Frustrated with yeast & ears

svolk · Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 8:30 am Post subject: Frustrated with yeast & ears

This is actually about my beagle/springer mix's ears - I've been battling a nasty case of yeast in her ears lately and I'm getting frustrated that it keeps recurring.

When I first noticed the yeast smell this is what I did:

Cleaned with a dilute vinegar solution every few days or so - I've read that cleaning every day is not good. That didn't work.

She was already getting plain Organic yogurt once per day with her 2nd meal of the day.

Off to the vet and they gave us Zymox drops - said that they work best when there's no additional cleaning of the ears, just do the drops for a week and let the enzymatic solution work. I carried the drops out for 10 days and things seemed better.

Now the yeast is back and she's still getting the yogurt once daily - should I up it to twice daily? I also don't know if this is diet related? The dogs have been on Natural Balance for 2-3 months now and seem to be doing fine. 2 large bags were grain free but this last bag that I bought was not grain free and it seems that the yeast coming back relates to around the start of this new bag - she's never had grain issues in the past though (she's 5).

I'm getting so frustrated with these stinky ears and and of course I hate to see her so uncomfortable and so itchy.

versatilek9s · Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 8:41 am Post subject:

Stinky ears=not the right food in almost every case. Hope that's all it is!

iris · Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 8:51 am Post subject:

We had the same problems where Rocky`s ears, he had such a bad yeast infection that his head smelled horrible. IT WAS THE FOOD, and ever since we change him to a much better diet, raw, and cut out all the corn that was in the Aims he was eating, he has not had another ear infection since.

Wrench · Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 9:05 am Post subject:

I have been learning that no-grain foods are best for this type of thing....the grains cause the yeast....I did yogurt with Wrench and it worked...he is still on grains with innova and doing fine but we have had a lot of dogs that have the feet,ears and whole body yeast come in and they end up going on no grain and it works. I know Welness core , Before Grain, raw, evo are some no grain foods.

Idaviruma · Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 10:13 am Post subject:

Uno had a bad case of yeast infection, but it occured when it started raining heavily here, with all the excess moisture, it began building up in his paws and ears. Theres a solution you can make with gentian violet/boric acid and rubbing alcohol, heres a link to it
[/url]http://www.finographics.com/schutzhund/health/yeasty-ears.htm[url]

its easy and cheap to make, I make it in small batches, and use one of those little plastic bottles with pull off top you get at walmart or target travel section. Uno freaks out if I spray anything in his ear, so this works best. Make sure to shake it well before applying and be careful because it stains! I usually apply in in the bathtub.

After couple weeks, it passed on its own, but if its chronic, could be a food allergy, I'd try a fish/duck/rabbit, etc based diet, or grain free, mine does well on wellness core. [/url]

wildlifecr13 · Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 11:00 am Post subject:

is there any yeast in the food? i thought NB was free of brewers yeast... if not, that may be a culprit.

i too would try the food angle... maybe its something else in there... worth a shot.

we also got an ear flush from our vet that is supposed to help control yeast, as we cant seem to win the ear battle some days... on a new food as of this week, so we will see how it goes. the flush we use about every 2 weeks.

anne · Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 11:40 am Post subject: Re: Frustrated with yeast & ears

svolk · Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 11:47 am Post subject:

Thank you for all of these helpful responses! Very Happy

I'll check and see if there's brewer's yeast in their current NB bag that I bought. I do want to check out the food angle for sure - I hope it's as simple as switching to grain free again (hoping that I can remain on the NB as they otherwise seem to do well on it - they like it, their coats look good, and poops are looking good too).

svolk · Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 12:27 pm Post subject:

Riley does indeed seem to have developed a grain allergy! After reading all of the helpful responses to my thread here I went out and bought a grain free bag of the Natural Balance food and after just 2 meals of that I noticed a remarkable improvement in her ears! I've kept up with the yogurt too of course. Today is day 3 of feeding grain free and the yeast smell is almost entirely gone and there's hardly any of that brown gunk!!

Thanks again!