There seems to be an increasing number of Akitas suffering from an overgrowth of candida that affects their entire body.  Unexplained, itching, coat loss, skin discoloration, sores, redness, chewing—just about any skin symptoms you can imagine without any sign of parasites, like fleas.  First rule out the normal parasitic infections like ring worm, fleas, ticks and even lice. 

I have found that many dogs with yeast overgrowth have a diminished immune response, often caused by low thyroid function.  Do a blood panel including a complete thyroid panel.  If it’s low, begin supplementing with Soloxin.

If you’ve been using antibiotics on your dog, you probably have a huge overgrowth of yeast which can cause ear infections as well as an overall body itching that will be made worse by more antibiotics!  To break this vicious cycle, you need to kill off the overgrowth of yeast.  It may sound counter-productive but first remove all probiotics from the diet.  Your goal in the beginning is to kill all bacteria on and in the body with natural products that will not cause harm.  You will re-establish the good bacteria later on in the program.  This is a sort of “wipe the slate clean!”

Food:  Must be grain free.  It can be a grain free kibble, a raw food or a cooked diet but there must be NO carbohydrates.  Yeast lives off carbohydrates and sugar. 

That means, no rice, no oats, no wheat, NOTHING. Vegetables are okay but limited amounts.  For treats—every dog must have those—use cooked pieces of chicken, freeze dried chicken or beef—a bully sick, freeze dried lamb lung or liver.  Any pure protein treat is okay. Rawhide is okay.  I discovered an amazing dehydrated chicken treat MADE IN AMERICA and ordered from www.konaschips.com  These are truly perfect for all dogs, especially those on this diet.  Keep them refrigerated. 

Look for Great Life Grain Free, Evo, Wellness Grain Free.  These may have added probiotics but in most cases the processing has already destroyed the probiotics which are living cells so don’t worry about that right now.

Give the following supplements twice a day.  You must give all of the following:

Two NEEM capsules
One Olive Leaf Capsule
3 Pau D’Arco Capsules
Zinc: 15mg
2 Capsules of Yeast Defense by NUTRITION NOW
One Grapefruit Seed Extract capsule (250mg)
Two grapeseed extract capsules
One plant based digestive enzyme capsule (a dose may be 2 capsules)

2 tablespoons of organic coconut oil in the food.  Start with this amount and work up to 3 tablespoons daily. You can see if your dog will take it as is (chunks) or it may have to be melted. If the dog does not like coconut oil, then use the gelcaps but this is the most important part of the treatment.  If your dog is borderline low thyroid, coconut oil can help to normalize the thyroid gland since it moderates hormones. 

After 2 weeks on this program, introduce a really good quality probiotic/prebiotic to repopulate the intestines with the right bacteria.  Give the capsules 3 or 4 times a day for the first week, then twice daily. To promote a good intestinal environment, start off with capsules of Saccharomyces which is a bacteria that can establish colonies in the worst environment, setting up a healthy environment for the balance of good bacteria to grow.  Jarrow is one brand available in stores.  For a really great probiotic/prebiotic, I recommend Natren’s Healthy Trinity which is very expensive but well worth the money.

An easy way to get those capsules into your dog is with meat baby foods—lamb, chicken, beef.  Scoop up some of the baby food with the pills and offer it as a treat.  I was always successful when I cooked and pureed organic chicken livers.  What dog does not love chicken liver?

Once you have relief of symptoms you can try to reintroduce limited carbs but only as a treat and not as a dietary staple.  Always keep the dog on coconut oil, plant based digestive enzymes, and a potent probiotic.

You will see relief quickly but don’t go off the diet.  The skin is still fragile, the immune system is just beginning to resolve the infections and you need to stay with it for months. 

© 2008 Barbara Bouyet