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Date Posted: 06:46:51 10/02/03 Thu
Author: Angela
Subject: Thank you Lori!
In reply to: Angela 's message, "Blackwell's Nala" on 20:06:25 09/29/03 Mon

Up until now I have been fairly quiet, kept my mouth shut...well...here goes
Ed-I'm starting to think your post was mainly one to stir up trouble. If you are trying to get to JB, please don't use me as your vehicle to do so. And Terry, you couldn't wait to jump on the bandwagon..huh? Don't drag me into your negativism on John. I want no part of it.
As I've mentioned before, JB and I have a good professional relationship. He and his wife have been excellent to us from the time before we purchased our dog to the present. I will not use this board to try to corrupt his reputation.
I am fully aware of the research regarding demodex and I appreciate you giving us the lesson in demodex 101. In addition to your information Terry, here is another theory I found quite interesting. It was written by Cat Donnelly a Pet Nutritional Consultant.
Demodex is not a genetic disease. Demodex mites feed on systemic yeast in the body, and the systemic yeast feed on the dietary yeast and/or sugar in the system (blood sugar). As you will see, my method of dealing with demodex is to starve the mite by taking away it's food source, which is the yeastie beastie. Without this food source, the demodex will easily die off without dipping or insecticides of any kind.

Demodex mites take advantage of an immature or lowered immune system which is why the very young get it, and sometimes the very old or ill. A dog's immune system is not fully mature until at least one year, sometimes longer. This is only one reason why it is NOT advisable to breed dogs younger than 18 - 24 months minimum.

Demodex mites are living in just about every dog, deep within the hair follicles. When pups are nursing, the mites migrate from the mom to the pups. This is why the most common areas to show demodex first are on the face, head and front paws, and then they migrate to every other area of the body.

When the immune system is maturing but battling to keep the mites in balance, you can sometimes see hairless patches appearing and disappearing on different parts of the body. It may even progress to the point where the mites colonize and erupt on the surface, making the skin look pimply or rashy.

Don't bother with Goodwinol ointment because it is worthless, in my experience. You would get better results from dabbing lemon juice or apple cider vinegar on the spots, or spraying with colloidal silver. Apple cider vinegar will keep the odor down from any secondary staph infection. Yeasty ears will commonly be a problem during this battle.

The reason why vets and others say that demodex is genetic is because they are still working with the old information, and even with the knowledge that it is a mite, it is hard to break that habit. Other possibilities are:

1) They must not understand the life of a demodectic mite. Demodex is not in the genetic make-up in any way whatsoever. There is no genetic mutation or genetic marker that causes demodex. The immune system is a living thing that can be raised or suppressed, it is not fixed. The mite is an opportunistic parasite only, and can be eradicated completely.

2) they also must not understand how the body can be helped to fight demodex off on it's own (through diet and supplementation), without toxins taken internally and applied externally which have long-lasting and detrimental effects.

3) they must not understand the role that diet has on the immune system and therefore the demodectic mite. While demodex was once a rare state of dis-ease, generations of being fed kibble and overzealous vaccination programs wear down the immune system of each successive generation until today you hear about demodectic puppies all the time.

You can take a dam who has produced an entire litter of demodectic pups, put her on a grainless raw diet (a la Kymythy Schultze) with supplementation for a year, breed her again and she will not produce any demodex in the subsequent litter. I know, because I've done it. If it were genetic, or in the genes, it would not matter WHAT I fed her, at least a certain percentage of her pups would have it.

So, if a breeder had fed BRAND X dog food and followed the old vaccination protocols for several generations, and her dogs have subclinically (no outward signs) been getting weaker immune systems, then to the naked eye it would logically look like the problem is genetic. This particular dam starts spontaneously producing litter after litter of demodex pups in a line that had previously been clear of it, but it's manageable so they keep breeding her anyway.

When her pups are bred, they produce all demodex pups, only worse cases. Clearly this must be due to a "bad gene." This logic is as good as seeing birds fly south in the winter and deducing that ALL birds fly south for the winter. It might initially appear to be true, but further investigation tells you that it is not. Mites are not a part of any gene, so that statement doesn't even make sense. It's the immune system that is inherited, not the particular disease.

The problem with their logic is that you can take this line and turn it completely around through upgrading their diet and modifying the vaccination schedule, or eliminating vaccines altogether. Switch to a better kibble. Give healthy snacks like sliced melon or peeled apple slices that have live enzymes instead of biscuits which are a "dead" food. Give good quality supplements.

The best possible scenario, in my opinion, would be to feed grainless BARF (biologically appropriate raw foods). Anyone wanting to pursue that diet should have Kymythy Schultze's book on the subject. Home cooked is also a very good regimen to raise the health of our companions if it's a choice between that or any kibble. A book I highly recommend is Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Cats and Dogs.

Okay, so now that we have established that demodex could not possibly be genetic, let me say that it is "congenital" in that a sub-standard immune system is passed on from the mother to the pups, and the mites can migrate to the pups from the mom shortly after birth. After generations of being fed kibbles, which are a "dead" food, the mom will have little immunity to pass on to her pups, and she will harbor plenty of demodectic mites in her pores ready to migrate to the pups that her own immune system is keeping in check. That is the sum total of the relationship between demodectic mites and how it is "inherited" from the mom by her pups.


Again, I realize that this is a theory, but one that I think has some foundation.
When I initially posted Nala's picture I was simply just being a proud owner and wanted to share that with you all. I am so sick and tired of these boards TURNING EVERYTHING NEGATIVE.
To think...all this...and all I was doing was sharing a photo.

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