For the most part mange seems to be an older dog disease but there are many reasons why it can happen to younger pups as well and one of the main reasons is that their mother also has mange which was the case with these pups that were pointed out to us recently.
Normally, even when a pup's mother does have mange they can manage to avoid it because of the constant grooming from the mother, but the again, since they spend so much time lying around with their mother the liklihood of one jumping off and finding a new home on the pup is a lot greater. I'm not really sure how common this is globally but at least here in Krabi, we normally only see mange outbreaks on adults.
Recently though, two dogs from the same litter had some mange that we needed to address.
When you see this on a pup a lot of people might be thinking that since it doesn't seem to be bothering the dog that it will just go away in time. Well, sometimes that is true because the puppies immune system is very strong but honestly, there aren't many cases of mange that I have seen that just go away. Normally it is better to address it as soon as you can.
But before we go throwing Bravecto in the dog's system, and I know I tout that stuff as if I owned the company, this is a situation that you need to be quite careful with but it isn't one that we encounter very frequently and this is why I have never talked about it before.
if a dog is still growing at a fast rate, like say less 3 months, You should really try to deal with the problem using mild soaps if you can. The chemicals in Bravecto are not necessarily harmful but the chance that they could harm the animal are much greater when it is still growing.
There is special topical Bravecto for any pups that are over 8 weeks of age. If you so much as suspect that the puppy is under 8 weeks, do not administer Bravecto or any chemical solution that contains fluralaner as it can be quite harmful to the puppy's growth. In extremely rare situations it can actually poison and kill the puppy. At the end of the day all fluralaner is essentially an edible insecticide that is designed to not harm the host so yeah, you need to be careful with it.
Bravecto Spot-on Treatment for dogs is suitable for puppies from 8 weeks of age.
Additionally, Bravecto 1-Month is approved for puppies and dogs 8 weeks of age and older and weighing 4.4 pounds or greater.
For puppies younger than 6 months old but older than 8 weeks, Bravecto 1-Month is recommended, and they can be transitioned to the standard Bravecto once they reach 6 months of age.
That was taken from their own website but it applies in the same way to all other fluralaner solvents and edibles out there.
Once the dogs get to 6 months you can treat them with the same medication that you would give to adult dogs because why? Because that is what the company and medical research indicates is safe. Is it true? I guess so, because we have only had one adverse reaction to it with the hundreds, perhaps thousands of doses we have handed out in the past 8 years. We have a bit of experience in this realm.
remember, this product and many others like it only cost a few dollars, so if you see a dog on the street that is infested with mange, please consider getting it some of this magic product but don't give it to puppies!