[Yorkiemom1]

(continued from above)

So disinfecting the parts of your dog's body that are yeasty is very important. There's no pill or cream that can disinfect your pet – you must do that yourself.
If your pet's ears are yeasty, you'll have to disinfect them daily. Just as some people produce lots of earwax and clean their ears daily, while others produce almost no earwax, the same applies to dogs. Some almost never need their ears cleaned, while others need a daily cleaning.
If you check your dog's ears and they're clean, dry and have no odor, you can skip a day of cleaning. Again, the amount of cleaning should correlate with the amount of debris built up in the ear. If you don't clean out that debris, it won't magically disappear on its own. It will grow from wax, to yeast, to a fulminating bacterial infection unless you deal with it.

You can disinfect your dog's ears with either a store bought solution or with witch hazel and large cotton balls. Use as many cotton balls as it takes to remove all the debris from the ears at each cleaning. Do not put Q-tips down into the canals of your dog's ears.

Disinfecting Yeasty Paws
Yeast thrives in a moist environment and in crevices – between your dog's foot pads, for example, in armpit and groin creases, and around the vulva and anus. So disinfecting those parts of a yeasty dog is really important.

Since the only body parts that sweat on your dog are his nose and the pads of his feet, during hot humid months when yeast tends to thrive, you'll need to disinfect those paws.

Depending on the size of your dog, you can use one of those Rubbermaid sweater boxes filled with water from a hose, or if your dog is small you can just pop him in the kitchen or bathroom sink. The goal is to dunk the feet, then pat them dry.

Spraying or wiping down a dog's paws won't get the job done. Yeast lives under the nail beds and in all the creases you can't get to if the paws aren't submerged in a foot soak.

I recommend a gallon of water, a cup of hydrogen peroxide, and 1-4 cups of white vinegar as a foot soak solution. You can use this solution as many times a day as necessary to keep your dog's feet clean. 'Clean and dry' needs to become your mantra.

After you dip your dog's feet in the astringent solution of water/hydrogen peroxide/white vinegar, there's no need to rinse. Just pat the paws dry. Leaving the solution dried on your dog's paws serves as an antifungal and should also reduce licking and digging at the paws.

Anti-Yeast Baths and Rinses

If your dog has yeast overgrowth on her skin, I recommend disinfecting her entire body with a natural, anti-fungal shampoo. And yes, you can do this as often as necessary.
It's no longer true that you shouldn't bathe dogs regularly. Back in the days of very harsh shampoos made from coal and tar derivatives, this was good advice. But there are now plenty of safe shampoos on the market that will not over dry your pet's skin or damage her coat.

Since carbs and grains ultimately feed yeast overgrowth, I don't recommend you use oatmeal-based shampoos. Oatmeal is a grain which provides a food source for that yeast on your dog's skin.

Use an anti-fungal shampoo made from, for example, tea tree oil or an herbal blend. These will help control the amount of yeast growing on your pet.

I also recommend anti-fungal rinses during the summer months, from one to three times per week after shampooing. I use a gallon of water with a cup of vinegar or a cup of lemon juice. You can also use 20 drops of peppermint oil. All three will make your pooch smell nice.
After shampooing with, say, a tea tree shampoo and rinsing thoroughly, follow with one of these natural anti-fungal astringent rinses to knock down the amount of yeast.
You should never pour these rinses over your dog's head or into her eyes. Pour from the collar, back. Pour the gallon of solution over her and rub it into her coat and skin, focusing on body parts that tend to grow yeast -- armpits, feet, groin area and around the tail. Then towel dry without rinsing. Your dog will not only feel better, the yeast won't replicate as quickly.

One word of warning about using both lemon juice and hydrogen peroxide: they can bleach a black dog's fur. If you have a black coated dog, you should go with vinegar to avoid a lightening effect.

For Dogs with Stubborn or Recurring Yeast Infections

For many dogs, yeast problems are seasonal. When the temperature and humidity levels rise each year, they get yeasty and stinky. If this is the case with your dog, the summer months are when you'll need to be vigilant about disinfecting your pet and addressing any dietary issues that might be contributing to the problem.

However, if your dog has year-round yeast problems – whether it's 90 degrees outside or the dead of winter – you should be thinking about potential immune system issues.
If your dog is overwhelmed with an opportunistic pathogen like yeast, it's likely his immune system isn't operating at 100 percent.
In my practice, when I see a pet with a stubborn yeast infection, I do immune testing to measure his immunoglobulin levels (IgG, IgM and IgA). Generally these levels are low in a dog with constant yeast overgrowth.
If your dog is producing healthy levels of immunoglobulins, he should be able to overcome almost any infection, and particularly an opportunistic yeast infection.