@Rowledge2
Maybe some info in this article can help you with yeast.
https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/itchy-dog-yeast-infection/
4 Simple Steps To Manage Yeast Infections In Dogs
By:
Dana Scott -
Reading Time: 15 minutes
Does your dog suffer from any of these common issues?
- Itchy skin
- Hot spots
- Infected ears
- Itchy, stinky feet
- Food sensitivities
It might be a yeast infection. Yeast overgrowth is a common issue in dogs … and it’s not all that easy to treat.
But don’t worry … I’ll show you the top signs of yeast infections in dogs. Then we’ll talk about home remedies that can help solve yeast for good. There are just four simple steps to follow.
Ready to say goodbye to yeast forever? Let’s get started!
Yeast: The Allergy Imitator
Yeast is a fungus that lives in your dog’s intestines in small numbers. It’s a normal inhabitant of our dog’s digestive tract and it helps him digest his food.
But when yeast is allowed to overgrow, your dog will start to suffer. One species of yeast in particular can be a significant problem for your dog …
Candida albicans.
Candida is normally held in check by
friendly bacteria in your dog’s gut. They compete with
Candida for food and attachment sites … and this keeps the yeast numbers down.
But when yeast is allowed to grow out of control, it can irritate the cells lining your dog’s gut. Normally, these cells have tight junctions between them. This stops harmful bacteria, viruses and yeast from exiting the intestines and entering the blood.
But yeast overgrowth will causes inflammation … and this causes the space between the cells lining the intestines to widen. When this happens, yeast and toxic byproducts can exit the digestive tract and enter your dog’s blood.
This is called leaky gut. If there’s leaky gut present, it can complicate the symptoms of
yeast infection … many of the symptoms overlap. But yeast infection has a few signs you’ll want to look for:
10 Most Common Signs Of Yeast In Dogs
There are a few telltale signs that will help you figure out whether your dog has a yeast infection, leaky gut or allergies.
One of the key signs is changeability … yeast can change with shifts in pH or temperature.
Here are other signs of yeast infection you’ll want to look for:
- Chewing or licking the feet
- Dark rusty-red hair between the toes
- Black skin (often with hair loss)
- Bad smell and greasy hair (seborrhea)
- Ear infections or head shaking
- Speckles on the underbelly
- Hair loss on the tail and upper back
- Grayish or rust color around the genitals
- Diarrhea
- Seasonal allergies
It’s important to know these signs …
the longer your dog’s yeast infection goes untreated, the harder it will be to resolve.
If your dog has more than one of these signs, it might be time to treat the yeast. Here are the 4 steps you need to take to stop your dog’s yeast overgrowth.
Step 1: Fix The Itch
First, let’s get your dog comfortable … yeast can make him itchy and uncomfortable. Here are two recipes to help soothe his yeasty skin:
Daily Apple Cider Vinegar Rinse
Apple cider vinegar is a
great solution for yeast, especially for dogs who love the water (because yeast loves water and moist, damp skin). Here’s what to do:
1. Fill a squeeze bottle (the kind with a long pointy end) with Bragg Organic Apple Cider Vinegar.
2. Stick it in your dog’s fur and squeeze. Massage it around your dog’s body, and don’t forget the belly area too. This will help restore your dog’s healthy pH levels and discourage yeast overgrowth.
3. Be sure to apply after a bath or a swim.
Recipe courtesy of canine herbalist Rita Hogan
Weekly Coconut Oil Mix
Once a week (or more if needed) massage yeasty areas with this coconut oil mixture:
1. Let 8 oz extra virgin coconut oil melt in a small glass bottle holding about 8 oz.
2. Add 10 drops of lavender oil and 2 drops of lemon essential oil.
3. Shake to mix and massage it into your dog’s skin.
Store in a day place. This coconut oil mix will last several months.
If the yeast is in your dog’s ears, you can try a pre-made
natural ear product. And here’s a simple recipe from holistic veterinarian
Michael Dym:
Soothe Yeasty Ears
1. Boil 8 oz of water and add two green tea bags.
1. Let the tea steep for a few minutes and cool to lukewarm temperature.
1. Sponge or syringe some of the solution into the ear canal.
But unless your dog’s ears are an utter mess,
it’s best to leave the ears alone. The ears will often tell you how well you’re
managing the yeast inside your dog. They’re the windows to his gut!
Now that your dog is more comfortable, it’s time to start working on killing off the yeast. Here are the next steps …
Step 2: Stop Feeding The Yeast
1. Eliminate sugar and carbohydrate from your dog’s diet
2. Stop heavy metals from getting into your dog
Step 2: Stop Feeding The Yeast
Candida has two different forms … which makes it a dimorphic organism. And the conditions the yeast lives in can change it from one form to another.
When yeast is benign, it’s a single celled organism that lives fairly peacefully alongside bacteria. In this form, it doesn’t pose much harm to your dog.
But sometimes
Candida is allowed to grow out of control. This happens when there aren’t enough gut bacteria to compete with it. This can happen after antibiotic use, but there are other common causes (and we’ll talk about that in a bit).
When
Candida doesn’t have to compete with other organisms for resources, it becomes a super yeast! It changes from a single cell structure to a larger and more complex multi-cellular fungus. When this happens, the yeast needs more and more food … and it gobbles everything up around it.
This aggressive super yeast releases over 60 different toxins that can travel anywhere in the body. These toxins irritate the gut lining and cause leaky gut … and the yeast can then escape through the holes in the digestive tract and travel to your dog’s organs.
So the first step to stop yeast infections is to stop feeding it! There are two common ways you can unkowingly feed unwanted yeast:
Sugar
Yeast has a silver bullet … it loves to eat sugar! So if you remove carbs and sugar from your dog’s diet, you can starve the yeast.
Carbohydrates are complex chains made up of sugars. When your dog eats them, her body converts them into sugars and this feeds her yeast.
Take a slice of bread (which is mainly carbohydrate), bite off a piece and hold it in your mouth for half a minute. You’ll notice that it starts to taste sweet. That’s because the amylase in your saliva is breaking that starch down into sugar. The same thing happens in your dog’s gut … and that sugar feeds the yeast living there.
In the wild, the foods your dog’s ancestors ate (as well as the foods that our human ancestors ate), contained only about
4% starch. But most commercial pet foods have over
ten times that amount!
Even
grain-free foods are usually full of potatoes, sweet potatoes or tapioca and have just as much starch as other kibbles. Sources of carbs and sugars in pet foods include:
- Rice
- Millet
- Potatoes and sweet potatoes
- Wheat and corn
- Oats
- Peas
This is why
a raw diet is best for dogs with yeast infections. It doesn’t have the large amount of carbohydrate that commercial foods contain.
So if your dog is eating kibble today, you’ll need to
switch him to a raw diet. And if you feed your dog fruits, limit it to berries: they are lower in sugar content.
Heavy Metals
You might not know it, but
yeast has a special affinity for heavy metals … especially mercury.
Some metals have important functions in the body … like iron and zinc. As long as they’re present in small amounts. But large amounts of metals like arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead and mercury can be toxic to your dog. And his environment!
Heavy metals generate harmful free radicals, which can damage cell membranes and cause serious health issues. In humans, it can cause Parkinson’s diseases, Alzheimer’s disease and even cancer.
This damage is called oxidative stress. Heavy metals can even
change your dog’s proteins and DNA.
And the problem is, the body can’t do a good job of removing heavy metals. So heavy metals stay in your dog’s body, build up over time, and start causing health problems.
Heavy metals can get into your dog in a few ways:
- Vaccinations
- Industrial waste
- Pesticides
- Poor quality water
- Fish
- Pet foods
Research shows that detoxing the body from heavy metals can help prevent kidney disease, heart disease and neurological diseases.
So there are really compelling reasons to get heavy metals out of your dog. But if your dog suffers from a yeast infection, there’s another importat reason …
Candida loves to gobble up heavy metals. Researchers are actually looking at yeast as a solution to soak up environmental heavy metals. The fact that yeast binds to heavy metals is good news for the environment.
But less so for your dog …
Researchers are investigating how yeast interacts with heavy metals in the intestines. And it looks like
Candida and other yeasts bind to heavy metals in the intestines too. This is good news … yeast grabs the heavy metals before they enter the body.
But
heavy metals are toxic to the beneficial bacteria that also live there. As the mercury and other heavy metals kill off the competing bacteria, the yeast has less competition … and it grows out of control.
So if you want to kill yeast in your dog, you have to reduce the number of heavy metals. Here are some things that will help:
- Avoid vaccinations whenever possible
- Don’t give your dog fluoridated water
- Avoid fish and low quality fish oil
- Feed organic food when you can (glyphosate is loaded with heavy metals)
Once you limit the heavy metals going into your dog, you can start working on removing them.
A Note About Yeast Die-Off
If your dog is eating kibble or other diet high in starch, changing him to a raw diet will starve the yeast. As they die, they release a toxic substance called acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is the byproduct from digesting alcohol and it’s thought to be the toxin that causes hangovers.
Yeast also produces a toxin called gliotoxin that can harm your dog’s liver. So your dog can get hangover-like symptoms from yeast die-off.
The heavy metals the yeast holds are also toxic to your dog. And if your dog’s yeast is killed quickly, the heavy metals will be released into your dog’s circulation.
This is often mistaken for yeast die-off … and it can cause the same flu-like symptoms in your dog. You might see nausea, diarrhea, joint pain or just a general sickness as your dog detoxifies from the heavy metals the yeast releases.
This is called the Herxheimer Reaction … and it usually lasts from a few days to a few weeks.
The symptoms of yeast die-off can include:
– Diarrhea
– Worsening of symptoms
– Discharge from eyes, nose, skin and ears.
– Joint soreness
They should only last a few days to a few weeks … then your dog should start looking and feeling much better.
Step 3: Kill The Yeast
These anti-fungal foods will help destroy yeast and remove it from your dog’s body:
1.
Caprylic A
cid: The best source is MCT oil.
2.
Garlic: Make sure it’s organic and feed it fresh.
3.
Olive Leaf: Multiple studies showing it kills yeast.
4.
Pau D’arco: Can kill yeast directly.
Step 3: Kill The Yeast
Once you’ve stopped feeding the yeast, you’ll want to add foods and supplements to your dog’s diet that help fight yeast infections. Because yeast is a fungus, these foods are all anti-fungal.
Use as many as your dog can tolerate … but if he’s showing signs of yeast die-off, go more slowly.
Caprylic Acid
This is a medium chain triglyceride (MCT) found in goat’s milk, coconut oil and palm oil. Of course, you want to be kind to the planet and make sure your caprylic acid never comes from palm oil.
Research shows caprylic acid can directly treat some yeast infections. It’s believed it can destroy Candida by destroying its cell membrane.
Ideally, your dog’s caprylic acid would come from MCT oil. Goat milk contains some sugar (lactose), which can feed the yeast. And the lauric acid in coconut oil can be a problem …
Research done on the benefits of coconut oil weren’t done on the same coconut oil you would buy at the grocery store or pet shop. They were done using only the MCTs. And coconut oil is nearly half lauric acid …
The problem with lauric acid is that it
promotes inflammation in the body … and in humans, this has been linked to an increase in markers for
heart disease.
So a good quality MCT oil might be a better source of caprylic acid than coconut oil. And as a bonus, it’s been shown to be a potential
treatment for dogs with seizures.
MCT oil can cause diarrhea in your dog if you give too much. So start slowly and work your way up. Try starting at a quarter tsp for large and medium sized dogs.
Garlic
As well as being a
good natural prebiotic,
garlic also has anti-fungal properties.
Research shows it can reduce Candida populations.
Ideally, you’ll want to use fresh garlic. Chop it tup and let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes before adding it to your dog’s food. Exposing garlic to air releases allicin, the substance that provides garlic’s many health benefits.
Be sure to use organic garlic grown in North America … most garlic is grown in China. This is a problem because
Chinese garlic has been tested to contain unsafe levels of arsenic and heavy metals.
Using a level measuring spoon, feed the following amount of garlic per day, according to your dog’s weight:
- 5lbs: 1/6 tsp
- 10lbs: 1/3tsp
- 15 lbs: 1/2 tsp
- 20lbs: 2/3 tsp
- 30 lbs: 1 tsp
Olive Leaf
Like caprylic acid, olive leaf is believe to break down Candida’s cell membrane. Its active anti-fungal substance is oleuropein. This is what gives olive oil its bitter taste.
Olive leaf has been shown to
prevent and manage yeast in
multiple studies .. so it’s a great addition to fight yeast.
Use the powdered form for you dog. The dose is:
- Small Dog 1/4 teaspoon daily
- Medium Dog 1/2 teaspoon daily
- Large Dog 1 teaspoon daily
You can slowly increase the dose (up to 500mg twice daily for large dogs), but go slowly to avoid the Herxheimer reaction.
Pau D’Arco
This is a
proven anti-fungal from the rain forests of South America. Pau d’arco contains naphthoquinones, which can kill fungi (as well as parasites and viruses). Plus it contains lapachol, a substance known to kill yeast.
But be careful … lapachol should not be given to pregnant dogs.
Pau d’arco is available in supplement form, but it’s important to find one of a higher quality. The amount of lapachol varies from tree to tree, so it must be standardized.
Give pau d’arco 3 times a day. Use a 4:1 dried herb and 12mg per pound of body weight.
Those are the four proven yeast killers you’ll want to use. Once you’ve stopped feeding the yeast and you’ve added the above foods and supplements to kill off the yeast, it’s time for the final step …
Step 4: Crowd Out The Yeast
These steps will help the beneficial gut bacteria get their real estate back and kick most of the yeast out of the gut neighborhood:
1.
Protect The Microbiome: Never do anything that will upset the delicate gut colonies.
2.
Add Friendly Bacteria: Use probiotics to repopulate the lost bacteria colonies.
3.
Fight Yeast With Yeast: Add friendly Saccharomyces to the mix.
4.
Add Prebiotics: A vital step to repopulate friendly bacteria populations.
Step 4: Crowd Out The Yeast
If you switch your dog to a raw diet and reduce the heavy metals in his diet and environment, you’ll start to starve the Candida and harmful yeasts. And that’s good! And now you have some supplements to help kill the yeast. Also good.
But yeast infections are tough … it’s often hard to limit heavy metals and there will always be some food for the Candida to eat. So
you need to create a gut environment that’s not hospitable to yeast. There are a few ways to do this:
1 – Protect The Microbiome
Yeast can’t grow out of control if your dog’s gut has healthy populations of bacteria. Yeast can’t take over the neighborhood and all its resources unless its neighbors can’t defend their territory.
So if you want to crowd out the yeast populations, you have to stop doing things that cause its neighbors to lose real estate.
Besides sugar, here are common things that can harm your dog’s gut bacteria (the microbiome):
1.
Antibiotics
Antibiotics will destroy both the bad bacteria and the
good bacteria. Without the competition, yeast can take over and grow out of control.
2.
Toxins
There are toxins in your dog’s food, water and environment that will damage the beneficial bacteria that keep yeast in check. You’ll want to avoid:
These all interfere with your dog’s ability to keep her intestinal flora in balance.
3.
Cortisone medications
4.
Thyroid medications
5.
Stress
So a clean diet and living environment will make sure you don’t damage any of those friendly bacteria populations. Once you make the neighborhood “probiotic friendly” again, it’s time to get them to move back in.
2 – Add Friendly Bacteria
Once you make the microbiome a nicer place for beneficial bacteria to live, it’s time to start adding
probiotics to your dog’s diet.
Probiotics
There are many probiotic supplements you can choose from. Not all probiotics will fight yeast, but these strains have good
research behind them. And they’re regular inhabitants in your dog’s gut:
- Lactobacillus acidophilus
- Lactobacillus casei
- Lactobacillus plantarum
- Lactobacillus reuteri
- Lactobacillus rhamnosus
- Bifidobacterium bifidum
- Bifidobacterium longum
These probiotics are usually dairy-based so use with some caution if your dog has a sensitivity to dairy. Or ask your manufacturer for plant-based alternatives.
Soil-Based Probiotics
Soil based probiotics (SBOs) are a different class of probiotics. Most bacteria like
Lactobacillus and
Bifidobacterium are fragile … they’re easily destroyed by the dog’s acidic gut.
But SBOs are spore-forming. This means they can form a protective coating that makes them resistant to heat, acid and antibiotics. It also makes them more likely to survive the large intestine compared to other probiotic strains.
These
soil-based probiotics are proven to help fight yeast overgrowth directly:
Both regular probiotics and SBOs are useful. But regular probiotics tend to only live a day and SBO’s only live a few days … so you need to give them daily.
Avoid Fermented Foods
Many foods are rich in probiotics, including yoghurt, kefir, kimchi and kombucha. You might think these foods would help crowd out your dog’s yeast.
But you’ll want to avoid fermented foods until your dog’s yeast is back under control.
This might seem counterintuitive since your dog needs probiotics. But fermentation happens when the carbohydrates and sugars in food are eaten by bacteria and yeast. So the prebiotics found in fermented food will also feed the yeast in your dog’s intestines!
It’s best to leave the fermented foods alone until your dog’s yeast infection is resolved.
3 – Fight Yeast With Yeast
There’s a special probiotic called
Saccharomyces boulardii. What’s unique about this probiotic is that it’s not bacteria … it’s actually yeast.
You might be thinking you don’t want to add any more yeast to your dog’s problems!
But
S. boulardii has been shown to stop
Candida from moving out of the digestive tract and into the bloodstream and organs. And it also reduces the inflammation
Candida causes and reduces its colonization.
4 – Add Prebiotics
It’s important to remember that
probiotics only live in your dog’s gut for a day or a few days. So you can’t stop at probiotics. If you want to grow your dog’s bacteria populations, you need to do more …
You need to give your dog prebiotics.
Just as yeast loves to eat carbs and sugar, friendly bacteria love to eat starch. Not to be confused with carbs, the starch that feeds yeast is the kind your dog can’t digest. You might know it as fiber.
So if you really want to increase the numbers of bacteria in your dog’s gut … feed them with fiber!
Prebiotics will do a much better job than just giving probiotics for a couple of reasons:
- Most of the friendly bacteria in your dog’s gut aren’t found in probiotic supplements
- Probiotics don’t grow bacteria populations as well as prebiotics do
So prebiotics are a critical part of your dog’s fight against yeast. Plus,
fiber can reduce mercury levels in the brain and body.
Here are some important, food-based prebiotics you should add to your dog’s diet:
- Dandelion root
- Burdock root
- Chlorella (also detoxes the brain from mercury)
- Low-sugar berries (like raspberries)
5 – Remove The Heavy Metals
Your final job is to remove all those heavy metals the dead yeast will dump into your dog’s body. Fiber will already do a good job of this … but there are foods that can help with this job:
Chlorella
This green algae has been shown to reduce the
absorption of mercury in mice.
Foods Rich In Sulphur
Foods that are rich in sulphur can bind to heavy metals and
reduce the oxidative damage in organs. These include garlic and broccoli.
These supplements have also been shown to chelate (bind to) heavy metals:
So there you have it … the four simple steps to managing yeast infections in dogs! If your dog is really suffering, go slow. These are changes that will last a lifetime, so slow and steady wins the race against yeast.
Dana Scott
Dana Scott is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Dogs Naturally Magazine and CEO of
Four Leaf Rover, a high end natural supplement company. She also breeds award winning Labrador Retrievers under the
Fallriver prefix. Dana has been a raw feeding, natural rearing breeder since the 90's and is a sought after speaker and outspoken advocate for natural health care for dogs and people. Dana works tirelessly to educate pet owners so they can influence veterinary medicine and change current vaccine, food and preventive health practices.
