My Lab is a resue . Hr is 7 now was 15 months old when he can to our house and stayed. Last 3 years he ha a smell like fritos bad. Vet has gave him steriods and medicine for fungus and yeast. We ha done this for 2 years and does not work. Special shampoo for his problems. Nothing is working. Can anyone help me.
Hi and welcome to the forum. Sorry, your lab is having a rough time with what sounds like some sort of chronic yeast/fungus infection. I am presuming your vet has discussed exclusion diets with you? If you feel you are not really getting on top of this problem, then it may be time to consider a different vet or referral to a specialist vet.
About five years ago, our then 8 year old Callie began to have issues like you are describing. Our Vet at the time gave her steroids and a special shampoo. Her condition did not improve at all and in fact, she began to lose most of her coat. After that Vet told us to "watch" a sudden growth in her jaw that I had a suspicion was dangerous as it had already moved the teeth of her lower jaw, I got a second opinion...from a Vet who breeds labs. She reminded me that Labs actually can have skin and smell issues worsen from shampooing them and she recommended we simply rinse her with the garden hose on a regular basis; she took her off the steroids, put her on Fish Oil and Vitamin E, did the surgery to remove a tumor that had we waited and watched would have caused the loss of her lower jaw. The moral of my story is this....if what your Vet is doing is not working, get a second opinion and be wary of over-shampooing a Labrador which can strip their coat of its protective and natural oils and actually make the situation worse. I hope you can figure this out....I know it was extremely stressful when our now nearly 13 year old Callie was going through this.
Zeke had this for about a year before we realized it was a skin yeast infection. We just thought he was a stinky dog. Poor thing! Vet thought that a round of antibiotics ruined the good stomach intestine bacteria allowing the yeast to over grow causing gas and itchy skin with the Fritos smell. What worked for us was a combination of things.... We bathed in the medicated shampoo once a week for a month then only when we noticed the itching or red spots. He got fish oil in his food. A probiotic. And as a treat we had plain yogurt, one with active cultures. In Europe you have something called kefir that is supposed to be better than yoghurt. We also tried to keep him as dry as possible so had to put the water tub away. After five months he is not stinky and only occcasionally has red spots and itch. So once In awhile we go back on the probiotic and use the medicated shampoo. We have yoghurt every day still and continue fish oil. Things I had trouble with was brushing the flaky yeast off and getting in between his toes. There was something about if you don't manually remove the yeast that it will come back. Diet is also an issue for me. They have a high quality dog food but I give carrots as a treat. Carrots being high in sugar feed the yeast. Another fave was apples so had to stop those. Treats are now just their dog food. If you have been doing this for two years and the vet hasn't talked about more options than the shampoo and steroids then I would try a new vet. Sometimes different people share info in a different way that we may understand better. Good luck!
Very helpful post @CamK, @Emily_BabbelHund you might find interesting in your situation? (well not you, of course! )
