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Originally Posted by pstinard  Hi, here's a good article on demodex: Demodectic Mange in Dogs | petMD
What I get from the article is that all dogs have a few demodex mites on them, but have natural immunity. The problems comes when a dog is not immune to the mites, and it is the lack of immunity that can be passed on to the puppies. So it sounds like Minnie may have inherited the genetic defect that takes away resistance to the mite infection. The article says that you are not supposed to breed dogs that aren't resistant to the mites, but I don't think there is a legal obligation not to do so. However, that might be covered by a health guarantee that includes genetic defects... |
It could be just a late developing immune system, not necessarily a genetically "impaired" immune system. There is nothing legally wrong about breeding a dog affected with demodex. The breeding female could have the disease and may or may not pass it on to the babies...if the puppies have a strong immune system, they will not be affected with the mite. There may only be one pup in a litter that is affected, and when it matures and the immune system matures, there will be no problem. So she will need to approach this issue with Minnie from an entirely different angle...forget the demodex...it is too random. I have a cousin that b ought a Chi from a pet store, she bought her to breed. The female had demodex that broke out when the female became pregnant...it never showed up in any of her puppies and she continued to breed that female for the next 6 years...the babies were healthy and beautiful babies, they had no issues with the demodex....not something I encouraged her to do, but she doesnt listen to anyone, least of all, me!