u/conyinru

Back in feb I started itching like mad. This was predominantly on my abdomen, bottom, arms, and wrists. This coincided with getting a new puppy. Initially I thought it might be fleas, or I was allergic, although I’ve had dogs before and never had an issue. By the end of March it had got a lot worse and through a bit of research I diagnosed myself with a scabbies. I bought some permethrin, and applied as instructed. I bagged all worn clothes and washed and changed my bedding to he night before and after application. It didn’t work, so I tried again, and it didn’t work.

I then bought some dermac cream (£70 for enough to cover 2 adults and 2 children) and booked an appointment with my gp (im U.K. based so NHS). I told them I’d tried permethrin, and told them I was aware of research suggesting permethrin resistant scabbies. I asked to be prescribed ivermectin. This was prescribed. The whole family applied dermac once, all beds cleaned before and after first night after application, and I took the ivermectin. I was prescribed a second dose to take a week after only if more burrows were identified. I didn’t find any more burrows but took it anyway. I also reapplied dermac.

Since then no evidence of scabbies. Itching continued for the first 4 weeks but gradually improved.

This wholes process started in feb and as I write now I’m 7 weeks post ivermectin. The delays on treatment was mainly down to me hoping the permethrin had worked and putting further itching down to post scabbies.

Realistically I could have had this sorted a lot sooner.

I just want to point out that for the vast majority of people, scabbies are easily treated, like in my case. In fact the vast majority of people are fine after permethrin. But these people don’t post about it on Reddit because why would they?
‘I had scabbies, I had some cream, I no longer have scabbies’ doesn’t bring much of a narrative.
Please don’t doom scroll on here because it’s full of the worst case scenarios. People getting steam cleaners, obsessively clearing etc. for the vast majority of people this isn’t reality.

I fully accept that for some people this is the case but most people are just a bit inconvenienced like me.
I also accept I’m lucky to live in the U.K. where I can get dermac easily enough and ivermectin on the NHS. It only cost me the stand prescription rate (just under £10) and I looked online how much it costs privately and it’s a lot!

Anyway, don’t doom scroll like I initially did when getting scabbies, needlessly giving me anxiety