Vet visit, part I

Okay, so here's Tuesday's post that never did get around to being written.

Vet appointments are always interesting, but with our laundry list of issues, I knew this one was going to be extra special.  My dogs go to a holistic vet who takes a thorough history of all the known issues and really tries to avoid medications.  It was interesting trying to provide a history on Lolly, since I've only known her a few weeks, but I did my best.  We went home with four different prescriptions, a request for a urine sample, a follow up visit in two weeks and instructions to increase both of their fish oil and start Lolly on probiotics.  I guess I should back up and go through issue by issue or I may be completely turned around by the end of this post!

Both dogs were having itchiness issues.  Wolfey has always scratched and chewed when he's anxious and Lolly came to me with fleas, so I didn't stress too much over this, but it definitely was a large part of why I had scheduled the appointment.  Wolfey's  favorite place to chew is his right front leg and he was chewing to the point that he had reopened an old sore and started a new one.  Honestly, going in, this was my biggest concern.  The vet, though, was not so concerned.  I was already using the drops they had given me for the last sore and she said most likely it was just from the stress of having a new dog in the house.  She said that, like last time, the chewing would stop once he was settled and as long as the drops helped, not to worry about it.  The fact that both of the dogs are scratching, though, was a concern.  The vet combed through Lolly's fur and determined she needed to get a closer look at the skin irritation.  Poor Lolly has a bald patch now. :(  I'm glad she shaved it though, because it was way worse than I realized.  Without going into detail, I'll just say I was pretty grossed out.  The vet did a scraping and ran some tests, but everything was inconclusive, leaving her to believe it just about has to be scabies, better known as mange in dogs.  Eww, gross and yuck!  According to my vet, scabies is species specific and I have no reason to worry about any possibility of myself or any of my friends or family being infected; however, according to pet.webmd.com, "Scabies, tiny spiderlike mites, are highly contagious and are transmitted primarily by direct contact and through contaminated grooming equipment and kennels. These mites are also transferable to humans and other pets."  Okay, I'd known it was transferable to other dogs and already had plans to keep my dogs home and away from other dogs until they were done with their treatment, but this bit about it being contagious to humans - yikes!  Further down in the article, it does say that scabies can only live for three weeks on a human, but still, who wants to itch like that for three weeks?  ASPCA.org says that it's pretty unlikely that scabies will be transmitted, either from dog to dog or dog to human.  I have to admit, I'm inclined to believe my vet and the ASPCA, but the webmd info still worries me.  Webmd goes on to say "Probably no other skin disease will cause your dog to scratch and bite at her skin with such intensity. The severe itching is caused by female mites tunneling a few millimeters under the skin to lay their eggs. The eggs hatch in 3 to 10 days. The immature mites develop into adults and begin to lay eggs of their own. The entire life cycle occurs on the dog’s skin, and takes just 17 to 21 days." Oh, ick!  I put the pieces together and realized that most likely this means webmd is saying that while scabies can bite and live on a human, they cannot reproduce on a human.  This helps a little, but still, I do not want to have to deal with this!

The best description for mange I could find said "Scabies attacks the skin of the ears, elbows, hocks, and the underside of the chest and face. The onset is abrupt with scratching, hair loss, and inflamed skin in these areas. Crusty ear tips are characteristic... In the later stages the skin becomes thick, crusted, scaly, and darkly pigmented."  This sounds like Lolly.  Ugh!  

I've already ordered the medication and will start treatment as soon as I get it, but my biggest worry is that I've had Lolly for about a month and a half, and in that time, she's been around my parents, my sister, my nieces and nephews and several of my friends, not to mention my walking buddy's dog...and that she sleeps with me!  I'm really hoping that my vet knows what she's talking about and that pets.webmd.com is wrong but I'm still worried.  I'm supposed to have company over Saturday and I almost want to tell them not to come.

Okay, I really got off on a tangent here once I started researching, so I'll save the rest of this post for another day, but I'll end it with this tidbit:

Rescue dogs are just that - dogs who are rescued from abuse, poor care and generally bad living conditions.  When you take in a rescue dog, you take them with all their dirt, bad habits and poor health.  Wolfey came to me with a parasite as well, although thankfully he didn't have the opportunity to infect anyone else.  When I adopted Wolfey, he had whipworm, an intestinal parasite that causes diarrhea.  I worked with the vet, gave him the appropriate medication and we got it cleared up fairly easily.  I know scabies is more serious and is going to be more difficult to deal with, but it's all part of saving my babies and I'm so lucky to be able to take care of them.