Evanger's #GetPetHealthy Nutritionist Question of the Week: Food Allergies and Yeast Overgrowth

Question from Heather Robinson Taylor:

I have a question about food allergies. If your dog is prone to food allergy and yeast overgrowth which carbohydrates in food are a better choice? Potatoes, sweet potatoes, grains, peas, lentils? #GetPetHealthy

Here's the answer:

Yeast infections in dogs, Candidiasis, result when a fungus called Candida takes up residence in your dog’s body to an extent that health and comfort are compromised.  Left untreated, your dog’s itchy, inflamed tissues can become a breeding ground for secondary infections, so medical treatment is necessary. 

Candida thrives on carbohydrates, and many veterinarians do suggest reducing the amount of carbohydrate fed as part of a protocol that might also include lifestyle changes and medications. The ideal percentage of carbohydrate in the diet depends on the severity of the condition, the dog’s age, and other variables.

Candida thrives in warm, moist climates and in warm, moist parts of your dog’s body (inside ears and between toes, for instance), and veterinarians sometimes recommend kibble as the basis of the diet as its low moisture content, often just 10 to 15 percent, can be helpful.

When kibble is recommended, consider our Meat Lovers Medley dry food, which combines beef, rabbit, and pork meat but contains no chicken.

Your veterinarian might suggest added meat to improve the diet and dilute the carbs in the kibble.  In that case, Evanger’s provides a number of options in our canned 6-oz. Game Meats, which are ground  Buffalo, Duck, Rabbit, Pheasant, Beef, Chicken, and Pork meat with no sugar added. Our 13-oz. Hunk of Beef is simply a pot roast in a can for dogs, with no other ingredients, and also combines well with kibble.

You might wish to eliminate kibble as much as possible.  In that case, consider our high meat content Super Premium Beef Dinner and Chicken Dinner in 13-oz cans, which combine meat with kale and spinach, a bit of guar gum to soften the food, and vitamins and minerals.  These are complete, balanced maintenance diets that are free of added sugars. 

Regarding your query:  We tend to vilify ingredients, to label some “bad” and some “good.”  I do confess to a slight bias against white potato, which is not as nutrient dense as the others listed. Otherwise, all of these ingredients may be appropriate because you will be feeding them IN MODERATION.

Please note that Evanger’s suggests rotating through various meats and carbohydrate sources to help prevent your sensitive dog from developing new sensitivities to an ingredient that might be overfed.

As a final note, the ingredients “brewer’s yeast” and “selenium yeast” do not, and cannot, cause yeast infections or contribute to them.  Both ingredients are made from inactive (dead) yeast cells that are rich in natural nutrients (B-vitamins, especially B-12 in the case of brewer’s yeast, and selenium in the case of selenium yeast) that are less toxic and more assimilable than their manufactured counterparts.