To Aimee

[Coco's Mom]

I am so glad that lexi made out great with the alergist.This may be a stupid question,but how do you find out if they have to much yeast in their system? My vet has never checked this out,their first choice is to switch Cocos food to fish and potato,and how do they get to much yeast?I will be taking Coco to the vet for a checkup and would love to run some of this by them,to see what they have to say about it.The past couple of days she has been really itchy and has made her ears bleed,and I noticed that her hair on her head is getting a litle thin.I feel so sorry for my little girl and just want to help relieve her itching.

[Aimee]

I was thinking of you when writing my post I was upset that my girl has been dealing with an overgrowth of yeast for 2 years and with fungal infections on the feet. One look at her toenails and the dermatologist knew she had fungal infections by the browning near the nail beds. Anyways, a regular vet I guess doesn't see this stuff everyday and know what to look for but I must say as many times as I have had Lexi in the last 2 years you think they would have figured something out. I am just disappointed about that! Now to answer your questions:

They did skin smears and scrapings from where she was itchy and looked at them under the microscope. They can see the yeast build up. I do not recommend you switching food. The allergist yesterday told me that signs of food allergies are itchiness but is USUALLY associated with vomiting. We had Lexi on that diet for over 8 months with no relief and it is very expensive. Make your vet find out what is wrong with your baby. Do you have an allergist or dermatologist in your area that you could be referred to? Lexi has also a build up of yeast in her ears which they also found by doing a smear of the gunk in her ears. She has thinning hair on her ears, no hair behind her ears and sometimes they used to bleed and the edges of them are cracked. The allergist and dermatologist both agreed this is all yeast related and they do not believe this to be induced by allergies. The build up of yeast is just like woman's to be honest, change in hormones, anything can trigger yeast to grow abnormally, even diet. Now they told me after Lexi being on this medication if it reoccurs it could be secondary to a zinc deficiency and we would just need to supplement her food. My suggestion is have your vet do some skin scrapings and check her for yeast. Do not waste your time with the anti-yeast shampoos or creams..we tried this before--use the nizoral oral medication. Or if you can find a dermatologist and/or allergist, don't waste your time at the vet and just go and see them first. Please let me know how things are going. Where is Coco itching most?

[Coco's Mom]

Hi Aimee thanks for replying so fast. Coco is the itchist under armpits behind her front legs,and her head,her hair is thining on top between her ears and behind her ears,but i would say her ears inside are the worst.On the tips she has a round circle that feels like sandpaper,and she has been scratching so much the past couple of days that she has made herself bleed a little and now has scabs inside her ears.I have been cleaning them daily and putting cream on them and that seems to help ,but only temporary. I do not know if there are any allergists for pets around me,I guess i will have to start checking around. Where did you find yours,did the vet recommend? I did just post to juliem about holistic care? I am so confused on where to go to get my baby some help.I do agree with you about the food,it is so expensive.I tried it with my lab and spent a ton of money and it didnt help one bit,and i was right back to square one.What ever happened to the good old days,when i was growing up we always had dogs they ate what ever was on sale at the grocery store and went to the vet one a year for their rabbies shot,and were fine,never had any problems with allergies,skin problems,etc...

[Aimee]

Funny you mention that about the problems we didn't have years ago. I spoke with the dermatologist about a diet for Lexi and we spoke about the BARF diet. He told me dogs 20 years ago did not have these kinds of problems - one it could be because they were not as educated to look and two the environment and quality of pet food were better. He is not for or against the BARF diet or holistic medicine as I found a holistic vet in my area...however he convinced me that Lexi has a problem that needs anti-fungal medication that will not go away with supplementation, special food, etc.. as we have tried all that. Point being I agree with holistic medicine for ALOT of things, but infections are a whole other story. We have alot of specialty vets in the area and I knew of mine because my mom took her dog there previously and highly recommended him. My vet referred me to a different dermatologist and allergist but I went to the one I knew more about. Call your vet and find out if there is a dermatologist and/or allergist in the area. If not, discuss doing skin scrapings for yeast especially in the ears. The sandpaper things on the tips are what I talked about that Lexi has and they crack. They told me this was related to yeast. It sounds as if you may just have a serious yeast infection in her ears. Is her scratching seasonal at all or does she have it year round?

[Coco's Mom]

Coco has had this since mid to end of summer,we were hoping it was seasonal ,but it is not,thats why they want me to change food to see if that helps.I am definatly going to have them do some scraping to check for yeast.Does this hurt? I just checked my phonebook and can not find any vets that specialize in dermatolgy or allergies. Any ideas for websites? Thanks again for all your input,its nice to know that there might be a light at the end of this itchy tunnel?? I will pass this info on to my vet and see what they say(and it better be great idea lets check it out,if its not im out of there with records in hand).