My sister has an older dog with the same kinds of problems and I suspect he has had a chronic systemic yeast infection for years. She feeds Taste of the Wild and the dog has not gotten better.
My dog is raw fed but he is old and he developed a systemic yeast infection for while. I started him on the Nzymes.com skin program, and took note of their food recommendations. Since sugar feeds yeast and carbs/starch are sugar, it is very important to eliminate those carbs! I discovered that one of the Bravo Blend formulas I had been feeding my dog contained sweet potatoes, and Nzymes discourages feeding grain-free foods that use sweet potatoes or even potatoes as an alternative carb source. I cut out that formula and fed a raw diet with no grain or starchy veggies, and he cleared up!
The other thing I did was give him a thyroid med that includes T3 in it (dessicated pork thyroid gland). This is trickier to do since vets will usually prescribe thyroxine which is just T4. My dog’s thyroid had been tested by hemovet.com’s lab (Dr. Jean Dodds) and his T4 was normal and his T3 was at the very low end of normal. The vets said he wasn’t hypothyroid, but I went ahead and used an over the counter porcine thyroid pill which I believe also made a huge difference. I would have this dog’s thyroid tested at any rate.
Go over Nzymes.com’s recommended food list for their skin program – they do recommend some diets that aren’t as difficult as feeding raw!
