I took my dog to the vets last week (he is a 1 year old pug if this helps), as he was suffering with his skin. The vet originally thought he had a bacterial skin infection and treated with a weeks worth of antibiotics. The symptoms did not improve, so I returned to the vets again today. The vet decided to do a skin scraping which tested for mites, yeast infections and tapeworm. The results came back showing the dog has demodex mites with a secondary yeast infection.
The vet has given me a course of antibiotics to clear the yeast infection, 2 types of ear treatments to cure a yeast outbreak in the ear, and 3 months worth of mite treatments, which he is confident will clear his symptoms.
The dog suffers badly with itching and has caused patches in his fur through obsessvie licking.
Does anyone know the possible cause of this and suggest any ways in which I can help him/prevent them from returning or offer me any advice? Thank you
Demodex mites generally live without any problems on dogs throughout their lives. They acquire the mites from their mothers as a pup. But like the first answer stated, an underlying immune disorder can start to cause problems for the dog. Normally once a dog is cured of the infection it will not get reinfected. But a dog with an underlying immune disorder will be very hard to cure. Perhaps once you clear up the yeast infection then it will be much easier to permanently rid him of the demodex infection.