Yeast infection
If your dog smells like corn chips, it's not the shampoo. It's yeast.
What it looks like
- A musty, cheesy, or corn-chip smell that comes back a day or two after a bath.
- Red-brown, greasy skin between the toes, in the ear flaps, armpits, belly folds, or under the tail.
- Rust-colored staining on the paws, and in long-standing cases dark, thickened skin that looks like elephant hide.
Why it happens
Yeast lives on every dog's skin. It only becomes a problem when it overgrows, and it overgrows where it is warm and damp: folds, toes, ears. Allergies and oily skin feed it, and it hides under a waxy layer that ordinary shampoo slides right over. That is why the smell keeps coming back.
Do tonight
- Dry the damp places completely. Between the toes, inside the folds, the ear flaps. Moisture is what yeast wants.
- Wipe the affected folds and paws with a plain damp cloth, then dry again. Skip human antifungal creams unless a vet says so.
- Write down where it is and how strong the smell is. If it keeps returning, allergies are usually driving it, and that is the conversation to have with a vet.
See a vet if
- The ears are involved: head shaking, scratching at the ears, dark waxy discharge.
- The skin is thickened, black, or cracked.
- It clears up and comes right back, more than twice.
Repeat yeast almost always means an allergy underneath. A vet can put together an antifungal plan and look for the trigger.
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