Through the years we have had issues with yeast (licking paws excessively, red sore paws, itching ears, red inside ears, black stinky stuff inside ears, sores on belly and moreso in groin area, our first attempt at solving this was repeated trips to vet (antibiotics, oatmeal wash, anti-microbial shampoos, scraping for mites, trying just about every dog food out there from cheap to high dollar, grain free to organic so on and so on, what we found is that some dogs can eat just about any dog food out there and be just fine but other dogs are more adversely effected by the non meat products in the dog food and once they develop the yeast it can take awhile sometimes up to 1 to 3 months to clear it up, we found that zymox helps for the ears, coconut oil helps for paws, also keeping the dogs from getting wet (wet conditions help to breed yeast), but these are just like bandaids and do not eliminate the underlying problem and through years of trial, error, experimenting and research we have found the problem is THE FOOD, and that when a dogfood says its 26 or even 30 percent it is not telling you how much of that 26 or 30 percent protein is coming from meat and how much of that is coming from other sources like grains, veggies(peas) or other non-meat items, and one of the reasons the more expensive grain free foods can make it worse is because peas carry a large amount of protien and many of those foods are loaded with peas, and just just because meat is the first ingredient does not necessarily mean that there is more meat than grain or other stuff (example 30% meat, 25% potato, 20% peas, 15% percent beets = a dog food that is 30% meat and 60% grain/veggie/starches but still is allowed to put meat as the number one ingredient and list the protein at 26% but actually half of that protein is coming from non-meat sources which turn to sugar in the dogs system and promote yeast, the only food we have found so far that has cleared this up is Victor Hi-Pro Plus (I am not a Victor salesperson by the way nor do I work for Victor or any affiliate), this food actually tells you on the front of the bag how much of the protein comes from meat and how much comes from other sources(there is at least one other brand of dog food that tells you this but I don’t remember the brand), it would be nice if every dog food had to do this because then we would have a better idea about which dog foods would be best for yeast sensitive dogs, we have also fed raw to clear this up as well but if your going to feed raw I highly suggest you research that thoroughly, as we have had a blockage caused by feeding to much weight bearing bone at once, and I believe you are supposed to freeze the meat for days before thawing and feeding there are also many other things to know before feeding raw, and a whole chapter could be written on the pros, cons and different aspects of to raw or not to raw.
disclaimer…I am not a vet, this is only from experience with our own dogs here at badlands kennels, so I am sure we only know a little about dog health, but we love all dogs so if this info can help to make any of your furry family members happy and more comfortable then job well done.
