical signs of demodecosis (mange caused by demodex) are seen. However during times of stress on the puppies, such as a surgery (ear cropping or tail docking) the immune system is weakened and the mites multiply in number and thus you get scaly itchy skin with hairloss. This can usually be easily treated with supportive care that will decrease the number of mites and allow the dogs immune system to naturally reduce the number of mites over time. Many veterinarians will tell you to spay any dog showing signs of demodex mange because they believe they will pass it to their offspring. Although this is true, the majority of dogs have this and it usually only will cause a problem right after a surgery and can be treated for a week or two until the dog's immune system can fight it off. Thus, spaying a dog just because it has demodex mange is, in my opinion, pointless especially if you want to breed the animal in the future. Hope that this helps and if you have anymore questions let me know. I will be glad to go into more detail about demodex if you would like more information.