Beat Pet Yeast Infections: Raw Diet & Natural Remedies

I adopted a very sweet 7 year old bull mastiff 2 months ago that had multiple health problems. After $700 of heart worm medication, ear mite and intestinal worm meds we had to contend with a very bad odor a day after each bath using normal dog shampoo. My wife was about to the point of banning him from coming in the house. I was told by a friend to use human Head and Shoulders clinical strength shampoo. After two baths (once a week) the odor diminished. After 4 weeks it was not noticeable. I was very careful not to get into the eyes.

My two GSD ( one American, the other a small Czech) suffer from yeast issues as soon as the warm weather starts.

As a last resort before capitulating to a vet visit, I thought I'd try Food grade Diatomaceous Earth - after all, I thought, it can't hurt. After one week of using the recommended dosages, both dogs are VASTLY improved!!!! Together with a topical homemade spray ( 1/2 c. organic ACV + 1/2 c. steeped and cooled strong green tea + 1 c. distilled water) neither dog is biting, scratching, using the bushes as giant scratching posts and sleeping HAPPILY without frequent awakenings to 'chew' that itch." I'm fairly positive it's the FOOD GRADE diatomaceous earth!

For de worming, the information suggests 30 days of use, so I'm not sure how long to continue but I will definitely continue for another week ( which will make it 2 weeks) and then review.

Re: Diatomaceous Earth kills Yeast, Fleas and Parasites

Hi, My poor dog started getting issues almost 2 years ago: flea bites became hotspots, then fungus, mites, ear infections, baldness, rashes. I changed to a homemade diet of raw meat, boiled eggs (with crushed shells for calcium), live yogurt, ACV, Coconut Oil, oregano, probiotics, tumeric (for swelling and cataracts) and other good things. It all helped a lot but the thing that finally killed the yeast was Diatomaceous Earth (DE). This is a fine silica powder that is totally non-toxic and is a great wormer, parasite and flea killer and a great nutritional supplement. It is totally safe for humans too with LOTS of benefits and incredibly cheap. Buy FOOD grade only at your local health food store. You won't regret it! Zorro got die off symptoms within a few hours but healing followed rapidly. So glad to have finally have a healthy dog again.

Yeast Infections: All this natural remedies are better than the over use of antibiotic's and other nasty drugs, You have to start healing from the inside, good wholesome fresh foods is medicine. Dogs and cats can not thrive on processed foods. Once you start feeding a healthy nutritious diet, be it raw or cooked, you will start to see amazing results and a healthy dog.

I have two bichon/yorkie x, and have never had a problem with them until this past year. I had been feeding them Blue Buffalo Lamb and Potato grain free - THIS IS THE PROBLEM! They have a yeast problem now, and I'm on the road to discovering what treatment will work for them. I will not give them any steroid, antibiotic treatments as I feel that would be detrimental. Both dogs were shaking their heads (ear problem), chewing their paws and legs, to the point of blood taking. One has a bald patch on her leg from licking and chewing. The high content of starches in grain-free dog kibble is causing the problem. Starch converts to sugar, yeast loves sugar. I now have them on Orijen Tundra, giving them anti-fungal baths, and am trying out plain yogurt as well, to help them establish the proper flora in their gut. So far, so good. The itching, biting, etc. has calmed down significantly, however after giving them yogurt for 3 days the head shaking and scratching escalated. I think that may be normal as it has to get worse before it gets better - or so I'm told from the various articles I've read on yeast infections.

I am also starting them on a regimen of a bath every five days to help eliminate the skin problems. I use Vet Formula anti-fungal shampoo, which I bought on Amazon.ca. I also use ACV/water solution as a rinse. I'm just starting this and already I've seen positive results. I think this is going to take some time to fix as they were on the Blue Buffalo for over a year. By the time we became aware of the problem it was already well-established. I am more than a little annoyed that no one (2 vets ) even suggested that yeast could be a problem, not allergies! They are NOT the same thing at all!

I will provide an update in a few weeks to let you all know how things are going with this regimen.

My dog Brady is a 5 year old teddy bear and has spent about 4 years on every kind of allergy medication, including shots, ammune surpressants, anti fungals and antibiotics over and over again until we got him. I took him off all his meds after awhile because #1 they were not working and I could not tell what problem he had over another. So I decided to start from scratch.

We had his thyroid tested and he was at .02 so we put him on thyroid meds. I also started cooking for him and them switched him over to a raw diet. He also does fermented vegtables, yogurt, digestive enzymes and probiotics.

I have to bath him everyday with malaseb other wise he is a greasy itchy, smelly mess. Right now he had a bubble between his toes that is very sore.

I feel his over all health has improved so much from his diet switch and his digestion is good and he loves his food now. Before we had him on taste of the wild until I figured out it was a yeast problem and the sweet potatoes had to go. He did not care for any of the other food we gave him and seemed to only eat out of hunger.

I gave him the borax, MOM, peroxide, and epson salt rinse last night and he is greasy again today. I was wondering if ther was a schedule to do this rinse like everyday, once a week. I just want him to get past this and I will do what ever it takes with out hurting the progress we made.

He has also lost a lot of hair and is bald in some spots. I am not sure but I think this is just a skin problem. What do you think?

My dog has yeast infection; I am going to switch to grain free foods such as Call of the Wild dry. Would adding chicken stock to it to make it more palatable feed the yeast?

Thank you.

My bulldog/box mix has been suffering from yeast infections for over 2 years on her face/ears/paws/ingrown tail/vulva. She scratches, licks, bites, runs around in circles chasing her tail, squirms around on her back on the floor, and drags her behind. I've felt terrible that I could find nothing to relieve her itching. She smells like Fritos or white cheddar popcorn. Her paws and tail smelled so bad I used to gag while cleaning them. I have tried all kinds of home, and over the counter, and prescribed sprays, cleansers, powders, creams, and meds. She has been tested for tons of things and also has had her anal glands expunged. Nothing stopped any of her infections for any real period of time. During this time I was trying to narrow down what she was allergic to. I tried many different brands and flavors of foods for several months one at a time. Finally, I have found a great one. Nature's variety instinct grain-free salmon meal formulas dry dog food. It contains Salmon Meal, Herring Meal, Menhaden Fish Meal, Canola Oil, Tapioca, Pea Starch, Pork Liver, Natural Pork Flavor and tons of veggies. My dog appears to be allergic to Chicken and beef like most dogs and most dog foods have some type of chicken or beef in it. This is the only food I could find that didn't have chicken or beef product without potatoes or rice. I buy it at Petco but I'm sure other places sell it. After her eating only this and Vitality Salmon treats (only salmon and veggies) for 5 weeks, her rash around her vulva has disappeared. She has stopped dragging her behind, rolling around on the floor, chasing herself in circles, and scratching her face/ears. She still chews her paws but I think she may be allergic to grass or likes to keep them clean. Her coat is also thinker and she appears to be shedding less. I will continue to clean her deep folds, ingrown tail, and big paws with the water/vinegar/peroxide solution to maintain her cleanliness. If your dog has any of those, then are prone to yeast anyway and need to be cleaned often (at least bi-weekly). Please try this food if you know your dog is allergic to chicken/beef. I'm so happy my baby is finally feeling better!

I had a Czesky Terrier whom I adopted when she was 10 years old. Her skin was black and rubbery. Tried everything. The smell was disgusting. It wasnt until she went into kidney failure 2 years later that the vet figured it had to do with her kidneys and a poor diet the first 10 years of her life. Too much protein!! Sadly, Zulie passed away, but we gave her the best 2 years of her life!!

We adopted a 5 year old bichon/poodle mix. He was suppose to be white but he had red/brown marks around his mouth, ears, feet, etc. At the time, he also had really really gross gunk coming out of his eyes. The inside of his ears were red and itchy and he smelled, so so bad. He was like Pigpen from Charlie Brown, he just smelled when you got near him. He itched himself all the time, he would wake us up all night long itching and biting.

All these symptoms are characteristic of an overgrowth of candida which lives in his stomach. The first thing I did was feed him wheat free/gluten free food and distilled water. After two months he was super white and didn't smell. But he still itched his ears and he still smelled kinda bad. His ears were absoltely inflammed still and rashy!

The next thing I did was start feeding him quinoa chicken vegetable mash. This took care of the smelling. But his ears, would not change! I couldn't get him to drink apple cider vinegar until I mixed 1T of apple cider vinegar with freshly ground almond butter. (Mix it real good. Almond butter doesn't feed the yeast, peanut butter feeds yeast so don't use peanut butter) That helped sometimes but not completely.

A vet friend of mine recommended some western medicine but when I researched the side effects were really dangerous! Geez.

Then someone recommended Zymox. (And I really hope that Earth Clinic doesn't remove this product name) because seriously I am so grateful to them. His ears look amazing! He doesn't itch them, they're not red. No side effects! I wish someone would have told me what to do from the beginning! (Why didn't a vet tell me all this! So frustrating! ) It's taken me a year of trying all this stuff out. I don't think Zymox would have worked as well without the gf diet and such. (They also have shampoos that I'm going to try next)

Now I have the most gorgeous, healthy, happy white bichon/poodle! I hope this helps someone out there. Good luck!

I am shocked at the number of replies from people on here that do NOT fully know what they are talking with regards to yeast infections in dog. I just read somebody suggested a lady whose dog is suffering be put on a strict diet of no meat? What? This person obviously does not know that yeast infections "thrive" on sugar. So, just like us humans, anything we eat in which our body converts to sugar will only feed the yeast. Ideally the dog should be on a raw food(meat) diet but it is very tricky to get the righ balance so it is highly recommended you do not attempt to do this on your own. High quality pet stores offer premade raw meals for your dog. However, they are expensive. SO, a kibble dog food that does NOT have starch or grains is what your dog needs. RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH!!! Yeast is a serious thing because most vets will just assume it is allergies or some other type of infection and inevitably do the worst thing... They will put your dog on anti-biotics. This is the absolute worst thing imaginable for a dog that has yeast infection.

So, start googling all over the place and read everything you can. I don't have time to go into it all here. But, a permanent diet switch to a meat based food with no starch or sugars. Also, antifungal remedies for weeks and weeks if not months as your dog will be purging his toxins through his skin and it itches something terrible. He MUST get daily supplements to rebuild a healthy level of pro-biotics in his system.

Now, move on to another 10 blogs and keep reading up!

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.

I don't know where to put this, but I wanted to share my experience. I spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars at the vet for yeast infections in my dog's ears. He said allergies probably were the cause, but allergy testing was a lot of money.

So I did some research and decided to simply eliminate the most common food allergens - wheat, corn and soy - presto! No more ear infections. At least, not nearly as often and not as bad - there is no way to prevent all airborne allergens from getting in, but no more sudden, awful ones.

In a pinch, I buy Purina One Beyond. It has soy but no wheat or corn, and can be obtained from the grocery store.

When I can get what I prefer, I use Canidae from the feed store. It is the cheapest of the 'premium' foods, and contains no wheat, corn or soy.

When I notice that an infection might be trying to start - when she scratches and I see gunk in her ear, I use a product called Zymox. It is so much better than the two step cleaner antifungal/antibiotic from the vet. It is a gel that is easier on the ears - no alcohol to sting - and nicely travels down like you need it to. I normally only have to use that one-three days max. It also works for a full-on infection, but takes 1-2 weeks like the stuff from the vet. I buy a large bottle that lasts me a very long time and we never have to see the vet anymore.

Of course, if there is a possibility there is something in the ear canal, a vet trip is required. Otherwise any substance put in there will be very damaging, possibly fatal.

Anyway, I really encourage everyone with any type of problem possibly caused by allergies to change foods. It may not be as simple as avoiding wheat, corn, and soy, but it might be! And if not, you can do your testing further and see what you find for yourself.

Also, if she is really itchy - chewing on her paws and such, I give benadryl. be sure and look up the correct amount for the weight of your dog if you try that.

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!

I've read several comments about switching foods for dogs with yeast problems. My dog also suffers from this condition and I've been researching up a storm. GreatDaneLady.com has some amazing things to say as well as some pretty valid points. One point being is that sugar feeds yeast! Most dog owners are told their dogs have a food allergy and switch to allergy type foods and or grain free foods - what do almost all of these foods/treats have in them??? SWEET POTATO!!!!!!!! We might as well be feeding the yeast - actually, we are. If you read some of her articles she discusses how starchy carbs feed the yeast. There are very few truly anti-yeast dog foods out there. Petco actually carries one of them - but not all Petco's have it in stock (you can order it from their website and if you spend $49 you get free shipping most all the time). It is By Nature's Salmon, Ocean Fish and Yogurt formula. Give it a try - the price is pretty even if not lower than most all "allergy/grain free" and it is a natural food. Also their Organic 100% Turkey or 100% Chicken canned food while not to be used as dog food - more like a food topper is approved as well. By Nature also offers a frequent buyer program where you buy 10 bags and get the 11th free I think it is. Look into this and I really hope this helps your babies!!