Expert: Dr. Louis N. Gotthelf - 10/7/2008

Question
my french bulldog has pretty bad tear stains that i can only seem to dent with soap and water on a rag, but even then they never go away, but the bigger problems we have with this yeast is that she has it in between all of her toes so she licks her front paws excessively to the point where the fur on one of them was all pink instead of the whitish cream it should be (i don't know if she made more yeast form there or what) and she also has it on her "privates" and she has even once before gotten a full blown yeast infection from it. We got prescription pads and this yellow cream from the vet which helped her at the time but later on when they ran out and the problem came back we called the vet and they said we can't get refills without having another vet appointment and unless i clean the area at least once a week it gets really yeasty but then when i do clean it (i use earthbath all natural grooming wipes) that seems to make it worse for awhile. I just cleaned it yesterday and right now she is running her butt on the carpet trying to scratch it and it is pink, swollen and irritated. i feel bad for her because she's obviously miserable but i have no idea what to do to fix it. it seems like everything i do makes it worse. is there any way to fix this without seeing a vet every month for the pads? Thanks.


Answer
Yeast infections between the toes are common in allergic dogs, so if your vet is just treating the feet with medication and not addressing the allergy, it will never subside.  There is a spray that we are using called MALACETIC that seems to kill the yeasts between the toes and relieve some of the itching.  But your dog may need to be on some oral steroids for a while to help deal with the allergy symptoms.