Mites????

A few weeks go Honey began waking up at about 1 am and licking her private parts and scratching! until about 5 am!! Took her to the vet and she got put on antibiotics and it cleared up. Then a week passed, loads of rain and the lawn mowed and she was back at it again, but far worse. My husband said she had a skin allergy and again we rang the vet and he put her on special cream which cost a fortune but seemed to alleviate my poor girl's itchy skin for a wee while.

I noticed what I thought were bite marks on her face the other day when I picked her up from day care. Scratching, scratching and just not herself. I booked her into the vet. My partner, family, and day care people all have been saying I am neurotic and it was nothing. But my gut said otherwise. Thank god I listened. She has mites???

Vet has her on antibiotics for ten days and an injection every week for at least the next four weeks then a skin scrape and either more injections or we are in the clear.

Anyone else come across this problem???? Apparently its common in staffies??? Any solutions to help my girl??? Any help is more than welcome!

hi and poor honey

gald you went with your gut, sometimes you just know when something is not 100% right with our babies. could have turned into something far worse.

I have never had to deal with this problem but im sure these injections will help and plenty of . I would just say keep an eye on her for any further symptoms

I saw a post by Caryl the other day about this.. She said all dogs have mites but usually their immunity keeps them under control but sometimes they get out of hand if the dog gets sick or stressed but that the treatment usually works well Sorry if I stuffed all that up Caryl

Logan had a yeast infection called malassezia, he was just starting to show signs show it was easy to deal with. The vet said it was very common in Staffies. My advice is just run the course with the vet's treatement and you will most likely see it all gone.

From what I was told things like yeast/mites live naturally on the skin of the dog in a symbiotic relationship, but occasionally the parasite takes advantage of the host causing problems.

Nothing to worry about though in my opinion, just follow the medicine

Hi I have heard it is common in staffies. Hope honey doing ok.

Can I just say gorgeous puppy looks just like my honey monster lol

Poor honey

Was she diagnosed with Demodex ?

It is easy treated - and sounds liked u have caught it early. U mentioned ages having jabs to get rid of the mites ?

There is a spray called dermacton that can help with the healing of skin issues as well as calming and soothing the skin. U can google it.

In the meantime u need to work on building up her immune system, thst way her body can keep things like this at bay.

What do u feed her on ?

U also mentioned doggy day care ? I take it she's mixing with other dogs closely too ? Make sure her worming is upto date and flea treatment if needed.

X

Poor Honey, but follow the meds and she'll be alright in no time. Roxy has just about finished her course of demodex meds and they work really well.

I'm thinking the same about Zeus, the possibility of him having mites. The vet diagnosed him with Conjunctivitis (because he's had his cone on for almost 2 months now and wasn't getting enough air etc, to his eyes). She gave antibiotics which seems to have sorted that out (no more pus/residue coming from his eyes), but everytime we take his cone off, he's still frantically going for his eyes, scratching them till they bleed, rubbing them off the carpet etc.

I don't know what else it could be..? Mites, or something worse? Going to give him a few more days and if it doesn't seem to be getting better, back to the vets

sounds nasty we have never had a mite problem and hopefully never will

Kylie wrote:I saw a post by Caryl the other day about this.. She said all dogs have mites but usually their immunity keeps them under control but sometimes they get out of hand if the dog gets sick or stressed but that the treatment usually works well Sorry if I stuffed all that up Caryl

That's exactly right.

It isn't a stafford thing - all breeds of dogs have the mites & all of them (especially pups) can be subject to an attack of them!

goldie87 wrote:I'm thinking the same about Zeus, the possibility of him having mites. The vet diagnosed him with Conjunctivitis (because he's had his cone on for almost 2 months now and wasn't getting enough air etc, to his eyes). She gave antibiotics which seems to have sorted that out (no more pus/residue coming from his eyes), but everytime we take his cone off, he's still frantically going for his eyes, scratching them till they bleed, rubbing them off the carpet etc.

I don't know what else it could be..? Mites, or something worse? Going to give him a few more days and if it doesn't seem to be getting better, back to the vets

Sounds nasty... 2 months ?
Defo need more tests.

Apologies for jumping in here, but mites are something that for some reason have escaped my attention. As they are called mites I'm guessing they are too small to be seen? And do they bite humans as well as dogs? (I have a reason for asking this! ) And finally, does Advocate get rid of them?

It is possible for Demodex in humans. (don't think it's the canine Demodex though)

U canT see them with the naked eye.

Advocate is said to prevent/get rid of them, but no guarantees.

The best thing u can do is do ur best to keep ur dog in good shape inside and out since the Demodectic mite takes advantage of a weakened immune system.


Humans can be bitten by fleas from dogs n cats. These u can see and feel !

Jackieb wrote:

goldie87 wrote:I'm thinking the same about Zeus, the possibility of him having mites. The vet diagnosed him with Conjunctivitis (because he's had his cone on for almost 2 months now and wasn't getting enough air etc, to his eyes). She gave antibiotics which seems to have sorted that out (no more pus/residue coming from his eyes), but everytime we take his cone off, he's still frantically going for his eyes, scratching them till they bleed, rubbing them off the carpet etc.

I don't know what else it could be..? Mites, or something worse? Going to give him a few more days and if it doesn't seem to be getting better, back to the vets

Sounds nasty... 2 months ?
Defo need more tests.

Sorry I didnt clarify properly, he's had his cone on for 2 months because he had a hystiocytoma tumour on his paw, and then he developed conjunctivitis as a result of having the cone on for so long.

Mites are pure evil. My 4 year old staffie got lost a lot of hair on his belly and legs. He's itch and cry. Our vet did the antibiotic and steriod thing for a couple of years which helped for a few weeks then we'd have to go back. He said it was allergic dermatitis so I gave him shots at home too. Bo never stayed clear for long. I finally got another opinion. This one said it was mites right away. Apparently Bo had them since he was a puppy but it didn't get bad until now. She gave me vitamins to sprinkle on his food, had me start a log of daily activities so we could track what was effecting his immunity, told me to switch him to a raw diet, said never give him grains and that we had to treat for mange. She didn't want to use Ivermectin yet because the dog's immune system was probably messed up from all the other stuff. While waiting to build up his immune system I figured it wouldn't hurt to try some home remedies. I tried cedar oil, listerine, and Happy Dog Natural mite dip. The dip is helping a lot. The vet looked into the ingredients and said it was all good stuff and if it was helping that much to keep doing it. BTW When I called the first vet to transfer records I asked why they didn't test for mites. They said he didn't do a skin scraping because he didn't think it looked like mange and because the mites don't show up 90% of the time. Really?

Mites are nasty but some good advise above, definitely try to boast the immune system.

Hello Luppypove and welcome to the forum, introduce yourself and meet other members here:

https://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com/f7-new-member-introductions

We are nearly at the end of our treatment and she is beginning to look normal again! I have to say for awhile there she really did look very patchy. Fingers crossed this will be our last encounter with these horrible things! I am just so pleased my girl is better!