Health

Your westie is in very good health. it is robust, solid, except that you have to be careful about its maintenance.

It must be maintained, otherwise it can develop dermatitis problems.

Mow it, full chance completely the texture of the rough coat. It gives way to an abundant soft soft hair which can, if it is too thick, bring various problems.

Here are some tips to avoid these problems.

- Avoid repeated swimming in summer if your dog has a long and very thick coat or shave him very short to allow the skin and hair to dry well.

- When you wash it, take care that it is thoroughly dry.

- Be careful in the frequency of baths. I recommend it once a month.

- Use a natural shampoo as well as a good conditioner. I recommend Dogmä products

In addition to this, you need to know more about it.

Mycosis of the dog

Here is a text that explains well what our dogs can develop

Yeasts are unicellular fungi that develop by budding.

Both humans and dogs have a normal amount of healthy yeast naturally present in the body. The dog's normal and healthy intestinal flora is usually made up of staphylococci and a thin layer of yeast, which occurs naturally.

These healthy levels in the intestinal flora are maintained thanks to a balanced immune system.

In addition to this, you need to know more about it.

How a yeast infection develops

On the immune system spectrum, balance sits in the middle, and that's exactly what your dog's immune function needs to be - balanced.

A hypoactive immune system can cause yeast overgrowth because it does not control the balance. At the other end of the spectrum is an overactivated immune response, which leads to allergies. It can also cause yeast problems.

When a traditional veterinarian treats a dog with allergies - indicating an overactive immune system - he usually prescribes steroids to shut down the immune response. (This lessens the symptoms but does not address the underlying cause of the allergies.)

When your dog's immune system is shut down by medication, it can no longer do its job of regulating and balancing the intestinal flora, and your pet's yeasts start to proliferate.

When a conventional veterinarian sees a dog with allergies and possibly a secondary skin infection, he often prescribes antibiotics. Antibiotics are known to destroy good bacteria along with bad bacteria, destroying the level of healthy yeasts in the process, so these drugs often only make the situation worse.

Another reason why a dog, especially allergic, may have an excess of yeast, is that they can develop an allergy to their own yeasts. Skin tests often reveal that a dog is having an allergic reaction to its own natural flora.

This situation can become very problematic because the allergic reaction of the dog can affect his whole organism. These dogs are often red from muzzle to tip of tail - their entire body is irritated and fiery red.

In conclusion, dogs with a hypoactive immune system or immunocompromised dogs can develop yeast infection, as can dogs with an over-reactive immune system, or with allergies.

In addition to this, you need to know more about it.

Signs and symptoms of dog yeast infection

The definitive diagnosis of mycosis is established by a veterinarian, either by a cytological examination (visualization of a skin sample under a microscope) or by culturing (sending a sterile skin sample to the laboratory, where the cells are placed. in culture and identified in a Piétri box).

But as a handler, you can tell your dog has yeast infection simply by the smell. Yeasts have a very characteristic odor. Some people find that they smell like moldy bread; others compare their smell to cheese popcorn or corn chips. Some people even call the dog's paw fungus "Frito Feet" ("corn chip paws"). It's an unpleasant, pungent, moldy smell.

The smell of a yeast infection is not a normal smell. A healthy dog doesn't smell bad. If your pooch smells bad on its paws, or if its ears smell musty, then it is likely that it is plagued by an overgrowth of yeast.

A dog scratching is another sign that he has a yeast infection. The overgrowth of yeast is very itchy. If it is the paws that are affected, the dog will not stop touching them. The same goes for his ears. A dog that does a lot of “sledding” (rubbing its hindquarters on the ground) can also be a clue.

If your dog is constantly scratching to relieve the severe itching, pay attention. Whether it's a bacteria or a yeast infection, he needs your help to fix the problem.

Step n ° 1

To treat yeast infection: Review the diet

If your pet has a yeast infection, there are several things you can do.

To begin with, you have to look at your diet. Rarely does yeast infection in dogs develop in only one place - an ear, for example. If that's the case with yours, you can probably get away with just treating that ear for yeast infection and crossing your fingers to have its immune system respond to rebalance its natural flora.

But if your dog, like most, has a yeast infection, for example on all four legs, or both ears, or especially if his whole body is affected, you must worry about his diet.

Food is the basis of health. The way you feed your dog can either help his immune system deal with the yeast infection or, on the contrary, feed a situation of potential or existing yeast overgrowth.

I advise you to put your pet on the "anti-yeast diet". The great thing about an anti-yeast diet is that it is also an anti-inflammatory diet and a diet suitable for dogs.

Yeasts use sugar for energy. Carbohydrates break down into sugar. Doctors and veterinarians alike advise patients with yeast infection to eliminate sugars from their diet.

Food sugar isn't just the white sugar that is added to many treats or some dog foods. There are "secret" and hidden forms of sugar, like honey for example, which can also fuel yeast overgrowth. While honey can benefit animals in some cases, it nonetheless provides a food source for the yeasts. So if your dog has a yeast infection, you should read the labels of his food and treats carefully and avoid any product that contains honey, glucose-fructose syrup and even potatoes or sweet potatoes. .

If your dog suffers from a serious yeast infection, I recommend that you put him on a totally sugar-free diet. Feed him vegetables with a low glycemic index. Eliminate potatoes, corn, wheat, rice - all carbohydrates should be eliminated from a sugar-free diet. This is a really important step. I wish I could tell you that it's easy to treat and prevent yeast infection without worrying about diet, but it's not. Your pet should eat a diet that helps maintain healthy and balanced intestinal flora.

The second measure I recommend is to add naturally antifungal foods to your diet, like garlic or oregano, in small amounts. These foods are both anti-fungal and anti-yeast and can help reduce the level of yeast in your dog's body.

In addition to this, you need to know more about it.

Disinfect an ear yeast infection

Besides putting him on an anti-yeast diet and feeding him an anti-fungal diet, the third thing you can do to help your dog get rid of his yeast infection is to disinfect the affected parts of his body.

Usually, a veterinarian will prescribe a cream, ointment or solution to be applied regularly to the affected area. The problem with this method is that as the yeast dies, layers of dead yeast form and accumulate. Unless you remove the layers of dead yeast and disinfect the skin, continuing to apply ointment to layers of dead yeast can end up exacerbating the problem.

It is therefore very important to disinfect the parts of your dog's body infected with the yeast infection. There is no medication or cream that can disinfect your pet - it's up to you.

If your dog's ears are infected with yeast infection, you should disinfect them daily. Some people produce a lot of earwax and clean their ears every day, while others hardly produce any, and the same goes for dogs. Some almost never need their ears cleaned, while others require daily cleaning.

The frequency depends entirely on the amount of waste produced by your dog's ears. If your Labrador has runny ears in the summer, you should clean them every day during this time.

Examine your dog's ears: if they are clean, dry, and don't smell bad, you can wait until the next day to clean them. The frequency of cleaning therefore really depends on the amount of waste accumulated in the ears. If you don't clean up this garbage, it doesn't magically disappear. They turn into earwax, then yeast, and finally a fulminating bacterial infection, unless you take care of it.

You can disinfect your dog's ears with cotton wool and a commercial solution, or with witch hazel. Use as much cotton as needed to remove all waste from the ears with each cleaning. Do not insert a cotton swab into your dog's ear canal.

In addition to this, you need to know more about it.

Disinfect leg fungus

Yeast thrives in moist environments and in folds - between your dog's paws, for example, in the crease of the armpit or groin, and around the vulva and anus. It is therefore particularly important to disinfect these parts on a dog with yeast infection.

A dog only perspires through its nose and its pads, so its paws must be disinfected during humid and hot periods, when yeasts tend to develop.

Depending on the size of your dog, for example, you can use a large plastic basin and fill it with water with a hose or if you have a small dog, you can simply put it in a sink or sink. If you have a giant dog breed, you can try using a tin can filled with water. The goal is to soak the paws and then wipe them gently.

Just spraying or wiping the dog's paws is not enough. Yeast lives under the nails and in all the folds that you cannot reach if the paws aren't submerged in a paw bath.

As a paw bath solution, I recommend a mixture of 4 liters of water (1 gallon, precisely) with one cup of hydrogen peroxide and 1 to 4 cups of white vinegar. You can use this solution several times a day if necessary, to keep your dog's paws clean. "Clean and dry" should become your motto.

After soaking your dog's paws in the astringent solution of water / hydrogen peroxide / white vinegar, there is no need to rinse them. Just wipe them off by patting them down. The solution, once dried on your dog's paws, acts as an antifungal and in principle limits licking and biting.

In addition to this, you need to know more about it.

Anti-yeast baths and rinses

If your dog is suffering from an overgrowth of yeasts on the skin, I recommend that you disinfect his body entirely with a natural antifungal shampoo. You can do this as often as needed.

It is wrong to say that you should not wash a dog too often. Back in the days when shampoos were aggressive, made from coal and tar derivatives, that was good advice. But today there are many shampoos on the market that are safe, will not dry out your pet's skin or damage their hair.

Cereals and carbohydrates nourish yeast overgrowth, I advise against using oat-based shampoos. Oats are a cereal that feeds the yeasts on your dog's skin.

Use an anti-fungal shampoo made with tea tree oil or a mixture of plants, for example. This will help control the overgrowth of yeast on your pet.

I also recommend using an anti-fungal rinse after shampooing during the summer, one to three times a week. I use four liters of water (1 gallon) for a cup of white vinegar or a cup of lemon juice. You can also use 20 drops of mint oil. All three will pleasantly perfume your pooch.

After a tea-tree shampoo for example, and a good rinse with water, follow up with one of these natural antifungal astringent rinses to drastically reduce the amount of yeast.

Never pour these rinses on your dog's head or eyes. Pour from the neck to the tail. Pour the 4 liters of solution on your dog and then work it into the hair and skin by rubbing, focusing on the parts of the body that tend to be infested with yeast - armpits, paws, the groin area and around the tail. Then wipe your dog dry with a towel, without rinsing him. Not only will your dog feel better, the yeast will not reproduce as quickly.

However, be careful with the use of lemon juice and hydrogen peroxide: they can discolor a black dog's hair. If you have a dog with black hair, use white vinegar instead to avoid the lightening effect.

In addition to this, you need to know more about it.

For dogs with stubborn or recurring yeast infection

In many dogs, yeast infection problems are seasonal. When the temperatures and humidity rise each year, they develop yeast infection and smell bad. If this is the case with your dog, you should be sure to disinfect him in the summer and sort out any diet issues that may be contributing to the problem.

On the other hand, if your dog is infected with fungal infections throughout the year - in 30 ° in the shade as in the coldest of winter - it should be considered that he has an immune system problem.

If your dog is invaded by an opportunistic pathogen such as yeast, it is likely that their immune system is not functioning properly.

In my clinic, when I receive an animal with stubborn yeast infection, I do an immunity test to measure its immunoglobin levels (IgG, IgM and IgA). In a dog with a permanent overgrowth of yeast, these levels are generally low.

If your dog has healthy immunoglobin levels, he should be able to overcome almost any infection, and especially an opportunistic yeast infection.

Dr. Becker

Reference:

http://french.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/05/23/chien-demangeaisons.aspx