there are a couple other threads on this forum where folks mention homemade shampoos using vinegar, usually recommend cider vinegar. My sheltie male was really itchy this summer & used a recipe I found with vinegar & it really gave him some relief. Thanks for posting yours, it may help someone.

My question is, you didn't find the Dial to be too strong? I would expect it to irritate esp. w/his yeast infections? Was this on his face (where so many folds are)? We used to use coal tar pet shampoos on our lhasa-poodle mix when her skin flared up. But yuck it stunk!

I read somewhere else about a lady that uses the Dial/vinegar soap on her dog to keep his yeasty skin under control. She said not to worry, that the soap was mild enough. You could always dilute it more than the 2 tbs of water. I didn't have cider vinegar, so I just used the white. After the 3 baths, his skin did look a bit dry, but I assumed it was the vinegar.

He always had a problem on his underside, back end between his legs. I got that under control with the vet's shampoo but then he started having problems on top by his tail & on his tail. I kept using the vet shampoo, but the spots just kept moving up further on his body. When it got up by his head & under his face into the folds, that's when I made this shampoo. I washed all of him including his face, around the mouth, top of his head (carefully avoiding his eyes).

This has worked well for us. I liked the way he smelled too. Much better than the vet's soap.

I have a recipe for pet shampoo that also has oatmeal in it plus vinegar, Dawn dishwashing detergent and glycerin. Works wonders on my Bichons who have a terrible time with allergies. It makes a gallon at a time so I don't have to mix it up very often.

Sounds interesting. Can it be made in smaller batches? I have all those ingredients but it would take me a long time to use up a gallon.

I don't see why you couldn't cut the ingregients in half but to tell you the truth it doesn't seem to go bad. I keep mine a long time and it stays okay. I did, for awhile, store it in the refrigerator but at last I just left it at room temp and it was still fine. Good luck and I hope it works as well for your dogs as it does for mine.

Brownthumbia, what is your recipe, exactly?

Petaloid, it is 1 cup oatmeal, I use the quick but I don't think it matters. 1 1/2 cup Dove, Ivory, OR Dawn dishwashing liquid. 1/4 cup liquid glycerine and it's optional to add some baking soda. But, I don't think I would add vinegar if you add the sods...could have an atomic bomb in our kitchen. LOL Actually, I leave out the vinegar because after their bath I spray Apple cider vinegar quite liberally on their coats as they are drying. Now back to the recipe. I blend the oatmeal until it is a powder. and I don't add the soap until I have filled the bottle with water or you will have suds coming out of the jar before you're ready for it. Other than that everything just gets dumped all together and I will say because of the amount of soap it is a VERY sudsy shampoo. sometimes I don't put that much soap in. I have even cut it in half. guess it depends on how much I have on hand. I do shake it, gently when it's bath time. I really hope this helps your sweetie as much as it has mine. good luck.

My Doxie had his first bath with this homemade recipe this morning. I am going to add yogurt and ACV to his diet and hopefully his itching will stop. I will post a follow up in a few days.

After yesterday's post, I have wiped my Doxie's problem areas (skin folds) with ACV soaked cotton pads and have given him live culture yogurt twice. By last night, he was itching less, but today it has completely stopped. I cannot believe I finally found such a simple and inexpensive homemade solution to my pet's problem.

My 8 year old ShihTzu has terrible allergies from Spring until it frosts and she is on meds this whole time too! She gets hot spots ( I assume from licking) and she scratches. We nick named her THUMPER!

I wonder if this shampoo recipe will help her. She doesn't have any hot spots now, but still scratches occasionally.

alanis, I too have a shih tzu and he has terrible allergies..have you found a shampoo that helps?

Twllahughes, you may not have noticed that this is an old thread, so you may not hear from Alanis or others. I hope you do get some replies here because it's not an uncommon problem. Good luck with your itchy pup.

Microtek anti itch shampoo is fantastic. Antifungal, and soothing. Doesn't dry out the skin like some can.

But if your dog has skin issues try a grain free alternative protein food for 6 weeks. Common proteins (chicken, beef, turkey and lamb) are the most common allergen, with grains being 2nd most common. Most allergic reactions show up in skin issues like itching and ear infections.

Sitting in Mexico with my mini poodle rescue "Jimmy" who has hot spots/ring worm/yeast infection.....whatever! Just came from the vet who said the hot humid climate here is the reason he has itchy spots. Closer examination shows a definite dark ring around a lighter red patch that thickens as it heals from antifungal cream I bought here and acv rinses after baths. I plan on picking up the ingredients mentioned by brownthumbia because what the vet recommended was a very costly regime and frankly I have seen a big reduction in new spots since using the acv plus over the over the counter antifungal cream. Am I doing the right thing here?

Hi Sharon

Hot spots, ring worm and a yeast infections are 3 different things and I would think that each one would need to be treated individually. Anti Fungal for the ring worm is fine, just trim the hair back to make sure it gets to the lesion, also be aware that Medications are regulated very differently in Mexico (I used to live there) and you want to be sure whatever you use is not too strong for the dogs skin.

In regards to the yeast infection do you know what the source of the yeast is? Your dog is obviously allergic to it so finding the source and avoiding it in the future will help prevent continued reactions. Many pet foods have yeast in their recipe, it's also found outdoors. If your dog doesn't play a lot outside, I would try changing his diet to a food that is yeast free, then get an antibiotic from the vet to clear up the current infection. My dog was suffering from chronic ear infections. We discovered an allergy to yeast and after changing her food, the problem ceased. It's been two years now without one infection, that's pretty amazing for a lab because they are prone to ear infections.

The hot spots can also be a symptom of allergy and could actually clear up with the change in diet, but if not, you may want to look at some of the cleaning chemicals you use in the house as they could be irritating his skin as well. I would address the ring worm and yeast infections first and see if it helps the hot spots too (I suspect it may). Of course good grooming is key but over shampooing can also cause skin irritations so until his lesions are cleared up, if it were me, I'd probably not shampoo at this time (unless of course your vet has recommended it)

Sophie doesn't have hot spots, but still scratches and licks herself. Not to the point of getting sores. She has been on Grain Free food for a year or so. My husband would give her a bite of hot dog as a treat once a day. So we have stopped that and waiting to see if that is what causes the itching/scratching. I give her a bath twice a week in the summer, once a week in the winter and I use Fresh n Clean shampoo with oatmeal and baking soda. Now if only she wouldn't wake up during the middle of the night to go outside!!! Yawn!!

Mirotek Anti Itch shampoo is anti fungal and works great.

Alanis, that sounds like an awful lot of bathing. Depending on the breed you have it could be too much and why your dog is itching. Over bathing strips dogs of the natural oils they need to keep their coat conditioned. Cut it back to maybe once a month and you're sure to see improvements.

Also house cleaners can also be an irritant to their skin. If cutting back on it's bathing doesn't work, look at the cleaners you're using and switch to more natural cleaners like Vinegar and water.

Alanis...yeast actually feeds on all grains including oatmeal. I would stop using the oatmeal in the shampoo and see if that stops the itching.

Use an alternative protein grain free food like bison, venison. Taste of the wild makes their high prairie version which isn't too expensive but I've had good luck with. You need to go to a pet store not a grocery store to get it or order online.

There is more and more acceptance of the notion that very rarely is food the cause of allergies in dogs. The idea that yeast as an ingredient in food manifests itself as an external yeast infection is as logical as the belief that iron as an ingredient causes (red) tear stains.

Many Bulldog exhibitors have come to believe that vinegar based washes help with so-called hot spots. Not sure. I would stay away from Dial and lean toward a shampoo formulated for dogs - pH etc - and possibly follow some of the suggestions found above.

I'm sorry for your dog's discomfort!

EDIT: Just realized the OP posted three years ago, sorry to have posted now.

"what the vet recommended was a very costly regime and frankly I have
seen a big reduction in new spots since using the acv plus over the over
the counter antifungal cream. Am I doing the right thing here?"

Sharon your description sounds a lot like ringworm, and it can be tenacious so you just have to keep at treatment until it goes away completely. If your dog is getting new spots, I would also try and cover the lesions because it can be transmitted by indirect contact as well, so if your dog scratches it, and then scratches another part of themselves, they can spread the fungus that way. I've found those really large band aids handy for covering sores on my dogs in the past. They are also handy if a dog has a sore they keep scratching at and damaging (just stops direct contact with their nails). I would also recommend you wear disposable gloves when touching the lesions to apply any creams etc.

Salti, your "logic" is wrong. Vet's are recommending no yeast foods when allergies are a concern. Plain and simple.

I would be very much interested if someone could post a link to any study documenting a connection between yeast as a dog food ingredient and canine allergies.

Just an Opinion from a Highly Read Site

PS I get it that there are many, many sites suggesting a connection between yeast in a dog's diet and canine allergies. These sites are frequently on the grain free band wagon.

Our German Pinscher suffered horribly from yeast on her skin. We went for years with Depo shots, that worked temporarily, then while in Florida, took her to a vet here for an aural hematoma, and the vet noticed the yeast issue. He said to get her on grain free dog food immediately !! And NO people treats whatsoever !! We did and within a week, she quit with the scratching and we kept her on ketokonizole and prednisone,,,,but now just a few benydryl, and she is waaaay better. No sticky waxy yeast ..We shamoo her with a combination of head and shoulders along with a dog shampoo with ketokonizole in it.

she is just like a normal pup now and NO constant scratching and odor. We use Blue Buffalo grain free..

Carolyn, isn't it amazing what a grain free diet can do? That's great that it's working so well for your pup!

My seven-year-old mini poodle who is kind of overweight has many problems with yeast on her skin and in her ears. I did a bunch of online research and checked out ingredients in a lot of over-the-counter medication for humans that are OK for dogs. Her skin actually gets dark black gummy patches of yeast. . So what I did was I mix hydrogen Peroxide and vinegar . I don't know if it matters are used white vinegar, and I rinse the entire dog in that with special attention to any thick areas of yeast. I wet towels with the vinegar peroxide mixture and actually soak the worst parts of the yeast infection on the dog with the towels. This breaks up the cell wall of the bacteria and fungus. I bought clotrimazole1% antifungal cream at the $.99 store for $.99 a tube after rinsing the dog in peroxide and vinegar and letting it dry I liberally applied this to all the spots that she had all over her body. 24 hours later the spots were all black I guess because the yeast was dying but anyway then I use the chlorhexidine shampoo right over the ointment that was already on her and made sure to leave that shampoo on for five minutes and I used a fine tooth comb the yucky dead yeast out of her skin. I plan to do it twice weekly til it clears.

Oh and my poodle is on blue buffalo hypoallergenic hydrolyzed one ingredient dog food!!

I have two bulldogs that are prone to yeast infections in their wrinkles and just have terrible skin allergies.

Aside from the Chlorhexidine soaks for their paws, the anti-fungal shampoos, quality food etc, I found the best way to keep them yeast free is by keeping them clean and dry.

Yeast loves moisture, so all the antifungals in the world won't work if you can't keep them dry and clean. That's the only long term solution.

Also, if there's a constant over growth of yeast, that generally means there's an allergy (and regardless of what you heard for laymen, it's generally not food, but rather environmental.) So the moment it starts to get warm here, washing their paws, and wiping them down with a damp paper towel, then drying, after every single walk is a must.

It's a lot of work, but keeps their skin issues manageable.

Hi Everyone~!! After reading all of the comment's on this thread I thought I would add our experience in hope's it will help someone. This happened several years ago with our 4 month old G.R. Murphy, we started noticing red rashes on his abdomen, after bathing him and trying simple things we took him in to our vet. We were told it was just a basic skin allergy that he had more than likely picked up from the Lake water and with medication and bathing it would clear up. It did not......after 2 year's of doing everything humanly possible to clear his skin including sending skin scraping's to U.C. Davis in Calif. , 3 different vet's, and a constant stream of extremely expensive medications, potion's and lotion's I intensified my research. I found an article that described everything Murphy was experiencing perfectly, I found a few more and all of them led to dog's being put down with no cure. Well I never give up so the one thing I found similar in every article was that it may be an internal parasite, so comparing all of the different medications came up with a list and started researching internal parasites and the medications that would kill them. After the process of elimination I found one Medication that neither I or any of the others had tried..........Interceptor. Unfortunately all of my research was lost with the computer I had done it on but the research paid off. I got the medication gave Murphy the chewy tablet and within 6 days his skin was beginning to clear, it is a once monthly treatment and by the 2nd. month all open sores had cleared, we were able to wein him off of all of the medications he was energetic and happy again. They have improved the medication and it is now called Interceptor Plus. Unfortunately all of the medications had taken a toll on Murphy's Liver and we lost him a year later. 6 years ago we brought a New Member of the Family home another G.R. , I had ordered the new Interceptor but it had not arrived yet and we saw the same rash..................................at that time they had stopped producing it while building a new plant so I was so desperate I had to order it from Australia told them the situation and they had it to my home within a week, gave Hunter his chewy and All is well. In closing I hope this info will help someone and remember Never Give Up~!!!!! Here is a link. Love to All. Jan. http://www.interceptorplus.com/