Is it the food?

[Rachel]

My in-law's German Shephard has been eating Nutro Natural Large breed all her life. In the last year or so she has been getting really bad yeast infections in her ears and paws so she is on benedryl and other stuff all the time. Do you think the food could cause this? Since it has only happened the last year and she has been on this food for about 3 years do you think it is worth changing to a better quality too see if thats the problem?

Thanks
Rachel

[Melissa Brunoehler]

Hi Rachel~

I think it's a combo of things. If your in-laws want, they should contact Lita
here, http://www.pets4homeopathy. com/ She will help get to the root of the dog's problems rather than using meds to mask the problems.
Unfortunately Benadryl & vet prescribed meds only suppress the symptoms and weaken the dog's natural immune system, they don't cure the real problem. Treating my German Shepherd with Natural remedies & feeding a homemade diet is the only thing that has helped him. (he has/had allergies, skin/ear infections, loose stools) Let me know if you want more information....


My in-law's German Shephard has been eating Nutro Natural Large breed all her life. In the last year or so she has been getting really bad yeast infections in her ears and paws so she is on benedryl and other stuff all the time. Do you think the food could cause this? Since it has only happened the last year and she has been on this food for about 3 years do you think it is worth changing to a better quality too see if thats the problem?

Thanks
Rachel

[Rachel]

Thanks for the link I will pass it on to her. I don't know if they have the time to do a homemade diet but vet stuff is not helping...

[Grace Erick]

Rachel, yeast infections can be food related, but I don't know how a person would know for sure. Natural Balance makes a standard dog food that is good for big dogs according to their internet site and it's a good food anyway and better than Nutro. I checked the one variety of Nutro's large dog food and it had some of the ingredients listed below that are not good and none of them are good anyway even if the dog was not getting a yeast infection.

A dog can use a change in diet anyway so they dont' build up toxins that may be in one food that is fed to them all their life. Your in laws will have to mix some of the old food in with the new food or rather some new food in witht he old food and keep adding in more new food and less old food for about 10 days so the dog's stomach can get adjusted to the new food or he may get loose stools or diarreah if the change is too rapid and sometimes they will anyway after you make a total change if the food doesn't happen to agree with them.

Solid Gold makes food for big dogs and Innova has a very good big dog food, but I think they may be a little on the expensive side for a dog that big. Solid Gold has brown rice in it, so I don't know if that would be as bad as rice flour. Natural Balance should be similar in price to Nutro and can be bought in Petsmart or Petco where you would have to use a store locator to find Solid Gold and Innova.

This is the link for Natural Balance:

http://www.naturalbalancein c.com/products/UltDog.html



This is what a site about yeast infections said to avoid in dog food:

Avoid Dry Dog/Cat foods containing:
Poultry-by-product meal
Meat-by-products
Corn syrup
Caramel coloring
Rice flour
Wheat gluten
Corn gluten
Sugar

Bye, Grace

[Rachel]

Thanks for the info. Yeah I know Nutro is not the best out there. I had my dog on Nutro but it gave her the runs so now I feed her Canidae. I'm having my mother in law look into something better. I will definitely tell her about Natural Balance since it is easier to find. Thank you for the list of what to aviod that is very helpful.

Rachel