Here are Indy's before and after pics from his demodex battle:
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=9444Loooooooong story short, Indy was found by Animal Control at approximately 3 months old, covered in demodex, almost completely hairless, and with a secondary skin infection that caused his skin to break open and bleed -- it was a staph infection that got completely out-of-control. He was also very skinny and worm-infested. This was about nine years ago, so the details are a bit hazy, LOL, but Dr. Blabs was there from the beginning with his treatments so she can probably give you more details.
I know when he first came in to the vet, he was dipped several times right away in the first few days to get after the demodex, and of course he was started on heavy-duty antibiotics for the staph infection. After that, he got Ivermectin orally for a looooooong time. He also got baths several times a week for months, using Chlorhexidine shampoo. Over the course of the first year or so that we had him, his demodex would flare-up occasionally and he'd have to go back on the Ivermectin. (Demodex tends to flare when the dog's immune system gets stressed, for whatever reason -- a "cold", surgery such as a speuter, allergies, etc.) With Indy, his immune system was SO poor in the first place due to his awful start in life, we just couldn't keep the demodex under control. We finally did, though. I was pretty worried that it would flare during his cancer radiation treatments this past year, but we were lucky.
Indy had generalized demodex, meaning his entire body was involved. With Dar, it
appears to be localized demodex which means it will be far easier to treat and you'll probably have more medication and treatment options than we did.
Never make someone a priority in your life when that someone treats you like an option.