So about a month ago I noticed Red was licking more than her usual amount. When we brought her in, she sat up against the couch and we noticed that her vulva was inflamed and pinkish/red. Brought her into the vet who said it could be 1 of multiple causes (urinary tract infection, skin infection, excessive licking, maybe she scratched herself...etc). He gave us a topical gel and also an antibiotic. That cleared things up in about a week or so.

Today, I noticed she was scooting and doing the licking thing again. I checked her skin and she's back to having the inflamed pinkish/redness again. I called the vet a few minutes ago and let the receptionist know that Red is having a reoccurrence. I'm just waiting for the vet to return my call on the next plan of action. I did put the cone back on her and re-applied the gel in the meantime. Sorry, I don’t have the name of the gel on hand at the moment but it’s for minor cuts, scrapes and abrasions.

I applied the gel to her hoo-ha (vulva!) via cotton ball. When I took the cotton ball away from her skin, I noticed that there was a very faint brownish/yellow discharge left on the cotton ball. But before I applied the gel, I didn't noticed any discharge on her skin though so I'm not sure if this is stuff leaking out from internally or from her skin and I just didn't notice it.

Has anyone else's pup had issues like this? Do you think there would be any benefit to putting Red on a probiotic supplement and/or including yogurt in her diet? If so, are there any recommendations for specific brands of probiotic/yogurt or if there's something specific I should be on the lookout for?

Yogurt wouldn't hurt anything. I give mine plain greek yogurt when she is getting close to going into heat. She licks constantly when she is getting ready to go in heat. It helps sooth her some but won't fully fix a yeast infection once it is happening. Mixing a little apple cider vinegar (with mother) into their water can help also.

Sierra has never had an issue like that but has has UTI in the past, we keep her on these 2 items all the time. we also noticed her last 2 UTI were on a diff flavor of food, since we took that out of our rotation she has not had another one.

CranMate Chewable Tablets- UTI help
http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0071LIV66?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00

Nutramax 30 Count Proviable Health Supplement for Cats and Dogs- probiotics
http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B001O3UE9E?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00

TwisterII wrote:

Mixing a little apple cider vinegar (with mother) into their water can help also.

Thanks Jenn - I think I'm going to start adding yogurt into Red's diet and see if that helps in anyway. She's a super duper picky eater and even if the yogurt doesn't help with the yeast/skin infection, then maybe it will be enough to entice her to eat her TOTW kibble. I gotta ask though, what is the "with mother" part? Red has a giant bowl of water that I refill a couple times per day. Would you say a teaspoon of ACV to that bowl once per day is enough or too much?

Jennifer, much appreciated for the recommendations. I also just purchased a shampoo and leave in rinse to see if that helps with the surface irritations. These products are supposed to ward off skin infections and also have a probiotic in them. If that doesn't help that I am thinking it's an internal infection and may turn to the cranberry tablets/probiotics. The vet finally returned my call but I missed it. His message just said to continue with the gel and I could also try a hydrocortisone cream (which leads me to think that he thinks it's a surface infection). I didn't want to put Red on the oral antibiotics again because she had a little bit of a stomach upset last time and refused to eat at all. Ahhh....poor pup. I think I'll need to invest in a more comfortable (reusable cone) for her.

I didn't know probiotics would be helpful for yeast infections. I always thought they were for diarrhea and other digestive problems.

I have seen these types of products geared towards (human) women to treat/prevent yeast infections and figured the same could be applied to canines also. It's a wonderful day to be a female!!!

The yogurt and cranberry juice certainly makes sense. It was the probiotic part that interested me. I had never heard of it before. I like learning new things.

Yup! I've seen them in stores before but are pretty sparse. I believe the probiotics that treat yeast infections vs digestive issues have a different organism combination or concentration.

Amanda, I would also add n a teaspoon of coconut oil to Red's food, it may encourage her to eat better, coconut oil is a antimicrobial, anti fungal, anti bacteria, anti everything.

The acv with mother, is the real cure all, plain old acv is ok, the one with mother helps clear up a variety of ailments.

good luck putting the ACV in the water, our 2 stopped drinking when i added it! (does great work for us humans to )

the TOTW Sierra formula was the one giving Sierra the issues, just in case you are feeding that one.

Oy vey! The Sierra formula is what she just started a few days ago! But I think it's safe to say that is not the cause because she had this same issue last month and she was at the time still on the same formulas since last summer.

I don't have ACV with mother. I only have the plain old ACV on hand at the moment but I just added a tsp to her giant bowl of water and she lapped it up no problems. Not sure if she'll continue to drink it next time though!

Renee, I would love to get her on the coconut oil but I baked with it once and she promptly turned her nose up. But I'll give it another shot as just an additive to her food and see if that makes a difference.

Thanks ladies!

Alrighty, I finally got to speak to the vet.
Red is peeing her normal amount and frequency so without actually brining her into the vet's office for a urine culture, the vet thinks that this is a surface/skin infection.

He highly recommended to start her on a probiotic for dogs. He said adding yogurt to her diet is OK but not necessarily needed. He agreed with me that it wouldn't hurt to baby wipe her down after she pees each time so that urine isn't sticking to her and causing future irritation. And in the meantime, I can continue with the gel (it's a neutralized zinc gel) for the AM and apply the hydrocortisone in the PM.

Wish us luck!

Also I tried the coconut oil last night. Red licked a little bit off the spoon and ate a few bites of her kibble but then just stopped. She finished her wet food that didn't have the coconut oil mixed in it though. So I guess I know where she stands on that experiment!

Amanda, you can also try and use the coconut oil as a skin lotion. Sofie had some ear troubles back at the start of February, and my new vet is borderline holistic, and I asked her if using coconut oil for cleaning her ears would help, and she replied that studies show coconut oil is effective in anti fungal/bacteria, it wont hurt if you try.

Renee - I think that would be an excellent idea. Maybe once she's all healed up I could use the coconut oil as maintenance and it might act as a barrier to keep her pee from irritating her external skin.

I know I'm just being crazy silly here but at least she'll be getting some kind of coconut oil nutrition if she decides to lick after it's applied to her skin....LOL

hahahaha...Amanda that was what I was thinking...You might want to try it sooner, you never know, I would rather have them lick coconut oil than some of these ointments

i use apple cider vinegar with the mother to help keep fleas away. i tried putting it in the water but they didn't like it and refused to drink it. so i diced to half the douse and mix it into the food with peanut butter, so far they seem to love it when i do that lol.
i agree with Renee about using the coconut oil, is much safer if they lick it vs other things that might be given. i usually use it when Leo gets hot spots for a day or two and then spray some vinegar for another day to three days, clears up very fast.

Great thanks, I started applying it last night on Renee's suggestion. I should see by this weekend whether or not it has cleared up some. She's starting to be a champ with me applying stuff to her.....lolol.  I tell her to go lay down and she willingly spreads it and twitches her legs when I apply the cotton ball. She used to fight me on this but I guess she knows she can't hide now!

Lol, Amanda, let us know how it goes...It's funny how they react to us. Miya has progressively gotten better about me handling her. I can check her all over, yet it has been an ongoing thing. as a pup I couldn't touch a paw. So I imagine with age and our persistence they just let us do our thing to keep them healthy. Sofie, ugh, she is terrible, and I am surprised she hasn't had issues like Red. She pee walks, and her belly gets all sorts of gross, and when I clean her, she is a puppy possessed. Hoping that one of 2 things happen soon, she either learns to clean herself properly and stops pee walking, or stops nibbling on me when I clean her....who said puppies are great, hahahahaha

Oh my gosh, Renee!!!! Red does the same thing as Sofie!! Sometimes when she's doing her #1 or #2, she will walk. Sometimes her lower belly and inner thighs get damp and nasty too. She used to hate it when I baby wiped her down but now she just kind of tolerates it. Sometimes she'll wiggle and try to walk away but usually I make her roll over or I have her over my knee (when I have to wipe her bum) so she's captured and can't run off. It's the worst when she walks back around and steps in her deposit by accident. Luckily she's only done this once with her poo and she did NOT like it on her paw.

The only saving grace is that she's has never had the inclination to eat her own poo. My niece has a siba inu that used to do that when she was pup. It was so gross. I remember my niece, my sister and myself had just caught Satchi about to lunge her for poo and we all yelled out "NoooooOOoOooo!!!!" in unison as we reached for her....but alas we were too late. Glad she grew out of that though.

Lol, glad it's not just me. I had taken her to the vet for her ears, and vet put Sofie out and commented on her thighs, and I was so embarrassed, vet was like oh she's a baby still she'll get it...hahahaha. I was mortified, i was like Sofie baby couldn't you stay clean for one day, ugh. It's nothing to see Sofie attacking Miya while Miya tries to potty, and nope neither one at their poop. although when Miya was real young she did eat deer poop,she did grow out of that, but the deer no longer bed on our property, hmmmm, wonder why, lol.

Miya got sophisticated and her palate changed!