Your experience with scabies

Re: Your experience with scabies

Mark Holmes — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:33:24 GMT

[quote user="Richard Fox"]

S. Scabei infection is zoonotic but as said above is self limiting unless in contracted by someone who is immune supressed. They are generally species specific but obviously in heavy infestations in a dog are contactable .

[/quote]

And is known up here as Fox mange. You're not a scaley individual are you?

Re: Your experience with scabies

Richard Fox — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:29:14 GMT

Re: Your experience with scabies

Bob Russell — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 10:58:54 GMT

My itchy forearms are usually caused by failure to wash off Vetasept adequately or handling one of the practice tarantulas!

Re: Your experience with scabies

Charlotte Marshall — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 23:47:44 GMT

I also see quite few cases of sarcoptes frequently diagnosed on just clinical symptoms and response to treatment. Though I warn owners sometimes a rash is seen I have yet to see an owner complaining of it after 13 years in birmingham and we see a fair number of cases.

I have had an owner bringing in the dog because the doctor suspected it on them but the dog was fine!

Re: Your experience with scabies

Lucy K — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 20:58:08 GMT

Ok, mixed replies there but on the whole they are quite encouraging! Thanks everyone.

So far my itching is purely psychogenic, and happens every time I see, or think about the mangy (but very likeable) mutt in my kitchen! Let's hope it stays that way!

Re: Your experience with scabies

emma o'connor — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 11:37:11 GMT

I also see a fair few confimed and suspected cases of sarcoptes where i work, being in a fairly rural area, and just as Bob I have yet to see any owners affected. I do warn them to be on the look out for skin lesions on themselves, and take precautions such as regular hand washing when they have been handling the animal.

Re: Your experience with scabies

Bob Russell — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 11:26:47 GMT

There are different variants of the same mite. They are identical under the microscope. Human scabies is incredibly infectious to humans but the canine variant seems much less so us.

Perhaps the dog had 'human' variant scabies (assuming it can be transmitted both ways) and this may be why the client was so badly affected. I see 'fox mange' fairly often but have not seen a case where owners have been affected. I do warn them to be on the look out for symptoms as it clearly is potentially zoonotic.

Re: Your experience with scabies

Niall Taylor — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 09:50:59 GMT

[quote user="Dagmar Steele"]It is definitely a zoonosis though I have to say I have yet to come across an infected owner. It seems you have to have a very advanced case or a very close contact before it transferes.[/quote]

I had it on my hand while seeing practice in France many moons ago. I contracted it after restraining a scabby dachshund for examination, as far as I remember it wasn't a terribly advanced case. I treated it with a vial of some hideous, highly concentrated organophosphate compound given to me by the vet I was with - certainly did the trick. It wasn't a pleasant experience - the most intense itching I've known before or since, I'd wake up in the middle of the night clawing at my hand and it was a major effort of will to stop.

It's spread by contact, direct or indirect so that's what you need to avoid, from my own experience (anecdote alert!) it is able to colonise skin that appears to be intact. So you need to restrict your contact with the dog to hands only and then wear gloves when handling it or any of its tack or bedding. Make sure you and anyone else or any other animals in the household avoids contact with bedding, tack, grooming equipment etc which might be contaminated. Restrict bedding materials to this dog only and wash at high temperatures regularly, use disposable material wherever possible (cardboard boxes, newspapers etc) and dispose of as much as possible one the dog has moved on or is cured.

Washing hands or areas which have contacted the dog directly immediately will help - not sure about the use of hand scrubbing brushes though as these might actually help to innoculate the beasties into the epidermis. Report any suspicious skin lesions on yourself or other in contacts to the doc in good time and mention your scabby companion to nudge him/her in the right direction diagnostically.

Just a few thoughts 'off the top of my head'... hope it helps. It's not the most contagious of conditions so the risks are quite low with a few basic precautions.

Niall

Re: Your experience with scabies

Dagmar Steele — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 08:20:16 GMT

We do see the odd scabies case now and then. It is definitely a zoonosis though I have to say I have yet to come across an infected owner. It seems you have to have a very advanced case or a very close contact before it transferes. Treatment here usually is Advocate (Moxidectin) spot on once a week or Stronghold (Selamectin) once a week. If the skin is really inflamed I add antibiotics to the mix and if the itching is unbearable it's one shot of steroids at the beginning, too. Never caught it myself and never took any more precautions than washing my hand (Which is what I do between patients anyway)

Good luck!

Re: Your experience with scabies

Michael Woodhouse — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 22:04:12 GMT

[quote user="Kirsten Simpson"]

I always thought that scabies was species specific?

[/quote]

Nope, it's the same mite

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcoptes_scabiei

Haven't seen a case for a while.

Re: Your experience with scabies

Martin Jones — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 20:21:16 GMT

A few (!) years ago I saw a dog with 'classic' atopy involving its underside and ears; signalmenent was for a host of possible allergic reactions, so it went onto steroids and some antibs to alleviate symptoms (obviously while covering all bases re eliminations etc).

A couple of weeks later, the owners came back and very, very politely reported that the dog was a bit worse, if anything, and could it be mange? I replied that given the distribution and lifestyle etc, it was possible but unlikely and asked why they might think so.

'Er, because the doctor diagnosed it on me on Tuesday' said the husband, lifting up his shirt to reveal a mass of red papules.

Sh1t.

Basically, the dog had taken to lying on some old sacking in the shed, which evidently had seen some traffic from foxes, and then laying across both the owners on the sofa of an evening. A quick skin scrape revealed sarcoptic mange (riddled), and all was well from then on. The owners, bless them, were sweetness itself about the whole thing, and I was there much later when we finally put the old boy to sleep with a spleen tumour.

So yes, it's a zoonosis and you can catch it from your dog. And no it's not particularly self-limiting and yes, it can be a b*gger to shift.

Re: Your experience with scabies

Kirsten Simpson — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 20:10:27 GMT

Eek! Never seen a case of scabies though, phew!

Re: Your experience with scabies

Lucy K — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 19:33:32 GMT

Apparently humans can get a fairly nasty, but self-limiting case of it from dogs Kirsten.

Re: Your experience with scabies

Kirsten Simpson — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 19:31:18 GMT

I always thought that scabies was species specific?