Demodex and puppy food

Hey All,

We are the proud owners of an English Staffy, who is 15 weeks old now. A couple of weeks ago he started scratching and biting himself, first on his legs then we discovered some white spots on his back. The vet said that it's demodex and gave us Ivomec, 0.4ml per day, a benzoyl peroxide shampoo and a soothing conditioner for after the bath (once a week).

I am a bit nervous that the vet started him on ivomec right away as it is supposed to be last resort as they build up tolerance quite fast?

Unfortunately it's only gotten worse through the last 10 days. That being said we just moved from the city to the burbs and it was clearly a bit of a shock for him so probably his stress level is counting into it as well.

I contacted the breeder yesterday (she is well known in the US) and she said that it's probably stress plus we should remove all chicken from his food (he has been getting Nutrisource grain free chicken puppy kibble since day one). She also recommended that we fatten him up a bit (he is the perfect weight now) and give him some coconut oil.

Should we go ahead and change his diet? Can you recommend a high quality puppy food?


I am also getting Goodwinol ointment which hopefully will help at night as he (and us) does not sleep, just scratches, licks, bites.  You can tell that he is frustrated with it.

Any chance that this will clear up after a while or should we seek further treatment? As we moved we are switching to another vet this week and I am trying to get prepared and collect  opinions from those who had battled demodex before.

Thank you!
Jup

Hi ya Jup, welcome to the forum from Flo and me

What a rough start, Demodex is nasty so you have my sympathies. I don't have direct experience of this but there are some threads on here which are worth reading (shout if you can't find them).

Coconut oil won't hurt at all, my girl has it regularly. I would go with the second vets opinion to be honest as to how to proceed. Being in the US it's hard for me to know what food you can get there but here in the UK I use Wainrights and Jameswellbeloved which are both hypoallergenic and available for puppies.

Do let us know what the vet says and how you get on.

You have my sympathies, my boy got it at about 15 weeks too. I think it flares up due to all the things that happen to a new puppy, jabs flea treatment, new home etc.

I did a lot of research and found keeping the skin clean and daily brushing helps as well

My vet gave me the shampoo and aludex dips. That was awful and it made him sleepy for a day after the dip. It did get worse before it got better. It took about 3 months to clear it.
I was told not to breed from him by the vet, and l am aware it can flare up again in times of stress.
He's fine now and has a lovely coat.
I hope he's feeling better soon

my Buddy had it at around the same age took about 8 weeks to go with special shampoo baths every four days - every time the vet checked and we thought it was going it came back again - it went eventually but he still has thin fur above one eye that the vet says will probably never grow back properly - coconut oil is great or if not an actual coconut Buddy loves he has a ball he can eat at the end of playing LOL I took him off kibble and put him on a raw diet - he has a great coat now but that isn't always convenient for everyone to do..the Kibble he was on was a grain free one called Millies Wolfheart but not sure if you can get it in the US but if ever I stop raw feeding he would go back on it without question very high quality .