|
Mange Demodex · Mange signs & Symptoms · Mange diagnosis
· Mange treatment · Mange related
articles
Positive diagnosis of demodex mites is based on finding a skin scraping with the mites. Veterinarians may make a presumptive diagnosis of demodex infection even though mites are not found on a scraping if a pet has all the symptoms.
Skin scraping
Demodex mites live in the hair follicles, so the infection is diagnosed by scraping the skin and looking for the mites in scraped material under a microscope. To increase the likelihood that mites are found, your veterinarian pinches or squeezes the skin gently before taking the scrapping.
A dull tool, such as the back of a scalpel blade is used to scrape the skin. Because mites are hidden in hair follicles, which are nourished by capillaries, a tiny amount of bleeding occurs if the scraping is deep enough. Finding an occasional mite on a skin scraping is normal, but finding many mites diagnoses an infection—especially if the mites are the immature form, which has 6 legs. A scraping that does not open some capillaries and bleed a tiny amount is not likely to yield results.
Even with excellent scraping techniques, mites can evade detection, so some veterinarians decide to treat pets although mites were not found on a scraping.
Additional tests for mange demodex
Pets that have positive diagnosis of demodex mites by skin scraping often benefit from several other tests:
- fecal exams for worms,
- blood tests for heartworm infection,
- X-rays for tumors, and
- blood tests for kidney and liver function.
|
These tests are helpful because many pets that develop demodex infections have other serious infections or disease. The tests mentioned above help find these problems which can range from cancer and poorly functioning thyroid glands to heartworm infections and intestinal worms. In pets with high white blood counts, veterinarians look for co-existing fungal infections such as blastomycosis or cryptococcosis.
|
The articles here were answered by a variety of pharmacists and veterinarians
|
|
|
