Ted's Borax & Peroxide Mange Treatment for Dogs

I have a black lab who has been suffering for 2 months and the vet stuff is not working... How often exactly did you bathe the dog with the solution and how often did you apply the paste? If you were to estimate how much solution you used to make the paste could you tell me the estimated measurements?

Kari,

1) yes, shampoo him first and loosen the dead skin while washing out any dead mites and dander that is on him

2) A gentle cleansing shampoo will do if you don't want to pay out for a costly one at the vet

3)I kept a bottle fixed up and put it on areas when I saw him digging them. I also washed his bed and toys with this. You can mix a bottle of apple cider vinegar (ACV) up and spray his play areas, beds etc with this..it also helps.

4) My dog had open sores and the solution never seemed to burn him...but the mitaban dip from the vet did..he cried when I used it, that is why I had to find a natural remedy. Use a cotton ball to apply around his snout and nose. An acne cream seemed to help Ruff's mange pimples. His is demodectic mange and can't be cured. He is now a year and half, we still fight it but it's nothing like the pictures I have posted...around page 4 or 5 on here.

You'll see the difference if you scroll through the comments and look.

I hope I helped answer some of your questions.

Hi, I have problem getting Borax in S'pore. Where did you get yours?

First, I wanted to comment on the Lavender Oil suggestion and my experience.

I gave my Pomeranian a bath in the H202, water and Borax and took him into our Sun Room to dry. I noticed a few small fleas had dropped into the pan I used and after placing him on the floor he was trying to find ways to scratch him on his back and more so on his stomach. I took a cotton swap and placed the lavender oil on his stomach and within less than a minute, where he could not stop scratching himself suddenly stopped. This works wonders.

Also, I do have a question. I had taken him to the Vet on Saturday (smelling an infection) and noticing these little clusters of black specks on his underside, not to mention his hair has been thinning out. I took him because when I had flea combed him (I do this every day after his 1st time out and before bed in lieu of topical flea killers that did NOT work) and noticed these when having to pry with tweezers small fleas off his "private areas" all these specks and the odor. I took some store bought fleas spray and placed it on a cotton ball and held it on this area with all the black specks. They were coming off on the cotton ball (not all). As I repeated this, more would. The odor got even worse through this process.

The Vet looked at him and immediately said he needed to be tested for Hypothyroid Disease and Cushing's Disease and those specks were blackheads. I took the prescription for antibiotics and left to stop this infection as fast as possible.

My question is how do you know if it is mites or the above Diseases?

I must say I came home and used a baby wipe to test out the blackhead theory and nothing happened. Then I repeated my process with cotton ball and flea spray liquid (that kills on contact fleas) and these specks started coming off again. This time I noticed extremely (I do mean extremely small red specks coming off as well).

Just starting treatment, but need some clarification. Seems everyone applies at different intervals...weekly, biweekly, daily? Also, some recommend bathing prior to each treatment. Isn't this very drying to the skin? I want to use some type of oil treatment in conjunction with borax, but concerned that it will interfere with action. My dogs also swim in salt water occasionally (which usually soothes skin, but does not cure mange) I assume I need to reapply borax after salt water exposure. I also use spray bottle to apply between baths or to hit extra itchy spots. I was spritzing dogs with mixture of water, grapeseed oil, tea tree oil and lavender to control itching and recondition skin....is this negating borax treatment or is it okay to mix the two? My dogs are siblings, have been treating with monthy promeris applications, but with spring came a terible exacerbation...we have a new baby and I tried a cheaper food so I think the combination allowed opportunity in. We have gone back to the $$$$ food and added fish oil, flaxseed, salmon ect. Interestingly, the one with the worse case has always been a scary and easily stressed dog...my laid back female has had NO problems until now and her condition is minor. Dogs are 2 years old, bulldog/houndog mix. I do see improvements already in skin...no crusting, less flaking and greasiness. I came home tonight, though and noticed flaking areas which led me to apply oil mixture...maybe a simple brushing would have sufficed. Trying to do everything I can, but maybe messing with treatment by doing to much. Also concerned that tea tree oil could be toxic if dogs lick themselves (though I read it would discourage licking and chewing mine are doing it as I write.) Would a simple oil rub with or without lavender be better...maybe oil at night as needed, then bath and borax in the am? I know a lot of this is trial and error and depends on your dog and their response, just don't want to mess it up while working so hard. I realize there is no cure and the goal is to control symptoms until the animal's immune system recovers...also realize ths is very run on for which I apologize. What other options are there for flea control when dogs are getting frequent baths that remove topical flea treatment?

To Melisa from South Carolina,

Yes, giving too many baths will dry your pets skin. I had a neighbor who was doing this for their pet and the poor thing looked like it had a horrible case of dandruf it's skin got so dry. Anyway, I have had dealings with the mange. I have a dog and 10 cats( yes I said 10!) all I used was cotton balls and plain old cooking oil. Just soak the cotton ball in cooking oil and rub everywhere that the pet's hair is thinning.

Mange is mited under the skin and the oil suffocates them. And if the animal licks the oil it will not hurt them .I just used it twice a day for about a week or so. You will need to do it longer if it is a bad case of mange .If the animal has dry scabby or crusty places on them, you can put peroxide on those places about 3 times a day until gone. I also used antibiotic ointment on places where the animal had scratched and put scratches on them selves.But,as long as you have cooking oil and cotton balls,you are good to go!!! Just to mention, I had one that when I took her in she was a tiny little thing and before the mange got better, she was bald from the neck up. Her whole head was bald. The oil worked. With her I had to do this for about 2 weeks!

Denise: It maybe best to do a lot more web search before we try every thing or any thing on our animals. I know I was very upset and anxious to find a cure for my kitten where she had the mange but I read and continued to read until I found many people in this forum as well as others that found this remedy of peroxide & borax to be very effective and it does work. The rest I leave up to the kitten and nature and pray for the best results.

Good luck.

I recently purchased a pet bed from the Goodwill and apparently, it contained sardetic mites. I have two chihuahuas and after approximately 3 weeks, my black chi began having hair fallout. He also was smelling bad. There was some crusting and as I began to clear away the crust.. Well the hair came out in mass quantities. I found this website and immediately began the following process for both of my chis to be sure of no cross contamination:

1. all washable/bleachable items where the dogs have come into contact, including their new pet bed were washed with bleach on the sanitary (super hot) cycle.

2. any linens, pillows, etc. , that could not be washed have been placed and sealed in plastic bags and are on a 30 day quarrantine. Sarcoptic mites live 21 days without feeding.

3. Dogs are now quarantined to the kitchen area and not allowed on carpets or furniture. (This is very difficult but I feel better safe than sorry.)

4. Natural cycle of these mites dictates that a female life cycle is apprx 30 days at which she will lay between 1-4 eggs daily under the skin. After 2-4 days these eggs hatch and go to the surface and begin eating dead skin cells. They will do this until they shed their outer shell twice, at which time they are now adult mites and go back under the skin to breed. It may take between 3-6 days on the surface of the skin for this stage of the mite development.

For the next 30 days, I will use the h202borax solution on my dogs on each 3rd day. This will prevent hatched mites on the surface from surviving and breeding. On the days that I use Ted's solution, I do not preshampoo or post rinse with the dip nor do I apply any other topical treatment for 24 hours. On the following day I am using emu oil (because it is a deep carrier to the lower levels of tissue), plus almond oil, plus 1 drop of lavender essential oil. This would be about 4T of Almond 2T Emu and 1 drop of Lavender essential. In all areas where I see redness or notice scratching, I saturate a cottonball and apply the oil solution. I also apply the solution to any areas where there is no hair and about 1" beyond the balding area. They say that the oil suffocates the mites beneath the skin and stops the reproduction process. On the following day (which is now the day before the dip, I check for redness, hair fallout, and I do not bathe but simply look for areas that may need the oil treatment. I will not be bathing my dogs if it is not necessary as the twice a week dips are definitely drying the skin out.

I am on day 4 today and I have noticed that there is no longer any bad smell. There is also no hair fall out.

Each chi is responding differently to these mites. One chi never scratches himself and yet had tremendous mass hair fall out and responds to the dip with heavy panting. My other chi scratches contstantly but has not got the mass hair fall out and loves the dip. I think this info may be helpful to those who are worried about their dogs reaction to the dip.

I cannot stress enough the importance of sterilizing your home for these mites. It is a pain in the butt but well worth it as sarcoptic mange can be passed to humans. Since the chi's are sectioned off from the rest of the house, treating my home with insectcides is much easier. I have no desire to harbor these tiny devils on my body only to reinfect my little ones again.

I cannot swear that this is the solution as I have not gone through the entire process. I can tell you however that I am having very impress results.

I do not know if I can add to this post as an update, but if not, you may have to search further again to see what happened.

I did in fact contact management with Goodwill Industries as I feel they need to change their policies and either treat certain items with mite killer or quarrantine items that are high risk or at the bare minimum each item should be sold with a warning that no treatment or quarrantine was carried out.

These little buggers are lethal!

5/31 - five days from my last post. I have noticed that there is an absolute change in my black chi. His hair has stopped falling out in clumps and he does not smell bad. But the large area where there is no hair, his skin has gone from slightly puffy pink to black. Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

they (Pico and Piper) are no longer quarrantined to the kitchen, but are being kept out of some of the areas of the house. I have done more washing/bleaching in the last several days.. but I do not what a reocurrence of this nightmare.

Piper never had clumps falling out, in fact he was only scratching and I decided to put him on the same treatment program which I have slightly modified:

day 1: dip

day 2: oil

day 3: rest

day 4: shampoo/dip

day 5: oil

day 6: rest

day 7: dip

day 8: oil

day 9: rest

day 10: shampoo/dip

you get the picture.

dip is 1 cup 3% hydrogen peroxide plus 2 cups hot water w/2.5 Tabl 20 Mule Team Borax. This is enough to do 1 dog. I stand the dog in a plastic square bucket and pour the solution on him. Then reuse the solution until the dog is saturated. He is then allowed to run around the kitchen and get the floors all wet while I do the other dog. When they are both done making a mess on the floor, I use a white towel to clean the floor off to make sure their environment stays pretty clean.

On the oil day (see recipe above) I use this on any bare from hair fall out to protect the skin from drying out and anywhere that they are scratching or that I see any red spots. I place a little in my hands and massage into their coats. They smell wonderful and their coats are shiny. A little bit goes a long way. I then brush them out.

So far so good. I have another 20 days to go with this treatment.

I have bleached and washed and treated everything darned near .. and after each treatment I take away their linens which are now white bleachable towels (no more doggie blankets til this thing is done with.)

Many items in my house that cannot be bleached are now sitting in sealed plastic bags in quarrantine. 21 day appears to be the life span of a mite without its host. I have many things in 30 day quarrantine.

People say you can't buy borax in England. I bought some today in Boots, in the household cleaning aisle. Also available in tesco and ebay.

Dear Mandy, I'm sure by now you have found a successful treatment for your horse; but I thought I would write this... in case someone else should need a cure for mange on their horses.

I had two horses that were on open pasture that somehow caught mange. My mother had a friend who was a retired veterinarian; she asked him what we could do? He told us to get some Ivory Snow laundry detergent and put some in a bucket of warm water, make it nice and strong, and bathe the horses in it, do not rinse or dry it off. I had my doubts if this would work, because it seemed too simple; but I went ahead and gave it a try. I only did this once, as the horses were in open pasture and hard to catch. A couple of weeks later, I could not believe the mange was gone, and new hair was growing in.

It could be that he is shivering from the cold. My elderly dog shivers for hours after I give him a bath. I imagine it would be the same or worse for a puppy. Put him in a warm room!