For several months we tried everything to heal one of our puppies. For no reason we could figure out, she was scratching herself until she would bleed. Because our previous bulldog had allergies, we were used to using all natural products. Tegan (our sick puppy) lived in a pretty controlled environment. At this time, besides puppy class both our dogs pretty much were at home. So we didn't think they could be in contact with anything harmful.

We tried bathing Tegan and rinsing in vinegar and soaking her in oatmeal baths. The vet did skin scrapings, then a skin biopsy and finally sent blood work off to an allergist, all the while putting her on antihistamines and steroids.

We switched dog foods and when the allergy tests came back, tried to remove as many of the food triggers as we could. (Because she was so young, the allergist said the tests were not full proof.)

After spending over $2,000 and finding no relief, a friend suggested trying a different vet. We had nothing to lose. Once again, the new vet thought it was allergies and sent us home with antibiotics and a special shampoo. HOWEVER, this time, the vet called me in the evening. During all the vet visits, I had expressed concern that our pup did not have allergies. She didn't really act like our previous bulldog. The second vet listened to me! She called an allergy doctor friend of hers and said they both thought it was perhaps a viral infection.

She changed the shampoo to an antibacterial formula, increased the antibiotics and within a week, Tegan showed marked improvement. After a month, her skin rash was gone as was the constant itching.

A week ago I was out for my morning coffee with Tegan when a gentleman commented on how nice she looked. I told him it hadn't been so just a few weeks previous. After chatting a bit, he said it sounded like she had a yeast infection. (He told me he'd been a veterinarian...but had to leave before I could ask him why he was no longer practicing.)

Since then, I've looked up dog yeast infections on the internet and have found thousands of references. Don't get me wrong. I've been searching the internet for answers but yeast infection never came up in the searches I ran. Allergies were always at the top of the list.

It stinks. I could have saved tons of money, actually it only cost me $3.25 for a cup of coffee at the Cave Creek Coffee Company for someone to diagnose my dog's problem. Go figure!