Best sugar free food?

[Selves]

Please help, my cocker keeps getting repeated ear infections, the vet says it's caused from yeast. She also has dry skin patches and dry eye. I've read that changing their diet can help but I'm not sure which to get?
Anyone else had this problem and did a change of diet help? I would be very grateful for some ideas

Thank you 

[Mudmagnets]

If your dog is wheat intolerant, it may be a good idea to try a grain free food (that way you avoid all grains), OR one that does not have wheat/wheat gluten, but does have rice/potato. For treats going on the same lines, you could try the Fish4Dogs or Seatreats (used to be Mariners Choice) fish based treats, I give these to Minstrel as he can not tolerate wheat and I found giving him things like Bonio would make his ears gunky. He is fed Forthglade Lifestage Lamb & Rice (a wet food) and is doing well on that.

Branston has not been diagnosed wheat intolerant, but is quite happy with the fishy treats too 

No idea about the sugar contents of foods, but you may like to look at this website which has helped quite a few people choose a suitable dog food, as it give the contents in detail.

http://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/

Just to politely say: I don't think your poll would work in it's current format, as I imagine people will need to make choices of foods to be able to vote for one

[Andrea Ellie]

We had a similar problem with Ellie's ears and I eventually moved her to a food that is grain, and beet pulp free. She did have a grass seed in her ear in between the ear infections but touch wood her ears have been fine since. We feed Millie's Wolfheart but as Mudmagnets said, have a look at All about dog food site as you can exclude ingredients and it will bring up the food options. We also feed the seatreats fish squares too.

[elaine.e]

Carbohydrates break down into sugars, so if your vet has suggested avoiding sugars in her diet, look for a food that doesn't have any grains or other carbs such as potato and sweet potato.

This video is by an American vet and is all about yeast and the problems it can cause and some solutions. It's about 13 minutes long but I think it's worth a watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl_X1I1GJ1Q

[Selves]

Thank you for your help I will look at this site and video.

Oops about the format I wasn't sure what I was doing when I set this up 😊

[Toofast]

Diet will solve so many health problems.
Changing to raw would undoubtedly be the best trial soloution. (you must give any change/trial a fair time to get a good result)
If raw is a no chancer then try a good quality grain free product like; Orijen, Applaws, Millies Wolfheart. Do not feed too much too quickly, much less of these products will be needed or the result may be a runny tum !

[john51]

Can I offer a different view on this?

Repeated ear infections can be due to allergies and it can therefore be worthwhile considering whether there is an allergy to any foods (not just grains). However food allergies are not the biggest cause of this type of problem and it could be an allergy to something in the environment.

What it almost certainly isn’t is anything to do with is the consumption of sugar, whether added to the food or created by the body from carbohydrates. There are lots of reasons why feeding refined sugar to dogs is not a good idea but yeast infection is not one of them.

I have not seen any evidence to show that there is a link between sugar consumption and yeast infection. As far as I can see the idea came from a book in 1983 by an American, Dr Crook, who picked up the work of a Doctor Truss. Unfortunately, Dr Crook did no research to establish whether the theory had any basis but he proposed that there was a major problem with something he called “candidiasis hypersensitivity” – a collection of diseases that he attributed to yeast overgrowth. The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology has dismissed this concept as speculative and unproven. However, many of alternative practitioners have picked up various aspects of this in order to promote their ideologies. The referenced video is typical of this and is a gateway into many other pseudo-scientific ideas.

Of course, if I’m wrong about this and there is evidence to support a causal link between sugar and yeast infection I’d be happy to see any references.

 I’ve had an allergic dog with repeated ear infections and found that a regime of regular ear cleaning along with removal of one food from the diet helped us to manage the condition effectively. Of course all dogs are different and the severity of the allergy is different. I think that your objective should not be to remove sugar (or carbohydrates) from the diet, but to try to see whether there is any allergy or intolerance to any foods and then work closely with your vet to manage the condition. The lengths you go to on that will depend on the severity of the problem.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

[its.sme]

The vet said Bea had Allergies and prescribed Piraton wrapped in a little bit of Cheese.

I didn't want Bea to have drugs for months on and with absolutely no effect, I changed her to Raw and replaced all her pedigree treats with meat only or Fish treats, she is so much better 

Today I noticed she has the start of a Ear infection so we are off to the Vets tomorrow, she has had cheese twice a day for 5 days this week to hide a tablet for cystitis!

I have now confirmed that the issue is Cheese 

I now hope this will stop her having yeast infections in her ears and feet, it's just finding out what start it off, I feed Natural Instinct which has a list of ingredients so is not always easy to find the Food Allergy.

Hope you find the issue soon.

Sharon.