In fact, the skin’s first line of defense actually
consists of a bunch of bugs, living in harmony. The collective
group composed of all these bugs is called a microbiome.

These many different types of bacteria and yeast live on our pets’
skin in balance, sort of respecting each other’s boundaries. When
a yeast called Malassezia steps over the line and overgrows its
boundaries, the result is most often some pretty intense itching.

This intense itching is oftentimes misdiagnosed as skin allergies.

What’s important to know is that the increase in heat and moisture on a dog’s skin, due to allergies, gives this yeast a leg up and it overgrows and causes itchiness all by itself.

Just like any other yeast, Malassezia likes to grow in moist,
dark areas where the “sun don’t shine.” This yeast likes ears
(where it is commonly mistaken for a dark sweet smelling ear-
wax), underarms and groins, under the chin and around the
anus and private parts.

Malassezia is lipophilic, which means having an affinity for fats
or lipids, so dogs who tend to have a lot of oils on their skin will
be more prone to the overgrowth of this yeast.

Dogs who are particularly greasy, such as the Labrador Retriever, have more
problems with Malassezia. Dogs who swim a lot, leaving damp
areas where the yeast can thrive, can also have more problems.

That said, almost any dog can have a problem with Malassezia.
Many people confuse Malassezia with candida and attempt to
treat dogs with starch free diets, thinking this will handle the
problem. This is internet misinformation !

In fact, the problem with Malassezia is the change in
the microbiome of the skin, and not a candida of the gut.

ALLERGIES AND MALASSEZIA GO HAND IN HAND

Allergies encourage Malassezia overgrowth by causing inflammation.
Skin inflammation from allergies, followed by scratching and
biting, makes the skin irritated and moist, resulting in yeast
overgrowth and giving the allergic dog a double whammy. It’s a
vicious cycle because the yeast is, in itself, extremely irritating
and itchy.

A dog with both allergies and Malassezia, which is
very common indeed, has two very good reasons to itch.

There’s also a triple whammy as over 60 percent of dogs who have Malas-
sezia overgrowth are actually allergic to the Malassesia and this
allergy to the yeast intensifies the entire situation.

Malassezia is commonly found on the thickened, denuded areas
of the skin of dogs with chronic allergies. A dog with Malassezia
can have skin in the groin or underarm that looks like someone
sprinkled pepper on it, or have little red bumps in areas, or gray-
ish crusts that flake off the skin, or an orange-peel appearance
to the skin, or hairless, elephant-like darkened skin. Dogs with
Malassezia often smell, with an odor similar to old musty shoes.

SUBTLER SIGNS

Malassezia isn’t always this obvious. It can have a variety of
sweet, yeasty smells and can appear as just
a reddening between
the toes or some brown crud on the top border of the toenail, or
even as a dark grey-black patch on the skin. Malassezia can pres-
ent itself as a reddened groin area or red inflamed areas under the
folds of the front or rear legs. When it occurs in the ears, which
is very common, you may find thickened ear flaps with an orange
peel texture inside the flap, along with very itchy ears and brown
ear secretions. If you put a cotton ball down your dog’s ear canal
and find dark brown stuff on it, then it’s very likely your dog has
Malassezia overgrowth in the ear. A dog’s ear canal is much lon-
ger than ours and you’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg.
Oftentimes, but not always, the budding yeast organisms can be
found by placing tape on the skin and then staining it under the
microscope, appearing as blue round or oval cells.

TREATING MALASSEZIA

While bacterial infections of the skin are typically recognized
and treated, fungal and yeast infections can often go unde-
tected, resulting in years of frustration because one of the real
causes is unidentified.

It’s important that you know if your dog has Malassezia in
addition to allergies because Malassezia will cause the itching to
persist even after the allergies begin to improve. That’s why I
recommend that you treat for the yeast infection concurrently if
you believe it’s present.

In my consulting practice, I prescribe and
prefer an energetic allergy elimination procedure because it’s so very effective. This stops the itching, irritation, increase in temperature and moistness of the skin and slows the growth of this yeast. Basically, we eliminate the allergies with Allergy Elimination 4 Pets technique which I have Trademarked.


SAY NO TO IMMUNE SUPPRESSING DRUGS

I specialize in treating allergies and have treated many patients
who’ve been given Apoquel (or other immune suppressing drugs)
because they have been incorrectly diagnosed with allergies –
when they actually have a simple overgrowth of yeast. As I said
earlier, it’s far more common to see a combination of allergies
with concurrent Malassezia, playing off each other and creating a
more intense itch.

The bottom line is that skin problems in dogs
are epidemic with younger and younger dogs succumbing to both
allergies and yeast or yeast alone. I predict that the reckless use
of these new allergy drugs will produce next generation dogs that
have even more problems. Steroids like prednisone are meek and
mild when compared to what Atopica and Apoquel do.

SHAMPOOS CAN MAKE IT WORSE
I recently got a new English Labrador Retriever puppy from a
very devoted breeder. She adamantly told me that Labradors
should never be bathed, but simply hosed down with water. She
said the only shampoo she used if she really had to, was an enzy-
matic shampoo. Her dogs all had beautiful coats and no smell. It
makes sense, because by not using a detergent shampoos, we’re
keeping the microbiome intact and healthy. Once the imbalance
sets in, the yeast has the opportunity to overgrow.
Washing your dog with a non-abrasive detergent shampoo, such
as a Castile soap shampoo, will prevent the oil and microbiome
from being stripped from his coat and skin.
Conventional veterinarians will often prescribe medicated sham-
poos for skin conditions. But washing your dog repeatedly with
detergent based, medicated shampoos is the last thing you want
to do when he has a skin problem. Harmless-appearing shampoos
with essential oils may actually be stripping your pet’s micro-
biome, and many shampoos labeled “natural” are anything but,

often containing potentially toxic chemicals like sulfates, which
they disguise by calling them “coconut-based.”

You’ll, perhaps, indulge me in a personal story. I got an area with Malassezia overgrowth, because
I treat so many new patients who have Malassezia. So I treated
myself with ketaconozole, which is a very good antifungal drug,
for two weeks with no results. Then the dermatologist told me
that I only needed to take one pill once only, then eat a little food
and then go to the gym an hour later and work out till I was really
sweating. I did it and it worked.

Here’s the rub, dogs sweat through
their feet, but that’s about it. They can get Malassezia all over their
bodies. So that’s another reason to avoid conventional drugs.
The yeast grows slowly, yet tenaciously. It can be difficult to get
rid of because once it’s established it’s slow to recede.

In my clinical experience, an unsettling number of dogs are pre-
scribed immunosuppressive drugs when they simply have
a Malassezia yeast problem causing them to itch. The problem is
that this drug eviscerates their immune system while we need to
actually increase immune function to help handle the problem.
The moral of the story is that we should not lose sight of the
forest for the trees. The bugs on our pets’ skin make up their first
line of defense. It seems, in treating Malassezia, many of the
common treatments are backfiring and that’s why so many dogs
continue to have this problem.

The post MALASSEZIA- THE YEAST ON YOUR DOGS SKIN -IT’S ITCHY AND SMELLY! first appeared on Natural Remedies for Dog Allergies.

symptoms of IBD. The thing is, just like in the case of actual wars being fought between countries, these clashes and brawls in your dog’s gut can be avoided.

Many years ago I heard a lecture by a veterinarian highly re- nowned for his research in the field of Irritable Bowel Disease. Experience had taught me that questions asked privately were often times more candidly answered. That’s why I discreetly asked, “Why do you think we’re seeing an epidemic rise in IBD?” He replied, “We’re vaccinating them with the same stuff we’re feeding them.” That was almost 20 years ago

Why would the stuff in vaccinations cause IBD? You may already be familiar with the fact that vaccines contain chicken embryo and bovine serum. During vaccination, these food proteins are in- troduced into the body along with the other vaccine components. A dog’s immune system identifies all of these vaccine components as enemies, and, far as the immune system is concerned, when any enemy shows its ugly face, it’s time for battle. IBD in our dogs comes about when the battlefield is in the gut.

SIGNS OF WAR: THE SOLDIERS SET UP BASE CAMP

When a dog has IBD, the soldiers (inflammatory cells) infiltrate the intestinal walls and set up base camp. In the trenches are the regiments made up of different types of white blood cells such as lymphocytes, plasmacytes, eosinophils, and sometimes neutro- phils. After many battles, the intestinal walls become thickened and nutrients are not absorbed as well. This collateral damage within the walls of the intestine commonly results in symptoms such as diarrhea, mucous or blood in the stool, vomiting and weight loss.

THREE-LETTER AGENCIES: IgA AND IgM

In governments, three-letter agencies like the CIA and FBI pro- vide intelligence services identifying enemies. The immune sys- tem uses immunoglobulins, also known as antibodies, to identify enemies: three-letter agencies protecting your dog’s body.

Special immunogloblins live in your dog’s digestive tract. The immunoglobulins IgA and IgM serve as the gut’s intelligence service by identifying enemies. They initiate the battle in the gut by calling in the regiments: the eosinophils and plasmacytes. This starts the battle of food intolerance or food sensitivity, battles that can easily escalate to the War of IBD.

It’s important to know that food intolerances and sensitivities cause a delayed response in the intestine. In other words, your dog can eat the offending food on Monday and the reaction can occur much later in the week.

Most dogs are fed the same thing day after day, and this repetition tends to actually create food intolerances and sensitivities. It’s pretty typical for a dog parent to sigh in relief, if not jump for joy, when a food that agrees with a dog with IBD is finally found. Unfortunately they then feed that food day after day, greatly increasing the chance of later developing a reaction to that same food!

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In fact, garlic contains a variety of active components that can effectively inhibit the both occurrence of and development of cancer.

The European Journal of Nutrition [in 2023], after conducting a meta- analysis of 61 research articles, confirmed garlic as a rich source of compounds with anti-tumor potential. 

Garlic was to have cytotoxic, cytostatic, anti-angiogenic and anti-metastatic activities both in in vitro and in vivo models of colorectal cancer in humans.

Animal and cell studies in 2021 suggested that garlic can inhibit carcinogenesis through various pathways, including inducing apoptosis, suppressing cell proliferation, reducing tumor size and enhancing the activity of important enzymes such as glutathione.

HISTORY OF GARLIC

Garlic (Allium sativum) has been valued for thousands of years for medicinal purposes.  Five-thousand-year-old Sanskrit and Chinese medical manuscripts describe the benefits of garlic. Garlic was also a valued staple for the Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans.  In fact, fifteen pounds of garlic was the going price for a healthy male slave in Egypt.  When King Tut’s tomb was excavated, bulbs of garlic were found scattered throughout.

Hippocrates advocated garlic for infections, cancer and digestive disorders. The great Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder recommended it for a wide variety of ailments ranging from the common cold to epilepsy, leprosy, cancer and tapeworm. 

For as long as people have been using garlic, they have been feeding it to their animal companions.  However, recently, the safety of garlic for dogs has come into question.  Knowledge is a powerful thing – but astute pet owners should gather all the data before shunning this celebrated bulb.

THE TRUTH ABOUT GARLIC SAFETY- YES- IT IS SAFE AND VERY HEALTHY

Garlic is approved as a flavoring, spice or seasoning for use in pet food, yet the FDA has garlic listed in its poisonous plant database. 

WHAT?

Follow along and check out the absurdity of this study.   

Let’s get to the bottom the garlic story.  Where do you draw the line on how much garlic your dog can get in his meal?  The data presented in the FDA study referenced above was based on the average Golden Retriever [at 75-lbs] eating about 75 cloves of garlic in each meal before any adverse effects occurred. Similarly, a dog weighing mere 12-lbs would need to eat [30 grams of garlic] which is about 8 to 10 garlic cloves in a meal to experience any adverse effects. 

Do you know anyone who would even consider feeding 75 cloves of garlic to their Golden Retriever in one meal?

Importantly, the reported adverse effects of garlic add up to a total non-event over the past 28 years.  The National Animal Supplement Council responsibly records both Adverse Events and Serious Adverse Events resulting from the use of natural products. In fact, the President of the NASP thanked me many years ago, for clarifying that all the BS about garlic that pet owners see on the web is a tall tale. Because garlic is quite simply… NOT A PROBLEM.

What is significant is all the positive research delineating the medicinal powers of garlic.  Of all of garlic’s reputed benefits, one is its use as a natural antibiotic, with reports going back through history.   Modern researchers have compared the effectiveness of garlic with that of antibiotics and have found that garlic has a broad-spectrum anti-bacterial effect. Additionally, bacteria don’t seem to build up a resistance to garlic as they do to many modern antibiotics. Garlic  also increases general immune activity along with the activity of Killer Cells (cells that seek out and kill invading bacteria and cancer cells).   

THE SECRET TO USING GARLIC

There’s a secret to releasing the healing powers of garlic.  Allicin is the most powerful medicinal compound derived from garlic, providing the most important health benefits.  Garlic must first go through a chemical process to create allicin.   When garlic is crushed, a specific amino acid contained within it reacts with a specific enzyme, creating allicin. 

USE RAW GARLIC

You must finely chop or crush a garlic clove then wait for 5-10 minutes to allow the chemical reaction to occur. 

CRUSH OR FINELY CHOP THE RAW GARLIC

Additionally, allicin is unstable when exposed to air and heat so don’t wait more than 20 minutes before you top your dog’s meal with some healthy raw garlic. 

WAIT 5-10 MINUTES AND FEED

Buy a garlic press or simply chop some garlic very finely and let it sit for 5-10 minutes.  You can then mix it in with a tablespoon of cooked, cooled chopped beef or chicken and place it on top of your dog’s meal.

_______________________________________

Garlic has also been fed to dogs to help prevent fleas.  When using garlic as a flea preventive it’s important to use a castile soap or detergent free shampoo.  Dogs don’t sweat as humans do and the garlic ‘aroma’ comes out in the oil on their coat.  It takes several weeks for the garlic compounds to build up in the oil and a detergent shampoo removes the oil and you’re back to square one again.

______________________________________

A host of studies provide evidence that the allicin in garlic works to inhibit cancer formation.  With cancer being the number one cause of death in dogs…let’s all get going with garlic!     Voila- a meal fit for a Dog, a King – or a Pharaoh!

My book, Dr. Khalsa’s Natural Dog goes over the benefits of garlic and doses of it for your dog.

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No kid says, “Hey, Mom! Look at the dog! Isn’t he funny?”

Instead, the family members feel their pet’s discomfort: “Stop itching! Please, stop!

Diarrhea isn’t a pleasant diversion, either. Accidents in the house, constant concern over a pet’s diet, and frequent visits to the veterinarian aren’t really among the good things in life. The incidence of IBD (irritable bowel disease) in cats has been rapidly escalating for years and has just about reached epidemic proportions. Numerous companies, over the years, have formulated special foods for cats experiencing chronic and sometimes debilitating diarrhea.

Pruritis (itching of the skin) and intestinal disorders, such as IBD, have become so very prevalent that it’s seriously alarming. In my opinion, our relationship with our pets is supposed to enhance our lives while we enhance theirs. In four decades of veterinary practice, I’ve grown to understand that both obtaining health and maintaining health in our pets do not have to be constant struggles.

Regarding problems with diet, food allergies are not the same as food sensitivities (or intolerances). Food sensitivities are much more common than food allergies, but food allergies are a real problem, too.

A person with an allergic pet typically follows a path of avoidance. Pet owners will carefully read labels to circumvent foods to which their pets are allergic. However, allergy patients will often subsequently become allergic to ingredients in new foods if they eat them day after day. For example, a pet that was never allergic to lamb may become allergic to lamb because of repeated exposure to it.

Older drugs, like Benadryl and steroids, don’t work nearly as well anymore. Therefore, veterinarians often prescribe new and stronger drugs- with side effects, which often handle the itching, routinely. But using these drugs is a catch-22 because they impair very necessary vital functions in the animals’ bodies.

It doesn’t have to be this way. If you’ve been dealing with allergies for years with your own pet, it may be hard for you to believe that you can cure allergies. In this blog, you’re going to learn how to find out what is wrong with your dog or cat. You’re also going to learn what you can do about it.

The post What to do about that itchy dog? first appeared on Natural Remedies for Dog Allergies.