Don’t forget Sarcoptes scabei in your differential diagnosis

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I’ve come across a couple of cases of Sarcoptes this winter. Both cases were young dogs with intense pruritus – one on his face and the other around the triceps region.

Although both owners were rather sceptical, both dogs responded very rapidly to therapy with imidacloprid/moxidectin (Advocate, Bayer).

In our neck of the woods, I tend to try trial therapies first as we have a high urban fox population, but perform ELISA blood tests for Sarcoptes in dog cases with persistent signs.

I occasionally do skin scrapes but rarely, if ever, find mites!

Video of the S. scabiei mite. Author: My Core Competency is Competency at en.wikipedia


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