[YEA]  11/23/2009: Dee from Montgomery, Al: "My Bassett (Molly) had a yeast infection in her ears. My vet who is loves animals told me to mix a 50/50 solution of hydrogen peroxide and white vinegar and clean Molly's ears with it. It did wonders. I have not tried it all over but I am rinsing her with white vinegar after bathing. I also mix the white vinegar in her shampoo when I bath her. I've just started the baths and yogurt. Will let you know my success."

[YEA]  08/26/2012: Earthystuff from Nicholson, Ga, United States: "Yonah had developed some kind of sticky crusty stuff all over his skin and stunk so bad we didnt even want him in the house. A few years back I took him to the vet and he put Yonah on Lamb and rice diet. This diet helped for a short while and then came back with a vengence. I would use a flea comb on him and what came off was like scabs that stuck in the comb.

After searching on earthclinic and agreeing it is yeast, this is what I did for him. Still on lamb and rice food in the morning feed I give him his daily garlic for fleas part of powdered glucosamine and started him on 1 tablespoon Apple cider vinager. He actually doesnt have a problem eating it in his food. I add a little wet lamb and rice to mask the flavor and smell. Afternoon feed I add a little wet food and a big heaping tablespoon of greek yogurt. I have washed him once a week with antifungal shampoo and then follow with spraying him down with a mixture of 1/2 Apple cider vinager and 1/2 water. In between baths I spray him in places that are lingering like the top of his head. Its been about 5 weeks and this yuck is just about gone. His energy level has picked up and he is so much happier. He is an older dog and this usually occurs in the hot months but Im going to keep him on this program. He even smells better. I am glad to report that this is working wonderful.

Earthclinic has been my doctor for about 6 years now and I love the information I get here!"

08/18/2012: Bebe from Birmingham, Al: "Have been dealing with the yeast issues for years (second dog). First of all I would suggest allergy testing for food/environment. Cost is about 150.00. This way you know for sure. My dog, dachshund now 6, has a chicken as well as seasonal alergies so I give her venison or bison and vegetables. If it is too protein rich her Ph gets out of balance and gets a UTI so read the protein #. I bathe her twice a week with Virbac Keto-Chlor Ketoconazole. She will get break outs under her forelegs and vaginal. The baths give her great relieve. We do the baking soda and vinegar rinses, also. She takes enzymes, from health food store, sprinkled on her food, for her stomach. Sometimes she will eat the yogurt, especially goat yogurt. Her water, purified, as our water has chemicals and disrupts the stomach flora. We saw an allergy specialist for 1 1/2 years and have run the course. Someone mentioned their dog was vomiting yellow. This is most likely bile from stomach upset and Pepto has sweetner in it that promotes the fungus. Not good for the flora."

04/06/2012: Soozoom from Jacksonville, Fl Usa: "This site is great. I recently took in a foster Shih Tzu with the red staining near her eyes. After reading about this on several sites I've decided which methods I will try and why. I believe (as with many small breeds) that the red staining is from excessive tearing (for whatever reason), the red staining shows more because she has apricot and white hair, it has been very warm here and we have relatively high humidity - which increases the moistness. The excessive moistness would increase bacterial growth. The bacteria are either gram positive or gram negative - without testing I don't know which she has. Before giving her any medication I want to try the natural, non-harming remedies. Possible remedies I won't be using are: hydrogen peroxide - causes problems, can damage eyes, ACV - this would burn my eyes so I won't use near her eyes - I do think this would help for the skin yeast problems (in some/most cases - not all) - experiment.

The things I've read that are worth trying are the non-grain, high carb foods - that makes sense since dogs need more meat/other proteins than people, acidopholus in foods such as yogurt and maybe milks I think I've seen. I've also seen that some people say non-filtered water seems to make the problem worse because the tap water might have higher mineral content - the dogs are already getting filtered water. I also bought distilled water - both for drinking and washing her face with (when I only am cleaning the yeasty area). I saw a post from the woman in the Phillipines that made a lot of sense - making your own wash for the dogs from a small amount of vinegar and the most natural soap you can find - no perfumed, no colors - just saponin (the soapy part of soap) - I'm trying that tonight.

The other is a Golden Retriever that has a slight rash that irritates him - it's not infected yet or much - since it was not near his face I sprayed Dermoplast (in pharmacy - OTC); it is a pain relieving, antibacterial spray for humans - avoid mucous membranes with it. I sprayed it on him and he stopped biting at himself for over 12 hours so far - he immediately seemed relieved too. I also thought about Calamine or Hydrocortisone Cream - but didn't get as far as researching yet - so unproven as far as I know - but I don't see the harm as long as again not on mucous membrane areas. If the diluted ACV soapwash, changing to better food, distilled water, acidopholus and keeping the area dry don't work then I will go to the other side - items that are more base rather than acidic before even thinking about meds or vet. I also heard/saw that using blueberries is good to use around the eyes - and this makes sense since they grow best in low acid environments (more base) and red yeast likes slight acidity - so this could make the environment less conducive to the growth of the yeast. Blueberries not in sugar - I did already try it on white fur and it doesn't stain - in fact brightens it as was shown on NGC or some animal show - sorry can't remember - just sticks in my mind though. I've only had her 2 days and have no idea what food she had before - now she is getting Vitality Chx & Oats by Dogs Well - no corn, potatoes or wheat and has acidopholus, blueberries and sweet potatoes. This food makes sense to me - these are slow digesting carbs which evens out sugar in the blood stream and have high amounts of nutrients. I'll let everyone know if I have any success or failure."

[YEA]  03/15/2012: Jean from San Marcos, Ca: "We have a 7 lb Chihuahua that is my world. She has always been very healthy. But about 18 months ago we considered putting her down if we couldn't find a way to help her. She was so sick with scratching all the time, elephant skin on her face and feet, lethargic, no appetite, and basically looking really sad and we felt so sorry for her. She had chewed off most of the hair on her feet and they were swollen and puffy like mittens and bleeding instead of thin and graceful like they had been. She chewed them constantly and scratched under her armpits and face. This started immediatly after she had just recovered from surgery for an abcess under her chin and they had treated her with very strong antibiotics. With scepticism I let the vets treat her for demodex with ivermectin. I stopped it after one month because it was making her stomach sick and not helping. Also I knew the spots were not red like demodex and she was 8 yrs old and demodex usually shows up in puppys.

So being the skeptic I am, I looked into dog skin conditions and found out about yeast. I now know that the antibiotics started her yeast problem. It killed off her natural defences to fungus and bacteria, just like in humans. I haven't tried the vinegar yet but I did some research on yeast and I have found these things to be the cure for her: Grain free food, Ketoconazole/chlorhexadine shampoo baths (weekly at first, monthly after a while). Yogurt and acidophilus in her food.

It does take patience and you have to stay on top of it, and may never cure it but you can control it. Some of the enzyme products work are a little harsh for some dogs. And the "die off" looks alarming and the dog gets so sick, so people stop the treatment before it has time to actually work, then they think it didnt work. I also couldn't afford them so tried yogurt, acidophilus and grain free food and the baths. Vets prescribing antibiotics and food with grain don't make sense if it's yeast. They just want to sell you their services and Rx meds and vet store dog food. They are a retail establishment after all. All of the foods that are not grain free just give the yeast something to feed on in the dogs gut. Look up leaky gut syndrome. And it is good also to have your dog checked for thyroid problems though just in case.

I can say our dog Lexie is now happy, energetic and healthy with a shiny coat and completely healed. But we still keep up the routine, bathing more frequently if she starts to itch again. I notice also she scratches more if we have slipped and given her any people food with carbs, but protein is ok, we give her cooked chicken or a little bite of meat sometimes."

01/30/2012: Doc from Olathe, Kansas Usa: "My dog (a nearly 4 year old black lab) had come down with yeast, overgrowth. He was so miserable and looked so bad some friends asked me if we were going to have to put him down. For the past 2 years he just kept getting worse. The vet we were using just kept giving him steroids, yeast meds, antibiotics and blaming it also on allergies and recommended I take him to an allergist vet. At $1500 to start with, I don't think so.

So, I took matters into my own hands and got him tested for allergies using a non traditional way using frequency vial tests. Wow! That was the start to my dogs recovery. I had then started him on a grain free diet from costco. It had tomato in it and I had to get him desensitized to the tomato but now that is fixed. I also started him on products from ortho molecular. The products were Ortho biotic ( a probiotic) candicid forte, Intestinol, and Adrenall. I have given him these for 5 months or so now and his coat is nearly back to normal. My grown kids who had not seen my dog for 6 months easy could not believe the change! They wondered what I had done.

I also agree with the other writers about Malaseb shampoo. It really is the best. I went from bathing my dog 2x per week ( at 110lbs that is no easy task) to 2x per month!

I still have to give him benadryl to help with the itchys but he is so much happier and not tearing himself apart literally, ( I had blood all over my carpet on the main floor and basement from his open sores)

There is no sign of the missing hair patches any longer, all his coat is back to normal. He looks like his handsome self again.

I write this to help those of you struggling with the yeast issues to not give up and take matters into your own hands. Most vets just want to give meds and not look at anything else. One vet even told me what I was doing had no scientific validity. So I asked him if he wanted to see the pics of my dog at his worst because he was getting to see him 5 months after my treatment plan. He did not care to and we left abruptly as you can imagine.

I hope this helps someone out there.

P.S. I forgot to tell you that I also gave my lab 1/2 cup of plain yogurt 2x per day as well."

[YEA]  11/22/2011: Aryk from Plainfield, Il Usa: "I have a 13yr old Westie and he's had chronic ear infections/icthiness since he was about 4. I'm not out of the woods yet, but I wanted to suggest a few things to the other dog owners out there with problem poochies.

Oskar has had itchy, red, smelly ears, sores that crust and flake off his skin, oily, smelly skin and hotspots. We've been through it all! It really breaks my heart to keep seeing these issues flare up. We've been to the vet throughout his life for these issues and he's been treated with antibotics and steriods which never helped. So this is what I've been doing:

I feed a raw-food or grain-free dry food. Try and stay away from beef, because this is considered a "hot food" and can irritate the allergy. (Oskar likes duck, lamb and I know fish is a good choice as well. ) Also, a tbsp of Greek yogurt with live cultures and a tbsp of apple cider vinger with food once a day. This took two weeks to really notice much of a difference, but his ears started to open and I was able to clean them and then begin treatment for his ears.

It was recommended to me to use Zymox products, you can get them on Amazon.Com, I have yet to find them in a pet store. I use the shampoo and rinse, two times a week. Leave the shampoo on for 10mins and then you can leave the rinse (conditioner) on to dry if you want, or just do spot-treatment with it on your pet's worse itchy places. I've also used their ear products, I got the ones with the hydrocortisone in it because Oskar is constantly scratching his ears, and this has helped as well.

Recently I picked up their Topical Cream with hydrocortisone and have been using that in between baths, once a day and it's been really amazing. His hotspots on his back legs have healed up tremendously and he hasn't been chewing nearly as much. I really recommend this. But as a disclaimer, if you have a white dog it will turn the fur yellow to the areas you're applying it. The yellow does grow out and wash out though. I usually throw an old T-shirt on Oskar after applying so that way the oil from the cream doesn't get on anything and he can't lick it off.

Anyway, I hope this helps some. I'm still on the road to completely getting rid of his yeasty self, but this has really been helping!"