Mange is not a condition that you want to take casually. If your pet has any of the customary telltale signs of mange, make sure that you take your pet to the vet immediately. It is not worth risking your pet’s health. Here are a few pointers on how and why you should seek out a professional diagnosis.

How to Identify Mange Yourself: Visual Signs
Thankfully, many of the signs of mange are easy to identify. Usually, there is some hair loss, intense itching, and atypical behavior in your pet. The visual cues are usually enough to tell you whether or not your pet has mange. These should be a signal for you to take your pet to the vet.

How Identifying Mange By Yourself Has Its Limits:  Beyond What You Can See
Diagnosing mange isn’t quite as easy as just giving your pet the visual once-over. It’s true–the symptoms of mange are visually apparent. But the real cause of mange–the mites–are virtually invisible to the naked eye. It is important to diagnose mange, because there are other common skin conditions that exhibit the same kind of symptoms that mange does. You’re going to have to take it to the next level. This is why you need to contact a veterinarian.

How the Veterinarian Can Identify Mange:  The Skin Scrape
A vet will commonly perform a small procedure to make sure that your pet’s condition is mange, and to identify the exact type of mites that are responsible for causing the mange. Since there are 40,000 different types of mites, it helps to know what kind exactly are burrowing in your pet’s skin and causing such agony. In order to see the mites, the doctor will need to take a skin scrape. A skin scrape involves removing a small sample of skin from an area potentially infected by mange. The doctor will examine the skin under a microscope in an attempt to see the mites.

As we stated at the beginning of the article, mange is not a condition that you want to take casually. As soon as you notice anything in your pet’s appearance or behavior that could signal mange, take him to the vet immediately. You’ll be glad you did. (And so will your pet.)