Our experience. My dog Willow is a 20lb terrier mix, current age 2 1/2, fixed female. We rescued her at age 5 mo. She is the best dog I have ever had the pleasure of living with. From day one she has been a no issue pup, except... Allergies. At approx. 9 mo. old she had an eye infection. The Vet gave antibiotic eye meds and cleared right up. 3 mo. later, same thing. Same meds again, cleared up again. At 1 1/2 years old she started licking her paws to the point of no hair on the paw. Vet gave some antibiotic spray, Seemed to clear up. Approx 3 mos later she started loosing all her fur on her back legs and around her rear. Vet said, Allergies. Gave steroid shot and she was fine, fur grew back. 1 mo later same thing except now all four legs and all paws. Vet suggested steroid pills, we tried them for about 2 weeks and she was not getting much better, but the steroid pills made her a zombie dog. I stopped the meds and went in search of a vet that might be able to help. After 4 vets, all suggesting the same thing, I found a great vet that was willing to work with us. After much trail and error and little success, we discovered a med called Atopica. This once a day pill isnt a steroid, so no side effects. Willow responded very well, 80-90% of fur grew back and no noticeable itching/scratching. Then i stumbled onto this site. Even with the Atopica, Willow would get small patches of what the vet said was a skin yeast infection. 2 wks ago i started the ACV/Yogurt treatment. Within 3 days i saw noticeable improvement. Now she has fur gowing fur where i didnt know she grew it! No yeast spots on skin. Absolutely no itching/scratching. Wow! I also had an allergy test done on her 6 wks ago. She was slightly allergic of turkey/chicken. Of course I was feeding her Orijen kibble mixed with Wellness Core kibble, both turkey/chicken. So for the last month she has been on Wellness Core Fish kibble, with a 1/4 can of canned salmon in the morn. I also stopped the Atopica when I started the ACV/Yogurt. In the morn i have been putting 2 teaspoons of ACV on her canned fish along with 2 squirts of high omega fish oil. At lunch she gets a 1/4 cup of plain Yogurt. 1 cup of Grain free Wellness Core kibble, which she eats over the day. Thats it. I guess it could be the new food, but i didnt notice much difference till we started the ACV/Yogurt. I am going to keep this up. I did use white vinegar, 50/50 w/water on her yeast spots and they cleared up in a few days. They havent returned and fur has grown over the spots. We have our little furry pup back! She is so comfortable now. Its so nice seeing her with no discomfort. Thanks so much for this info. I will keep posting to let everyone know if this treatment is lasting. It sure seems to have worked for us. After 4 vets and hundreds dollors, if not more, this is a blessing. Thanks Again!!!
Replied By Mr. Smithster (Los Angeles, Ca, Usa) on 01/02/2010
Happy New Year to all. Follow up on Willow. Week 3,I am noticing a good but strange development on Willows belly, crotch and arm pits where she had yeast growth on her skin. All the areas where yeast grew are now kind of scabbing over. Before treatment, i could see the yeast growth but i couldn't feel it on her skin. Now all the "spots" are either hard little scabs or have already scabbed over and fell off, its all nice pink skin underneath. Has anyone else had this experience? Its like the yeast is dying out and a scab develops in place of the black yeast "spots", then when the scab falls off, the skin looks like it should again! The scabs don't seem to bother Willow at all. She isn't itching or biting at all and her fur continues to fill in, she is almost back to what i would say is "normal". Thanks for this great info, i would have never thought something so simple and basic could have such a positive effect on my dog's health.Replied By Mr. Smithster (Lomita, Ca) on 01/15/2010
ok, week 5. slight relapse. with willow off the Atopica for this long she did start to lose her fur again. no yeast on her skin even though fur was falling out. i started the Atopica and within 1 week she is doing much better again. i guess i will have to use the Atopica along with the ACV/yogurt. the ACV/yogurt at least keeps her skin yeast infections at bay. she also smells good. no "dog" smell at all. im going to start giving her probiotics this week also. im just trying to find a brand that has good viable bacteria for dogs, so many have maybe a 100 million count, im looking for one that has billions, and made for dogs. i'll keep you posted...Replied By Taimi (Brantford, Ontario, Canada) on 09/01/2010
When I got my little guy, he had been on allergy meds forever. His name is Houdini and he's a shih tzu. Very inbred, lots of problems, sweetest and cutest dog ever. I got him when he was 5. He's now 11. I've taken him off of the allergy meds and given him Orijen foods for several years and am currently trying a raw/dehydrated food. Over time I've learned of his allergies (chicken, wheat, cinnamon, red dyes, venison, etc. ) and eliminated all of them - finding food he can eat has proven difficult at times. Chicken is in EVERYTHING!! Also, funny thing, the allergy meds were pink... And it's common for some dogs, specifically shih tzus, to have problems with red dyes!! Tell me how that was going to help anything?? plus, red dyes are sooo toxic!! He is extremely yeasty and over time, has developed an OCD of licking. This licking is the worst thing ever!! If I could get him to stop, everything would be perfect. Basically what happens is that he licks and keeps his chin (or his leg) moist. Yeast grows. He injests the yeast (thinks it smells yummy) AND spreads it with his saliva. And the vicious cycle keeps going. I've managed to mostly keep him from his legs and ears by using a cone. Poor guy lives in his "hat" most of the time. Right now it's his chin that I'm having problems with. I'm working on that, but I just wanted to leave a few comments for people having problems with ears... What I've figured out is exactly what I described above. Obviously you can get water into a dog's ear when bathing him, but I've also found another reason. A dog normally itches his ear and then cleans off his toes afterwards by licking them. Sometimes he'll scratch his ear again... Putting saliva into his ear. If conditions are right, yeast can grow. More itching ear. More licking toes. If there's yeast in the ear, he's now injesting it when he licks off his toes. I've found that using a cone has kept my little one's ears clean for over a year since he cannot scratch them. Since he's an obsessive licker and will soak his feet, it's guaranteed that they'll reinfect if he has the chance. (one ear or the other was pretty much infected since I had him... I was always treating them with drops). I'm not saying to leave your pup in the cone forever, but maybe until the ears clear up and the scratching stops. Also, as horrible as it may sound, I've found the best treatment for my little guy for hot spots has been head and shoulders shampoo. I've tried every other medicated shampoo out there and spent a lot of money. Nothing every worked. Some helped a little, but he'd still flare up. Now, if he's managed to lick an area to yeast, all I have to do is give him a shampoo every two days for a week and he's good to go. I only use it when it's necessary, but, since it's currently the ONLY thing helping him, head and shoulders is what I use. (i find it works best if you use both shampoo and conditioner. ) Now if I could only get him to stop licking until his chin is soaked. THEN I could really get his system yeast free!!Replied By Gina (Iuka, Ms) on 09/06/2010
Try one teaspoon of organic coconut oil in food once a day. I tried everything and this works to get rid of yeast. You can also rub it on the skin.Replied By Gina (Iuka, Ms) on 09/08/2010
For Taimi: I thought about how your baby licks his feet. I had a yorkie who was allergic to grass. Every time we took her out and back in we had to wipe off her feet with a damp rag. Its worse when there is dew on the grass. Never tried it but can you put baby or doll socks on his feet? Maybe if you put coconut oil on then socks he wouldnt lick so much or only socks when he goes out. I give my yorkies one teaspoon of organic coconut oil in their food everyday. No more yeast or any skin problems. As a bonus they stopped spitting up that yellow foam once or twice a month. Good luckReplied By Sherry (Woodville, Texas Usa) on 10/09/2010
Thank goodness for my vet!!! I have a 3 1/2 yr. old Westie that developed really bad skin issues. Smelly, itchy, red skin and she was miserable. He immediately diagnosed a yeast infection. She's taking pills, but tonight I'm going to start with a 50/50 ACV & water rinse after her bath. Like so many others, I'm grateful I found this website, and that I have a great vet on the north side of town.Replied By Carla (Lake Mary, Florida) on 11/30/2010
I have a pug with skin allergies. I have him on a grain free diet using Taste of the Wild dog food. He is on the wild salmon variety. The store I get it from suggested this type to keep start on the 'cool' type of foods: fish or chicken as opposed to the 'warmer' types which would be red meats. This has helped, although I still have to bath him with a medicated shampoo - the vet finally thought about a yeast infection after I mentioned a dip a friend uses on her dog. He still is miserable & has a bad odor after a few days, but his hair has grown back! I am going to try the ACV & yogurt.Replied By Sylia (New York, New York) on 12/04/2010
To all those people who mentioned Acidophilus and yogurt a big thank you. My Shih Tsu has had yeast infections for the past couple of years. She's been to the vet several times, been on antibiotics and prednisone and I bathe her in Malasab shampoo twice a week. The steroids worked for a while but the infection came back again. The shampoo does help for a short while but it is heartbreaking to see her constantly chewing on her paws and scratching. She had a pariculaly bad flareup recently and after bathing here in the Malaseb shampoo I Googled "remedies for yeast infections in dogs" and came across this site. While I didn't have acidopolous in the house I did have yogurt so I gave her a couple of teaspoons of it.
This is the fourth day that I have given her yogurt and I cannot belive the difference. She is no longer chewing and scratching and the terrible redness has gone down a good bit. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this is not just a temporary solution but that it will last. I have ordered Acidopolus for her but if the yogurt keeps working I will just keep her on that. If your dog suffers from yeast infections do try the yogurt. It may not work for your dog but it's definitely worth a try, it was for my little girl. The Malaseb shampoo is no longer available but the alternative is KetoChlor shampoo by Virbac. You can buy it online.
Replied By Tuesday Angel (Whittier, Ca) on 12/20/2010
I want to help other dogs that have this awful skin problem. My lhasa apso was constantly scratching, her neck, tummy, and chest were bright red, the hair was gone, she had large areas of gray skin fungus and she smelled so bad. I bathed her , but she would smell the next day. This went on for 8 months. I did tons of research and after just two weeks of treatment she is well!
Here is what I did. I bathed her with Zymox enzyme shampoo (3 times a week) and used Zymox ear drops, found both on amazon. I made her food weekly in a crockpot, put in chicken thighs with skin, brown rice, barley, carrots, water and let cook until the meat falls off the bones and skin disappears. Take out bones and mix well. I feed her this food 3 times a day, 1/2 cup each time, I mixed in 1 TB alfalfa powder, 1TB kelp powder, 1TB flax meal, 1 TB olive oil and some water. Once a day I mixed in 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder and 1 broken echinecea capsule as an natural antibiotic. I also gave her 1 acidophillis capsule daily. Finally, I massaged a few drops of tea tree oil on the irrated skin. I am still amazed at the results. I hope this helps other owners and dogs.
Replied By Joyceepoo (Mobile, Alabama, Usa) on 01/19/2011
I too am very happy to have found this site. My dogs both have suffered with ear infections to the point of having to have surgery. While I was concerned about the money, I was also very concerned with the degree of suffereing that they went through. I am happy to say that they have been getting ACV in their water daily and they are both as happy as can be. I have not seen either one of them scratching, and their ears are as clean as can be. They even smell so much better. Thanks to your site. I will continue with what we are doing, and after a few more weeks I am going to attemp to wean them off of the prescription diet that they have been on for several months. I will kepp you all posted.Replied By Kathie659 (Plains, P, Usa) on 01/21/2011
Specifics please How much ACV, acidophilis, yogurt would I give a 50lb dog. I believe the ACV is diluted 50/50 with filtered water to spray on her skin and ears (provided skin is unbroken)Replied By Kathie659 (Plains, P, Usa) on 01/28/2011
I started applying diluted ACV topically and the smell is gone! Itching reduced but still present. One ear seems to be a bit better after 3 applications. I attempted to give dog 2 TBS of ACV by mixing it in her water. However she refuses to drink it. I will have to try it in her dry food and hope that 2TBS is the recommended dosage.Replied By Wendyb (Cushing, Wisconsin) on 05/31/2013
I have a 3 year old shihtzu with yeast paws - will try the yogurt & ACV but.... does anyone else wonder why this problem is so common & in such varied breeds? I wonder what is causing this problem in the first place?!Replied By Newcfmly (West Monroe, La) on 06/06/2013
I already give my 9 year old Maltese Acidolphlis and he eats yogurt. I am interested in the Apple Cider Vinegar. How much to put on food?