2. The first thing I did - Research

Even though my dog had this small patch on his back, and the smaller one on this upper ribcage area. I still didn't think much of it, I thought it was a simple rash, inflammation, or fungus that I could knock out with something from the pharmacy. But due to some work issues I had to leave my home for a week. When I came back, my dog's back looked HORRIBLE. The bald patch was now taking up about 1/4th of his back, the one on his rib cage had doubled in sized and he had 3 or 4 more smaller ones scattered around his body, specifically his legs and chest. The sight of all this turned my stomach. This is where I immediately took action, hit the web and started doing research on the symptoms. I sat for hours reading and looking at pictures and determined that Sarge either had a case of RINGWORM or he was suffering from MANGE as both carry just about the same physical symptoms. Further research told me that both conditions take different treatments. I decided to treat Sarge for ringworm because I had years ago contracted that disease from hanging around in my backyard where Sarge hangs. So, I checked to see if over-the-counter ringworm medication would be safe for a small dog, and I went and bought Lotrimin and applied it to the affected areas of my dog.

After two days of this, the bald spots spread out dramatically in size even more as if the medication had made it worse. But after a few more days I noticed that they had stopped spreading and that hair was growing back over most of these spots, so I felt releived and thought this was the beginning of the end of Sarge's condotion...

... I couldnt be more wrong.

Shortly after, the effects that I thought the medication was having had ceased. A few more bald spots appeared I started to see a yellowish wax-like crusting at the edges of the spots. And most telling, is that the spots no longer took on the circular shape that identifies ringworm, they were just spreading wildly. I went back to google and discovered that my dog did not have the ringworm, even though I had been treating him for it for 2 weeks. It was more clear to me that his symptoms resembled that of MANGE. But to make matters more confusing, I learned that there were THREE types of mange -- each needing different treatments.

*Sigh*