The destructive itch

THE DESTRUCTIVE ITCH
In August last year, we had a constant young visitor, who at the time worked with my son, Well he loved the Chows and would sit for hours rubbing their tummies and ears, this was fine and the dogs loved it, but unfortunately we did not realize the damage this was going to cause our dogs over the next few months. Unknown to any of us this young man had Scabies and he passed the mite on to our dogs.
Scabies or Sarcoptic Mange is a disease caused by a microscopic spider like creature called a mite; this disease causes uncontrollable itching of the skin, causing the dog to loose all his coat by scratching and biting. The first signs are small red lumps that itch, at this stage our Vet suggested a course of antibiotics and cortisone saying the dogs had hot spots because of the sun’s powerful rays. The treatment only made them worse. Now five of our Chows were driving us and themselves mad with their now very destructive itching.
Well studied all my 43 medical books and came to the conclusion that they had Scabies. So I shaved all their coats off an with the help from my Homeopath I started treating them on Homeopathic remedies, as well as shampooing all of them is a shampoo called Quelled shampoo. After a good bath, I then applied Quellada lotion to their skins, after the first application the itching sopped.
I then waited for another 10 days when I re-shampooed and again I applied the lotion to their shins. At last I had conquered the itch, and now 6 weeks later their fur is growing back and they are starting to look like chows again. During the treatment I cleaned the Kennels out and washed everything in a dog dip. And finally after the treatment was completed I dipped all my dogs as a safety precaution against re-infection and shall continue to dip them once a month in future. I have learnt a lesson from this unfortunate disease, not to allow anyone to touch my dogs unless they have first washed their hands and especially their nails in Savlon. All your carpets in your home must also be treated with the dip, including your furniture, beds and bedding Scabies is very contagious and can be transferred to the human during grooming sessions. The mites do not live longer than three weeks on the human body and the treatment is the same.
This is not a terrible disease and can be cured very quickly but it is a very uncomfortable disease for your dog. It is very disfiguring a they look terrible with no coats, but rather a Chow with no coat than a dead one as coats do grow back.
This treatment can also be used on early eczema as well, I have found the bet remedy for my chows with very sore hot spots or eczema, is that the raw patch is first sprayed with Dermoplast to stop the itch, and then to be completely covered with Gentian Violet. This clears the skin up in a few days. Not all skin problems need Cortisone and I for one do not think it is a good thing to give in excess to your dog. There are other remedies that are just as good.