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rachelfraim · 06-06-2005, 02:10 PM

Not to worry you but I will tell you of my experience with Kodah who will be 20 weeks this weekend. We had her about two weeks & I noticed that she would scratch, but not excessively. After her first vet check, he looked for ear mites & she was clear. Her skin was also okay. Then when she was about 13 weeks (we had had her for about three weeks at this point), she just went nuts scratching. She would be asleep in her bed & wake up & shoot across the floor scratching herself. She would even start scratching her little face & start crying. I was going nuts & like you switching her off of Royal Canin over to Innova Evo thinking it might be her food. I even called the vet (as it was a weekend) & they said to give her Benadryl & bring her in on Monday. He did a skin scraping test & found that she had demodex mites -a mite that ALL dogs carry but their immune system is able to fight it. Kodah's immune system was not able to fight these mites (which is genetic). He said that most dogs will outgrow this (a few are chronic) and that the only cure was to dip her every two weeks for 4 to six applications

. So that is what we had to do. Right after her dipping, her scratching was even worse & then finally on the third day - RELIEF! She has now received three dips & will go in for another skin scraping in a week to see if anymore dippings are needed. I hope this is not what your Coco was, but the vet said that it was good that we could diagnosis her condition & give her relief as many puppies have allergies that are hard to diagnosis. I was just grossed out that she had mites, but he assured me that it had nothing to do with cleanliness & that it COULD NOT be passed on to another animal - it has everything to do with a deficient immune system. (And she could pass this on if she were ever to have puppies - but she is too small & we never had any intention of breeding her.) But she became a different little girl after we started having her dipped. She eats good & has quite a little attitude. It scared me when he said we were going to have to dip her, because she weighed only a pound. But she just hit two pounds last week

& is just as fiesty as ever. I'm praying that her skin scraping test shows that she needs no more dippings. Again, I don't want to worry you, & I haven't heard anyone else having this problem on YT, but wanted to share my story just in case it could be of help. It's WONDERFUL to not have her itching anymore!!!!!!!

06-06-2005, 02:10 PM	#4
rachelfraim Donating Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Edmond, Oklahoma Posts: 472	Not to worry you but I will tell you of my experience with Kodah who will be 20 weeks this weekend. We had her about two weeks & I noticed that she would scratch, but not excessively. After her first vet check, he looked for ear mites & she was clear. Her skin was also okay. Then when she was about 13 weeks (we had had her for about three weeks at this point), she just went nuts scratching. She would be asleep in her bed & wake up & shoot across the floor scratching herself. She would even start scratching her little face & start crying. I was going nuts & like you switching her off of Royal Canin over to Innova Evo thinking it might be her food. I even called the vet (as it was a weekend) & they said to give her Benadryl & bring her in on Monday. He did a skin scraping test & found that she had demodex mites -a mite that ALL dogs carry but their immune system is able to fight it. Kodah's immune system was not able to fight these mites (which is genetic). He said that most dogs will outgrow this (a few are chronic) and that the only cure was to dip her every two weeks for 4 to six applications . So that is what we had to do. Right after her dipping, her scratching was even worse & then finally on the third day - RELIEF! She has now received three dips & will go in for another skin scraping in a week to see if anymore dippings are needed. I hope this is not what your Coco was, but the vet said that it was good that we could diagnosis her condition & give her relief as many puppies have allergies that are hard to diagnosis. I was just grossed out that she had mites, but he assured me that it had nothing to do with cleanliness & that it COULD NOT be passed on to another animal - it has everything to do with a deficient immune system. (And she could pass this on if she were ever to have puppies - but she is too small & we never had any intention of breeding her.) But she became a different little girl after we started having her dipped. She eats good & has quite a little attitude. It scared me when he said we were going to have to dip her, because she weighed only a pound. But she just hit two pounds last week & is just as fiesty as ever. I'm praying that her skin scraping test shows that she needs no more dippings. Again, I don't want to worry you, & I haven't heard anyone else having this problem on YT, but wanted to share my story just in case it could be of help. It's WONDERFUL to not have her itching anymore!!!!!!! __________________ Kodah, Stormy & Rachel Kodah pics!