Recurring yeasty rash

I posted early in the winter about this beautiful rash Juno was sporting on her abdomen:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/SingedWhiskers/Dog/moar/6847a6d8.jpg

I'm just assuming it's a yeast infection.

We got it cleared up the first time with antibiotics, an anti-inflammatory, and Gentaved spray. It went away but then a few weeks later came back, and my friend who's dog always has skin infections, said that I could use the Gentaved spray on it again. So I did. And it went away. And then it came back... lather, rinse, repeat a hundred times.

The rash is back at the moment and I'm bringing her to work with me tomorrow to have it looked at. But what are they going to do? Send me home with more antibiotics? That would be fine and dandy but I know it's just going to come back... I don't want to just keep treating the symptom and pumping her full of antibiotics, I want to know WHY this stupid thing keeps resurfacing and what I can do to get rid of it for good.

Ideally I would put her on raw and see what happens but that's not going to happen while I still live at home. My parents allow the cat to be on raw because he'd pretty much be dead otherwise, but this rash is not going to kill Juno lol. Although coincidentally, the first time this rash showed up was a couple weeks after she was taken off raw and put back on kibble.

It's just.... argh. It looks gross and ouchy and she's noticeably annoyed by it too. Maybe I will have to invest in some Vetericyn because I'd feel better spraying that on her all the time instead of using an antibiotic/steroid spray.

Thoughts? Advice?

Nomi's underside looked just like that and it was staph. We determined her rash was initially caused by allergies and turned into staph because her body simply couldn't fight it. She is now on Benadryl daily and we clean her belly daily and make sure she is never left wet, etc. I also have a stronger allergy medicine I can give her if needed to get it back under control.

Could it be allergies and it's just more than her body can fight off? Are you giving her anything for allergies? Does it bother her?

Honestly I would go back to raw. If the kibble is giving her a rash, then it could be doing all kinds of things that you don't see. Not to mention that chronic rashes can hurt and drive a person insane let alone a dog. A rash is the first sign that the immune system is out of wack and that can lead to far more serious issues, including bone marrow disorders.

If it's caused by allergies (which is common), simply bathing her a couple of times a week may help a lot in preventing it from coming back. Allergies to things like pollen or molds in dogs used to be thought of as inhaled allergies like in people, but it's now known that for dogs they are more like contact allergies and physically washing the allergens off helps tremendously for dogs with mild problems. The shampoo doesn't really matter that much as long as it is as "plain" as possible (no fancy scents) although personally I have had good success with Douxo's Calm shampoo with Pip.

Try fish oil pills and Claritin. Violet has been taking both along with a raw diet and her yeasty skin infection completely went away. It's definitely worth a try IMO! Violet was having to be on constant steroids before we tried this, and as soon as she was off of them it would come back. Nothing else worked til we tried these things.

Classic has awful reoccurring skin infections and we normally do the antibiotic route. I really don't think his is food related as he's on raw and we have done a ton of food trials. I'm going to start bathing him at least once a week and see if that helps because I'm really thinking it's an environmental allergy.

I originally thought it might be food related but I didn't want to jump and say it was kibble related.... she can't go back on raw and I quite honestly know that a food trial would never be successful in this house. But I'm starting to think it's probably not food related.

It does bother her. The first time it appeared it didn't seem like she minded it (if I hadn't actually seen the rash, I never would have thought she was paying an unusual amount of attention to her belly), but I do notice now that yeah, whenever it crops up she licks and chews at it a lot.

She's not on any medications for allergies or otherwise, but she does have a pretty "delicate" system to begin with - in the summer she pretty frequently ends up covered in hives after she's been rolling in the grass or whatnot. We'll give her Benadryl then but haven't used it as a preventative.

I guess we'll see what the vet thinks, and then try bathing and keeping it clean to see if that helps prevent it from coming back.

What cleaning products, detergents, etc do you use? Anything change there?

I know of a dog on another forum that had a reoccurring staph infection they traced to a corn allergy. Put him on raw and he still got it, then she realized Fabreeze has corn gluten in it and she had been spraying carpeting, his bed, couches, etc with it. She stopped using and he got better

Seriously, the bathing has done wonders for Pip. He gets allergy shots, too, which have helped him tremendously but I used to have to put him on a short course of pred +/- antibiotics a handful of times over the summer/fall and this year, despite being an awful allergy year in general, I've given him pred exactly once for only two days. Raw didn't help his allergies at all (he's been allergy tested anyway so we know he has environmental allergies) and he actually did quite poorly on it, so he is on kibble and his allergies are better controlled this year than maybe ever just by adding the bathing at least once a week.

If you end up thinking it is allergies, there are a few herbal formulas I've had good luck with, too, if you want to avoid antihistamines or steroids. Kan's Damp Heat Derma and HerbSmith's Clear AllerQi are the two I've used myself.

Can't think of anything around the house that's changed. Bedding has always been washed with the same detergent.... general cleaning stuff has been pretty consistent. But I've been doing that, trying to think what changed or what happened that she'd all of a sudden have this issue.

The bathing was one thing the vet mentioned last time we were in - but she mentioned it in a "if the antibiotics/sray don't work, then we can try shampoos" kind of way - and technically the abs and spray DID work, they just didn't stop it from never coming back again lol. I know we carry Duoxo products at work, kind of minimally, so I don't know if we'll have the shampoo, but we'll see. Otherwise all the shampoos I have for them are very froo-froo heavily scented shampoos lol. My friend has been seeing a holistic vet for her dog's issues, he has a chronic staph infection basically, and she was told to try bathing him in Dreft? What do you think about that?

I'll look into those herbal formulas too. Thanks! I'm not against using meds to clear up the rash, I just don't want her to be on them all the time since the rash keeps coming back.

I love picking your guys' brains so that I'm not clueless about all my options

Since you cant currently go back to raw, can you at least supplement with some things like MSM, coconut oil, fish oil, or maybe somethings like Fresh Factors or Longevity from Springtime? Has she been on probiotics with all the antibiotics?

I haven't heard of using Dreft specifically, but I wonder if the recommendation is because it's so gentle and scent free? I don't see anything wrong with using it.

Yea I meant more like if you didn't want to use steroids or antihistamines as long term maintenance drugs you could try the herbs instead (although really, herbs sort of ARE drugs ). Agreed with another poster that fatty acid supplements like fish oil might help as a long-term management option, too.

When you said it was "yeasty" did you mean it's moist? I wonder if you sprinkled a little baby powder on the rash if that would help dry it up a bit and make it less uncomfortable?

Gonzo had a REALLY awful yeasty rash, that spread all over his underside very suddenly.

He went on a round of prednisone, then antibiotics. It wasn't fully gone, so I switched him to full raw, and it all went away. He also got his rash after going from raw to kibble. TRY to get your parents to agree to it? If it spreads, you could be looking at hundreds of dollars in Vet bills, like it was for Gonzo.

Baking soda and antifungal baths every week, add probiotics to food (plain yogurt or a supplement) as well as salmon oil and kelp. AVOID foods with yeasty/starchy ingredients like potato & sweet potato. Supplement with as much raw as you can.

Disadvantage of being an employee at busy clinic: when you bring your own pet in, it is whenever a doctor has 5 minutes of free time to quickly look at your pet, and there is not much "talking" involved. =P

Doc took a quick peak at it, said "ooooh yuck", sprayed some Gentaved on it, handed me the cephalexin and methylpred and went in to her next appointment lol. We'll finish this course of meds to get us back to square one and then I'll try some of the suggestions here to keep it at bay - taking matters into my own hands, like usual.

So, I just feel like updating where we're at...

Rash cleared up when she was on her meds, of course. 3 days after her course of antibiotics ended, the rash began coming back (she was still on methylpred at this point). It didn't look bad at all, hardly noticeable (Pic) but holy cow was she ever irritated by it this time. If I touched it she would pretty much crawl out of her skin and go crazy scratching and chewing at it. She was scratching at it so much that she was bleeding. I was ridiculously frustrated.

Gave her a bath with Earthbath Tea Tree & Aloe shampoo, plopped some Neosporin on it (seemed like a good idea), watched her like a hawk and made her leave it alone. It began healing up. That was a couple weeks ago and her skin looks really good now.... fingers crossed! Normally it doesn't go away that fast, or stay away for this long.

She is getting weekly baths with the Earthbath, and also getting fish oil, kelp, and probiotics every day. I can only hope that something in that regimen is working. Stupid rash makes me lose my mind every time it comes back lol it is so annoying.

So glad you seem to have it under control. Thanks for updating.

If it's recurring, it's a good idea to wonder if there's a systemic infection going on.

www.greatdanelady.com has run some good articles about systemic yeast. Between her articles and Mordy's wealth of knowledge I've learned a LOT.

Rash

My dog Aspen has the exact same rash that you showed in the first picture. She got it last year and we were able to get it under control with a bath and neosporn. This year however is a different story, it comes around the first of winter and I believe it is because we take her over to grandma's and grandpas's house and she will lay in front of the fire place until she starts panting. The other dogs of the house love laying in front of the fire place so Aspen likes to follow suit. We believe this is the what is causing it but not sure why. She is on grain free kibble and in the summer time has no issues rolling in the grass playing frisbee. Going to try more baths, salmon oil, and baking powder to dry it up. Also keeping Aspen from licking it and from laying in front of the fire.