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Those Itchy Mexican Dogs!

All you ever wanted to know about Mexican dog skin disease

We've all seen those sad street dogs roaming around the neighborhoods of Mexico in search of food. They are usually very thin and almost always have terrilbe skin disease. The truth is many of Mexico's dogs suffer from a skin disease called mange and often have secondary bacterial skin infections, as well.

Homeless dogs in Mexico usually have very compromised immune systems due to their chronic hunger and malnutrition. This sets them up to be susceptible to many infectious diseases, skin disease being no exception. One type of common skin disease is sarcoptic mange or "scabies", a highly contagious mite that is transmissible to both other animals and people. Sarcoptic mange causes hair loss and intense itching for the poor animals and that tends to set up a vicious cycle of scratching, skin abrasions, and bacterial infections on type of the mite infestation - leading to one very sad looking, and feeling, doggie!

Fortunately, sarcoptic mange is very easy and inexpensive to treat and CWOB always makes mange treatment a top priority at any of our sterilization or health clinics. We also routinely treat all of our rescue dogs for mange regardless of symptoms given the prevalence of the disease in Mexico.

There are other skin diseases that can cause problems in Mexican dogs including some fungal infections, other mites such as Demodex, and just primary skin allergies and bacterial infections. These are also treatable, but usually require more prolonged treatment.

Those of us at CWOB have seen all sorts of skin disease and have treated it all! Nothing is more rewarding than taking an itchy, mangey meximutt, giving it some very basic medications, and watching it blossom into a beautiful, healthy coated dog before our very eyes. Many of the transitions we have witnessed have been truly unbelievable.

Take a look for yourself!

These are just two dogs out of dozens we have rescued that have been affected with severe mange when first rescued - check out these shocking before and afters!

Please donate now and help us to treat more of Mexico's Itchy Dogs! It costs an average of just $10.00/dog for the full course of treatment.