Yeasty ears

[TeresaW]

Pierce is on the awful Royal Canin food for urinary health. He has calcium oxylate stones. So far, they have stayed controlled and surgery has been avoided, but I really hate this prescription food and I cannot understand why neither SD nor Royal Canin will make grain free versions of their Rx foods.
Pierce has been on this about 18 months and has actually had very few problems, until the last month. Suddenly he has some yeasty ears! His paws are a little red, but the ears seem to be the main area.
I am really thinking of trying him on a food that is grain free that may keep his urine at a more neutral ph. It also needs to be low calorie. The Science Diet food put about 6 pounds on him, which is why we are now on the Royal Canin moderate calorie. I just joined the Raw Food for Bulldogs Facebook group to see if they can give me ideas for raw if I decide to go that route. My biggest fear is changing him from the food that has seemed to control the bladder stones and ended up with him having surgery.


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[Cbrugs]

Raw can be great for stones. Joining the FB group is a great idea and hopefully they will make you feel more comfortable about it. A lot of vets recommend the prescription foods because they didn’t study nutrition. All those foods are nothing but crap and usually end up causing more problems.


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[Frenchie Grrrl]

Pierce is on the awful Royal Canin food for urinary health. He has calcium oxylate stones. So far, they have stayed controlled and surgery has been avoided, but I really hate this prescription food and I cannot understand why neither SD nor Royal Canin will make grain free versions of their Rx foods.
Pierce has been on this about 18 months and has actually had very few problems, until the last month. Suddenly he has some yeasty ears! His paws are a little red, but the ears seem to be the main area.
I am really thinking of trying him on a food that is grain free that may keep his urine at a more neutral ph. It also needs to be low calorie. The Science Diet food put about 6 pounds on him, which is why we are now on the Royal Canin moderate calorie. I just joined the Raw Food for Bulldogs Facebook group to see if they can give me ideas for raw if I decide to go that route. My biggest fear is changing him from the food that has seemed to control the bladder stones and ended up with him having surgery.


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I would suggest also joining a much more active raw feeding FB group, and also look to see if there is a raw feeding group for people that have dogs with calcium oxylate stones.

I would do a lot of reading before you consider just going to a grain free kibble. While they may not have grain, they are still extremely high in carbohydrates, which isn't going to help with the yeast issues. Also, the carbs that they add in place of the grains might not be good for the stones.

 

[Cbrugs]

Raw Feeding Bulldog Breeds is active on FB. I’m sure there are others as well.


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[TeresaW]

Thanks. I have been considering this for awhile. Either raw or cooked. That way I can control so much of what goes into their diet. We have Oren, Pierce’s son, too and a 14 year old dachshund. I just had to do some research again about the pH. Some stones need the urine to be acidic. These need it to be alkaline.
I would love to do surgery and remove what is there and start the diet with no stones, but I also don’t want to put him through surgery if we can avoid it. As long as he remains comfortable and is peeing a good stream with no bleeding, he is okay to avoid it. If it becomes necessary, we have an awesome surgeon here.


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[Frenchie Grrrl]

I feed mostly Answers products, so I see a lot of their posts on canine health. They have a Health Guide with recommendations for specific health concerns, and will also work with owners over email (at no charge) to address your dog's specific needs. They might be worth checking out as another resource before you make the leap.

 

[2bullymama]

Thanks. I have been considering this for awhile. Either raw or cooked. That way I can control so much of what goes into their diet. We have Oren, Pierce’s son, too and a 14 year old dachshund. I just had to do some research again about the pH. Some stones need the urine to be acidic. These need it to be alkaline.
I would love to do surgery and remove what is there and start the diet with no stones, but I also don’t want to put him through surgery if we can avoid it. As long as he remains comfortable and is peeing a good stream with no bleeding, he is okay to avoid it. If it becomes necessary, we have an awesome surgeon here.


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You can also look into The Honest Kitchen... call them and they will help you decide which of their food would help with your babies issues.

 

[Honeys Owners]

There's a good chance your dog will need removal, but either way it's good to treat them medically as well. Hopefully your vet ruled out any medical causes such as Cushings disease; or hypercalcemia resulting from various other conditions.
1)Most important thing you can do is have dog drink a lot of water to dilute the urine. You can add low sodium meat broth eg from bouillon to food and water, and buy a water fountain to encourage more drinking.
2)Avoid high oxalate foods such as nuts, rhubarb, beets,parsley,swiss chard,green beans, and spinach
3)Check urine to make sure it is above pH 6.5, ideally 6.5-7.5 is best. You can attach a styrofoam cup to a stick to catch urine, and check it with pH strips or a pH electronic meter. You may need to give potassium citrate (75mg/kg once or twice daily) or calcium citrate (about 60 mg/kg once or twice daily) to raise pH of urine. You don't need a special Rx diet from vet if you make sure your dogs urine pH is above 6.5. You can buy frozen raw food that doesn't have fruit to avoid the sugar that promotes yeast.
4) Give a doggie probiotic such as Probiotic Miracle, Proviable DC, or if you can't get a commercial product, give some milk kefir or live sauerkraut from refrigerator section of health food store.
5)Sometimes hydrochlorothiazide ( 2mg//kg twice daily ) is added as a medication to reduce calcium in urine if your dog doesn't have high calcium in its blood and is getting recurrent stone.
6)Avoid any vitamin D or vitamin C supplementation.
7) an Adequan injection is helpful, extra benefit if your dog has arthritis