[Nava]

Hi, i have a 1 1/2 year old Shih Tzu dog, and he has a reoccuring ear infection (yeast). My previous vet tells me that he is having an allergic reaction, and after several months of trial and error, I believe it is from the dog food he is eating. He is currently eating Purina Dog Chow (I noticed that this is a poor quality food), mainly a corn base diet and I believe that is causing the infection. My new Vet recommends Purina Pro Plan Salmon and Brown Rice, however I asked the store sales in my local pet store that there are better products out there. What is your opinon on sticking to what my vet says? (By the way, this is the first time I've seen this vet, just recently changed addresses.

[TeddieXRuxpin]

Welcome to DF!

I have a rescued Shih Tzu (turning 3yrs in Oct). When I got him he had a terrible yeast infection in his ears.I spent well over a hundred dollars on just the product from the vet, not including the appointments. Nothing helped to get rid of the yeast and if there is even a trace of it left it will only start grownig again.

Not that long ago I found out about Blue Powder Ear Treatment from some from someone on a forum and it works like a dream. After a month of using it Teddie's ears are squeaky clean, pink, and don't smell. Now I clean them about once every month to every other month to keep them nice and healthy.
I just print this off and kept it for future refference.
http://www.itsfortheanimals.com/Adob...0Treatment.pdf

Now food can be a huge factor and if it is causing the yeast and infections I would stay away from purina, Iams, Science diet, etc and invest in a much better food. It does cost a little more, but you don't have to feed as much; which means it lasts longer.

Teddie is on Wellness Core Ocean and is doing very good on it. Stay away from grains and corn, but another ingredient that effects some dogs is Chicken. So I'd stay with foods that are based with fish.

Not all of the food below are fish based, but the Wellness, TOTW, and Timerwolf do. However all are great foods. The difference in the coat and infections show a lot. Since I got Ted on a high quality food he hasn't had any problems with infections. Unlike when I got him he was having all sorts of problems.

Wellness Core
Taste of the Wild
Timberwolf
Solid Gold
Innova
Orijen
Merrick

Another tip(if you don't already) is to keep the hair pulled in his years. Bacteria likes to stay around all the hair in there. It's a dark, moist area and that's where yeast and bacteria likes to grow.

Do you have any pictures of your little guy? Have fun posting.

[Nava]

Hi! Thanks for the quick and useful response.

I was surfing the forum to try and find more advice, and found out a lot more useful information than what the vet could told me.

Infact, I actually bought a bag of Wellness (Wellness Fish & Sweet Potato, http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_f...ct=324&cat=all)

And once I showed my vet that, only to have him ask me to refund it. He insisted that Purina Salmon and brown rice was the way to go, and commented on how Ground Barley (de-hulled), Rye Flour are not good.

He recommended Purina Pro Plan Selects Natural Salmon and Brown Rice Formula (http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_f...uct=1391&cat=6)

So should I take his advice, or go with Wellness?

On the side note, I have my dog's ears treated using Surolan (does a good job of getting ride of the bacteria, however it keeps coming back once I stop using it. I believe this is the cause of his old food)

[Patt]

You might try Wellness Simple Solutions.

http://www.onlynaturalpet.com/Wellne...d_p/138101.htm

[TeddieXRuxpin]

Stay far far away from the Purina. All around; it's not a good food and vets are the last person I'd take nutritional advice from. That site (Which is good on it's ratings) has it at a 2 out of 6. That's bad.

If you can I'd find a retail shop that sells the Wellness Core (return the bag you got) because it's the same price as the Wellness only it's grainless. The Wellness still has grains, but the Wellness Core doesn't. I'd go with a food without grain.

One thing to remember when looking at the ingredients in the food is the closer to the top the more of that product is in the food. You really want the first ingredient to be the source of meat.

animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols, pearled barley, dried egg product, brewers dried yeast, potassium chloride, salt

Those are just a few of the ingrdients in the Purina food. Talk about making your dog sick. If anything I could see this food making your dogs problems even wose.

The ear drops; this is the type of product I bought from my vet that seemed like they were working until I missed one cleaning and they were infected again. I learned about the BPET months and months ago. It was a pain at the start because you have to keep up with using them at the begining. But now I only have to clean them once every month or so and they stay clean of infection and are as healthy as they can be.

The ear drop they sell at the vet are treating the yeast. Where as the BPET is killing the bacteria and yeast. Just make sure it's warm. It maks a world of difference when using any kind of product going into the ears.

[hiphopbb22]

Hi! New here, but wanted to post an entry in the Pet Connection blog that caught my attention;
http://www.petconnection.com/blog/20...dden-allergen/

btw, I don't feed any commercial pet foods.

Hidden allergens in your pet’s food
By Christie Keith

August 26, 2008

There’s a lot to be said about where allergies come from (hello, genetics and lots of insults to the canine immune system from stupid and unscientific vaccination protocols), but once you have a dog with allergies, the “where” question comes in a distant second to the “what now” question.

While pets can be allergic to many things in their environment, one of the most difficult and perplexing — and hard to diagnose — problems is the food allergy. While a dog can be allergic to only one ingredient in a food or their diet, dermatologists have told me that they’re seeing mostly dogs with multiple food allergies now. And it can be very difficult to pinpoint those allergies and to eliminate those allergens.

There are blood tests for food allergies, and they’ve improved in recent years, but the gold standard remains the elimination diet. And vets often use commercial foods for such diets, even multi-ingredient foods, largely because most owners don’t want to prepare a homemade diet, even for a few months or weeks for diagnostic reasons.

But even so-called “hydrolized protein” allergy diets can contain substances to which your pet can react. They work by breaking proteins down into particles, called hydrolysates, that the immune system isn’t supposed to react to. But many dogs do react to them, which means the information you get from doing a food trial with such a food is useless, and they’re also useless as a therapeutic diet, at least, for those dogs. Furthermore, the process of hydrolizing proteins can in and of itself release biologically active peptides, to which the dog may also be or become allergic.

Just ask all the moms and pediatricians who’ve become skeptical of the use of hydrolized milk for babies and kids with cow’s milk allergies.

USDA photo by Eric Erbe.And if the “allergy diet” is a dry food, there’s also that pesky little critter known as the food storage mite. These mites can be present in all kinds of cereals, not just pet food, but they’re a potent allergen for some dogs — and so are their feces. (They can also be present in cheese, and any food that can grow mold.) One study found nine of out ten bags of dry pet food contained food storage mites.

Homemade, grain-free diets still sounding crazy to you, allergies or not?

Food for thought, eh?
brigid

[littleboodog]

None of these kibbles are especially healthy but the way to eliminate the worst of the worst is to compare ingredients. Forget the vet's endorsement. Use one of the recommended comparison wesites as your guide and know that no grain-based food (not even brown rice) is optimal nutrition for your dog. Marie.

[TeddieXRuxpin]

Originally Posted by littleboodog

None of these kibbles are especially healthy but the way to eliminate the worst of the worst is to compare ingredients. Forget the vet's endorsement. Use one of the recommended comparison wesites as your guide and know that no grain-based food (not even brown rice) is optimal nutrition for your dog. Marie.

None of what kibbles?

[dogpositivetraining]

Originally Posted by Nava

Hi! Thanks for the quick and useful response.

I was surfing the forum to try and find more advice, and found out a lot more useful information than what the vet could told me.

Infact, I actually bought a bag of Wellness (Wellness Fish & Sweet Potato, http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_f...ct=324&cat=all)

And once I showed my vet that, only to have him ask me to refund it. He insisted that Purina Salmon and brown rice was the way to go, and commented on how Ground Barley (de-hulled), Rye Flour are not good.

He recommended Purina Pro Plan Selects Natural Salmon and Brown Rice Formula (http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_f...uct=1391&cat=6)

So should I take his advice, or go with Wellness?

On the side note, I have my dog's ears treated using Surolan (does a good job of getting ride of the bacteria, however it keeps coming back once I stop using it. I believe this is the cause of his old food)

Hi,

It sounds like your dog has a recurring yeast infection. This is caused by allergies to cereals and grains.

I would suggest feeding your dog a grain free dry dog food, as well as supplementing his diet with enzyme granules and probiotics. You should notice an improvement within 30 days, but yeast overgrowth can take longer to overcome so 90 days for sure.

Also make sure any treats you give are grain free.

Grain free dry dog food:

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=grain_free

It's best if you do your own research in to the various options and the above link will help you do this.

However for the first 3 months I would suggest starting off with a fish based grain free dry dog food.

Oh, and in this particular instance, don't listen to your vet - they have a requirement to sell pet food!

Hope this helps.

[zimandtakandgrrandmimi]

Originally Posted by Nava

He insisted that Purina Salmon and brown rice was the way to go, and commented on how >Ground Barley< (de-hulled), Rye Flour are not good.

He recommended Purina Pro Plan Selects Natural Salmon and Brown Rice Formula

Quote:
animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols, >pearled barley<, dried egg product, brewers dried yeast, potassium chloride, salt


hehehe so I'm wondering what the difference between pearled barley and ground barley is....?