Demodex treatment

Re: Demodex treatment

katherine bott — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:44:51 GMT

I would like to thank everyone for their advice, you've been very helpful

Re: Demodex treatment

Julian Earl — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 18:33:56 GMT

The most useful advice I have been given for adult-onset demodicosis is to look for the underlying disease. (I assume it is an adult because the dog has had a repeat bout or bouts.) Anyway, detailed physical exam, bloods, scans, x rays: "You WILL find something if you look" was how the recommendation went and it has held up so far.

Re: Demodex treatment

Michael Woodhouse — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:36:07 GMT

[quote user="Laurence Webb"]I've used ivermectin at 600ug/kg daily PO in the past with good success. Try a 'test dose' at 150ugkg first to check it's not avermectin sensitive. Not cheap though. [/quote]

Noromectin drench is £50 for 5 litres cost (and you can buy it from the merchants for similar money). My calculations would let you dose a 30kg Labrador daily for 333 days!

Re: Demodex treatment

Simon Neuhoff — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:10:08 GMT

I have also tried Advocate and had poor successes with generalised demodex - this one did respond to Aludex.

In the past I have used oral ivermectin with good success - though one did relapse several months later after apparent complete cure.

Re: Demodex treatment

Bob Russell — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:07:16 GMT

Does Advocate work for anything? We stopped using it because it did not work well for demodex and seemed incapable of even dealing with ear mites! My confidence dropped significantly at that point.

Promeris Duo seems to work well but we don't seem to see a lot of cases of Demodecosis.

Re: Demodex treatment

Laurence Webb — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 13:08:59 GMT

There's an article on demodicosis in this week's Vet Times.

I've not had one that hasn't responded well to Promeris for a while but I've used ivermectin at 600ug/kg daily PO in the past with good success. Try a 'test dose' at 150ugkg first to check it's not avermectin sensitive. Not cheap though.

Re: Demodex treatment

Ian Mostyn — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:31:40 GMT

I have never found Advocate to work and tend to use oral Ivermectin with a lot of success. I am sure I got the dose from the BSAVA formulary but I seem to remember something like 0.5 to 0.6ml for a large cocker spaniel. I would second Martin though, why would an adult get a repeat bout of demodex. The last one I had also was hypothyroid, the one before had an unusual t-cell problem.

Ian

Re: Demodex treatment

Martin Atkinson — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 11:52:42 GMT

Does nobody use Advocate for Demodex?

I would be concerned as to why this dog got generalised demodex in the first place and has failed to respond and go looking for potentially immunosuppressive diseases.

Re: Demodex treatment

Bob Russell — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 11:13:42 GMT

Speak to a local dermatologist. They often have milbemycin in stock for their patients and should be able to supply it on a written prescription. I doubt the VMD will have issues with this as the product is already in the UK and is supplied on a named patient basis anyway.

Re: Demodex treatment

Charlotte Marshall — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 18:31:45 GMT

I have had very good results with oral ivermectin in the past. I don't have the dose on me as I am at home, I used a dose from Sue Pattersons dermatology book. One thing I do remember is that you started at a small dose and gradually increased over the space of a week to the dose you wanted.

I had heard of using milbemax but did not realise that the cat tabs had enough milbemycin in to do the trick in a dog. We looked at sourcing pure milbemycin from France but it was very expensive.

Re: Demodex treatment

Rachael Winder — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 15:39:15 GMT

I've found the only thing that works with these is Milbemax cat- we've had 4 older dogs with generalised demodex respond brillintly to it- 3 off meds completely now, one on low dose ( probably for good but is a 16y.o. Cocker). Maybe it's just me but I can't get the spot-ons to work on anything. Company behind Promeris told me 100% kill-rate after 2nd application but all of the 4 puppies we've used it on have been no better afterwards! Tend now to start with Aludex and move to Milbemax if problems.

Priot to the general recommendation to use milbemycin, I did have an adult Boxer with generalised deomodecosis on Cydectin orally. Worked very well but awful to give as large volume daily and tastes foul!

Re: Demodex treatment

nikki — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 23:56:36 GMT

we have one on cat milbemax too - doing really well.

Re: Demodex treatment

Mark Holmes — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 21:37:42 GMT

Daily oral ivermectin in all the rage at the moment at standard dose. Assuming she's not a collie.

Re: Demodex treatment

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 18:56:53 GMT

I'm no dermatologist, but.................

I've recently been treating a rescue dog (Staffordshire Bull Terrier, of course) that had very severe and generalised demodicosis that had failed to be cured by Aludex or amitraz spot-on or (I think) ivermectin injections. I sent it to a specialist who started it on prolonged daily Cat Milbemax. I've no references but you might care to check that idea out.

One further anecdote about the same dog: the signs and symptoms improved so far but then no further. A full-thickness biopsy revealed no mites but it did reveal an established dermatophyte infection, which had not been detected by the usual sampling and culture.