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Location: Norfolk, UK
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 2,886
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Yeast infection & possible allergy? Help!
Hi everyone,
Ive not been on here for a while but am kind of hoping you guys can help me out
i apologise in advance for the long post
I brought a French Bulldog puppy just over 4 weeks ago, she has just turned 6 months old. When i got her i noticed she was a little itchy, nothing major but slightly. She was being fed lamb and rice james wellbeloved for breakfast and having raw turkey in the evening. I knew nothing about raw so changed her onto Jollyes K9 Optimum (Chicken and puppy) as my staffy does really well on that food.
A week later the itching got bad, she was scratching her ears to the point she caught the inside and made it bleed, she was rubbing her head and face on the floor or on your leg and licking at her paws and front legs, i googled it and found loads of stuff on Frenchies with allergies and also loads on ear infections, so i took her to the vets that monday morning. The vet was adamant it was a food allergy and sent us away with Piriton tablets and told to give 2 - 3 times a day and start her on a new food to see if that helps. He also gave me Advocate for her to rule out fleas etc and he said her ears were all clear despite the scratching.
I left the vets and went straight to Jollyes and after speaking to the lady in Jollyes for ages about what she feeds her 7 etc etc i decided to give Proplan sensitive Salmon and rice a go, now from this point on i know i went wrong now im looking back but it was so heartbreaking to watch her scratching at herself that i thought i was helping her but in fact i may have made it worse by changing so many foods in such a small amount of time. I didnt change foods gradually cause i was sure they were causing her to flame up, now im not sure. Like i said i tried the proplan but after 3 days i thought she seemed no better and after more reading online i decided it must be the rice in the food causing it so i put her on James Wellbeloved, Turkey and Veg. She wasnt keen on this food and still no improvement so i stopped all dry food and resorted to boiling her a chicken up with some rice thinking that would give her belly a chance to settle and hopefully get out her system whatever was causing the reaction. Up to this point she was having piriton 3 times a day and although all the food changes had gone on and her stools had got softer she didnt have diarrea. So i put her on the boiled chicken and rice and decided to ring the vets and ask if i could speak to someone about the allergy testing as it was killing me to watch her hurting herself scratching. The minute i put her on chicken and rice she got diarrea and even the vet said thats rare as its so bland.
All that happened from one monday to the next monday, (i know i changed too much too soon but it really was unbearable to watch). Anyway the nurse rang back and explained a little about a broad spectrum allergy test so i booked her in the same day to have it done, but when i got there i explained all the food changes and he said that a food allergy was still top of the list for him. However, by this point she had a few little scabs where she had been scratching and had started to lose hair round her ears, eyes and top of her head and cheeks so he scraped some skin and put some tape between her toes and went and had a look under the microscope. He came back and said he had found some yeast and that it could be what the problem is or it could be the allergy has caused the yeast. So he gave me some Malaseb shampoo and told me to bath her 1 - 2 times a week and keep her on one food for 6 - 8 weeks. He said i should see an improvement in 2 weeks after she has 4 baths.
This friday just gone i woke up in the morning and she had scratched holes in the side of her face that were bleeding. Ill be the first to admit i know hardly nothing about feeding raw but by this point i had lost all hope in the ingredients that were going into the dry food and i needed to know EXACTLY what she is eating, so i went to the butcher and got a weeks worth of pet cuts which had beef in, she had that for breakfast and tea yesterday and breakfast this morning but her poo now looks like running black tar, so i went to pets at home and got her there raw turkey packs as i know she was ok on the tukey when i got her, shes only had that for dinner and hasnt had a poo yet so ill give that a little while and see how we go.
This whole time she has been taking her piriton religiously 3 times everyday to try and at least get rid of the symtoms for her. I also read up online that giving live yogurt can help with yeast so i was giving her a spoon of that for 2 days last week but then i stopped as i wasnt sure if that was going to help with the "food elimination."
Im so confused about what to do and how to help her, yesterday i brought her one of those plastic cones to go on her while shes in her crate cause it seems to be through the night shes scratching her skin open and im saving one of her piritons for bedtime too
she just went rigid when i put the cone on her, i cried myself to sleep cause i felt so bad leaving it on her but i didnt want her to hurt herself anymore
she barely slept last night as she wouldnt move so she kept falling asleep sitting up, by 5 this morning i couldnt take it any more so i got up with her. Today i put a pair of toddler socks on her back feet and put hair ties on them while i popped out cause i couldnt bring myself to put the cone back on her head. Shes had her 3rd bath today and because of all the food changes its hard to say if there is any improvement and now to top it off my staffy is now scratching more than normal, but i dont know if im just being paranoid lol i asked the vet if the yeast could be passed on and he said cause xena is 2 and a half and healthy her immune system will be able to fight that off.
Ive ordered some Braggs apple cider vinegar that should be here tomorrow as well.
Im really at a loss and need someone to tell me where im going wrong and what to do from here so please absolutely any input will be gratefully received