How to prevent and treat dog yeast in muzzle folds on hot days?

A more aggressive treatment is required for skin fold dermatitis of moderate severity. Malaseb shampoo may be the option you are looking for. This is a medicated shampoo on prescription. If you already tried this, antibiotic course will help as well. Maintenance treatment, following resolution, can be established with diluted hibiscrub or betadine solution. Please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

Great question! I would recommend an antibacterial wash over a cream daily. The most important step is getting those crevices dry after. Any remaining moisture will cause a breeding ground for the yeast and bacteria. I would recommend this daily. Talk to your vet about antibacterial wipes (different companies make different medicated wipes). You could also try a small amount of baby powder in the crevices to help dry the area. I hope this helps! Kisses to Rosie!

Yeast infections are especially itchy, crusty, and smelly. Often a dog starts with a rash or with simple itching but the skin thickens to an “elephant” skin appearance. The itch is extreme and the odor can be especially troublesome. Parts of the body or the entire body can be affected. Malassezia overgrowth is particularly problematic where there are skin folds ("armpits," eyelids, facial folds, lip folds, throat latch, and especially between the toes). Treatment can be topical, oral, or both. Topical treatment is best used for localized spots of infection while oral medication would be better applied to larger infected areas. If the yeast infection is recurrent or if one wishes to supplement oral medication, topical and oral treatment can be combined. Oral medications are available through your vet. Shampoos such as Chlorhexiderm Max® or Malaseb® shampoo both strip skin oil and kill yeast; however, other anti-yeast products include Selsun Blue®, Miconazole® shampoo, Nizoral® shampoo, Douxo® shampoo and more. The pet must be bathed twice a week to start and the shampoo requires a 15 minute contact time (meaning do not rinse the lather for 15 minutes). It is important to realize that yeast overgrowth occurs in response to a primary problem be it allergy, seborrhea or something else. If the underlying problem is not controlled, yeast dermatitis is likely to periodically recur. It is common for allergic dogs to require some kind of periodic if not on-going anti-yeast therapy.

If you are observing skin lesions and an odor he may have both a bacterial and yeast infection. While some cases can be treated topically and with medicated shampoos, more severe cases often requires oral antibiotic and antifungal therapy. As a first line therapy, start with a medicated shampoo that can be used for both yeast and bacterial infections such as Malaseb or Virbac or products recommended by your veterinarian. Additionally, it is important to make sure he is on a monthly flea prevention as many pets are sensitive to fleas. If this is secondary to allergies or what we refer to as atopy, he may require additional therapy including an allergy vaccine.

Snoopy's skin issues could be a result of allergies or even systemic diseases (such as Cushing's disease or hypothyroidism) that can compromise the immune system and weaken the skin barrier to infection. Some yeast infections can be managed with prescription-based shampoos containing climbazole, ketoconazole, or other antifungals. To my knowledge, there are no safe and effective over the counter anti-fungal shampoos for dogs. Your vet should be able to prescribe an appropriate shampoo for Snoopy. I realize that you are unable to medicate Snoopy, but realize that some skin yeast infections do not respond to topical medications or shampoos alone and require oral antifungal medications. Hopefully this won't be an issue for her. I hope that she's on the mend soon!

Hi and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Oral antifungals are available through your veterinarians office and truly work best in a situation of such overgrowth. The e collar is key to preventing licking, so great to hear you are taking such good care of her! New advances are being made in the allergy world for our pups as well. Things like Apoquel and cytopoint (an oral and an injection, respectively) are now available for our pets and have made a WORLD of difference for many of my clients. If you have not discussed this with your veterinarian-it's time! Why're great. For the sore areas-until you can get her in to be seen-you can apply triple antibiotic ointment twice daily to deter further bacterial infections, just make sure she cannot lick any of it off. I hope this information helps! These products may very well be a world of difference for Izzy!

This is probably due to a severe allergy, although it could also be fleas or mites. First of all, in order to rule out skin parasites, you will need to treat Rufus with a high quality flea treatment (e.g. advantage), then get him to the vet to perform a skin scrape - this might reveal an infection or a mite infestation. If all of those came back negative, the next step is to treat the allergy symptomatically and try discovering the cause of the allergy. Some medications can be given by the vet in order to repair the skin lesions (steroids and antibiotics). simultaneously you should start him on a prescription hypoallergenic diet for at least 2 months. Hopefully you will see some results after all this, if not you and your vet should consider putting him on a long term allergy treatment (Atopica or Apoquel).