Yeast Issues vs Food Allergies

Hi everyone - we adopted a 2-yr old Pug mix (think he's a Puggle) in January and at first we fed him regular dog food until he developed skin issues. Started researching and decided to feed him raw - mostly chicken and fish with broccoli and carrots and, occasionally, sweet potatoes. We also took him to the vet who put him on a round of antibiotics and some medicated shampoo. We also bought better dry food. We put some plain yogurt in with the dry food and a raw egg about once/week. Sometimes I will soft-boil the egg. We also give him cheese as a snack (oh boy he will about knock me down for that cheese). Recently we made a batch of food with ground beef and he's been itching like crazy - and smelly. On one hand we think it's yeast issues because of the smell and his ears are kind of funky - or is he allergic to the ground beef? Can/do food allergies trigger the yeast issues or are they totally separate issues? Thanks for your input!

I'm the Yeast Queen. I have two dogs who are VERY allergic to MANY things. Here's my recommendation re. food. It's based on my experience with my guys
*Beef is one of the BIG protein allergens. As is chicken--neither of my guys can eat chicken or beef.
*Yeast LOVES anything that converts to sugar--it feeds the yeast. So no fruits or other vegetables that are high sugar--like sweet potato. Carrots are okay in limited quantities.
* Many dogs react to dairy and generally yeast dogs should NOT get dairy. You can supplement with an acidophilus that is lactose free and non-dairy--so no cheese or yogourt.
* Eggs are another big allergen--none of my dogs tolerate eggs so I never feed them. I do use egg shells as a source of calcium, but I make sure they are very clean and then I quickly microwave them and crush them finely to mix with their food.
*If you are feeding both raw and a kibble, you could have a very hard time figuring out what is making the dog itchy. Kibble has a ton of ingredients in it and it is virtually impossible to figure out allergens based on the number of ingredients in kibble.

I would also advise you not to make your own raw unless you are following a recipe from someone who knows about home made raw. There is a good one on this forum called Breakfast Slop or Melange du Matin. I use it, but vary it significantly based on what my dogs can and cannot tolerate.

The only antibiotics I ever use for skin issues like yeast are cephalexin or ketoconazole. I haven't used ketoconazole, but have used cephalexin and I usually do a long course of it--3 to 6 weeks--but both my dogs came to me as older dogs and had LONG standing yeast issues so your guy may not need this.

When I bathe my dogs--and it's rare as damp also feeds yeast--I bathe them using Nizoral Shampoo--it's is very effective against yeast. I only use it in the early stages of fighting a yeast issue and then stop and use only as needed--at this point I only bathe my allergy boys about once every 3 to 4 months.

Hope this is helpful.

Hi and welcome! You've come to the right place for great advice and Blanche has covered it brilliantly. Good luck with getting this better.

Thanks so much for the information! I think we are going to start doing an elimination diet so we can figure out what he can and can't tolerate. I think we know now that beef is out. I found an elimination diet on this site and it says to start with pork since most dogs haven't been exposed to pork a lot. I had originally read to stay away from raw pork but I read on that link that the pork in supermarkets doesn't carry the parasites that will make the dog sick. He was doing a lot better on the chicken/fish and I've fed him beef before but not this many meals in a row. Thanks again!

Pork was just a suggestion. Any "novel" protein will do to start with - rabbit, venison (the raw is VERY rich, though), lamb, kangaroo, bison, etc. Something the dog hasn't been exposed to previously.