e’ve all heard that our skin is one of the first lines of defense
against disease.

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.