How To Treat My Samoyed For Yeast Or Allergies
Hello, I am at a loss and found your site.
I have an 8 year old Samoyed who has been really healthy on the grain free Costco food with cooked ground meat. People have fed him treats with wheat but I have mostly avoided them. Recently, our groomer noticed that his tail hair was thinner, then he developed a yeast infection in his ears. One vet had me put a anti-fungal ointment in his ears. After 6 weeks of this, I went to a pet hospital. They gave him an ear flush, Prednisone and a less oily ear anti-bacterial. They wanted to sell me an antibiotic but I felt it was too much. I gave him the Prednisone and Benadryl for 5 days. He was urinating everywhere and groggy. I stopped it after 5 days. Since then, he still is shaking his head, although his ears look better, he has significant bald spots under his arm pits, on his belly, near his tail and today I noticed that his skin is turning brown on his ears. He is also lethargic. He seems to be getting worse. I am worried and at a loss. As Samoyeds have no pigment and summer is approaching (we live in California and have had no winter), I am hoping to find a treatment that will work. I prefer to use natural products and have always been careful with his diet. I switched him to Costco's organic grain free food last week but am happy to take him off that if it will help.
I am on a cleanse myself, and so have been sharing yogurt, aloe vera, apple cider vinegar, probiotics with him. But, I am at a loss. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you, from Oberon
Mpls., Mn
03/13/2015
Hey Oberon!
If this were my dog I would schedule an appointment with the vet for a thyroid check; what you describe sounds like hypothyroid, and the thinning hair on the tail and the lethargy are textbook symptoms. Autoimmune thyroiditis has been found as a genetic issue in the Samoyed breed; screening would be my first place to start. The test is fairly inexpensive and the medication is inexpensive and effective.
It very well may be that your dog has a systemic yeast infection -this could be caused by puppy vaccinations and the yeast only now have taken hold of your dog's system to manifest with all these symptoms, but before I did any monkeying around with special diets and remedies I would rule out a thyroid complication.
That said, you might consider Ted's Borax protocol for pets. You can order online Zymox Enzymatic ear solution to help address the chronic infection. Ted's Anti-fungal/Anti-staph remedy also is a good choice for yeasty ears.
Please post an update!
This can be scary. First I would read up on Mercola.com under pets. Next you might find more info on some of the sites that have alternate ideas for feeding.
My Samy was almost 9 yrs old and became afflicted with thinning and losing fur......scratching incessantly. Her diet was the everlasting junk kibble you find at the big box stores. We also used the once a month flea treatment.
The vets failed to stop it...... I believe it was the diet of kibble. We remember her well.
My last guy was a Golden Retreiver of 10 1/2 yr
I fed him a raw diet of chicken leg and thigh....various supplements an egg twice a week....organic vinegar added to his water (tablespoon every other day) and diatomaceous earth... food grade (teaspoon on the chicken) once a week. And he loved an occasional carrot.
Someone fed him a large cooked bone (not knowing the danger of splintering) and we believe this led to his eventual demise. Love these dogs.
Today we have a female Golden of about five years and her diet is the grain free expensive kind of kibble (not puri..). She is very healthy and spunky. I feed her at least an egg a week plus her one meal a day at 5pm or so (kibble). Water is filtered (britta) and additional organic apple cider vinegar added. She is outstanding according to my customers.
Whatever you do start your Samy on an high quality diet at least until you find the right combination. Cold pressed olive oil(couple tablespoons) on each meal for awhile and then cut back to every other day. Make it easy on yourself for while and feed a good canned product---and do not overfeed.
Buffalo
03/16/2015
I have a 12 + year old Samoyed and he too had some problems with his skin a few years ago that was cured when we changed to a no grain dog food and added Apple Cider Vinegar to his water bowl.
His fur was thinning again after taking prednisolone for Addison's Disease for several months. The vet said he leaned a little toward hypothyroidism so we give him liquid kelp and prednisolone was reduced. The vet is happy with his thyroid levels and said to continue the kelp. He also get other supplements (ACV, molasses, Flax seed, coconut oil, chondroitin).
After a short time, his fur was very thick and beautiful again, except for his tail is not what it was, but maybe that is because of his age. He still get many compliments on his coat and people think he a young dog.
