What does systemic fungal overgrowth look like exactly?  You might be familiar with symptoms such as an unpleasant smell, often compared to the smell of cheesy corn chips, or a recurring ear infection.  Maybe your dog has what is known as elephant skin, when the skin becomes blackened and rough in certain areas.  Or perhaps your dog suffers from alopecia.  Even one of these symptoms could mean your dog is suffering from a fungal overgrowth.  It is unpleasant for both you and your dog but there is a solution, so keep reading.

Before we look at how to combat a fungal overgrowth in our dogs we need to understand where it is coming from.  There are a number of contributing factors and educating ourselves is the starting point to ensure a healthy, happy dog.  Let’s break it down.

The Causes:

Antibiotics 

Antibiotics kill off good bacteria which causes a biological vacuum and, in nature a vacuum will always be filled, so what happens is the fungi take over and fill the vacuum where the healthy bacteria used to be.  This causes a ripple effect which leads us on to Leaky Gut.

Leaky Gut

Let’s explain the life cycle of the fungi. The fungi that is causing the problem in the gut starts off as yeast which then changes into a fungal form.  This fungi then burrows through from the GI (Gastro Intestinal) tract and into the blood stream, resulting in Leaky Gut Syndrome.  So, we are looking at yeast (fed by sugars), which turn into fungi, which then causes leaking in the gut lining.

Back to those carbohydrates!  Did you know that a dog’s diet should never contain more than 20% carbohydrates?  The reason for this is that carbohydrates turn into sugar in the gut.  This sugar feeds the yeast in your gut.  Dogs that are fed a kibble or biscuit diet are typically getting up to 70% carbohydrates so you can see where the problem is coming in.  A dog with a fungal overgrowth needs to be placed on a 0% carbohydrate diet in order to starve the overgrowth.  We’ll look at options for doing this in the next section.

The Solution:

We recommend a two-pronged approach.  On the one side we need to be feeding our dogs a species appropriate diet.  For dogs with a fungal overgrowth, we recommend a PMR Diet (Prey Model Raw).  Eating a species appropriate, raw food diet means no added preservatives or sugars in our dog's food, which means no opening the door to those nasty bacteria.  A diet based on a variety of ‘prey’ which our dogs would naturally eat in the wild is the most beneficial for them and provides all the nutrients they need.  

On the other side we have our MicroMed Everyday Probiotics.  Our everyday formula, which is sprayed directly onto your dog's food, outcompetes the detrimental microbes and fungi by incorporating healthy microbes into the gut.  With these two in place, your dog’s defences are stronger, and their body is better able to defend itself against any nasties.  Returning to a natural approach will ensure long term results and over all better health for your pet.