Yeast Die-Off: Equal Parts Incredible & Insane
Yeast Die Off
When you transition your dog to a better food, you're cutting off yeast cells in the gut from their favorite food source: carbs that break down to sugar. Without food, they starve, and these yeast cells slowly begin dying off.
When you further add our coconut oil solution to the mix, this die-off accelerates. Yeast cells that have overpopulated your dog's gut for months or years will really start pushing daisies. Unlike an antibiotic, our coconut oil solution kills the bad bacteria while leaving the good ones to thrive.
This is a bit like most sustainably good things: painful in the short term, life-changing in the long term.
The Herxheimer Reaction
After dying, all those dead cells and toxins have to leave your dog's body.
When large numbers of bacteria, yeast cells, or fungi die, their physical remains and their toxins find the exits - they often don't go quietly.
During this period of Yeast Die-Off, your dog's symptoms (the ones you hoped to be rid of) may actually be exacerbated for a period of a few days, up to a few weeks.
DO NOT PANIC. This is a good sign things are working.
The lungs, skin, kidneys, liver, colon, and lymph nodes need some time to completely eliminate these cells and toxins from the body. You may notice a break out in your dog's skin, itching, shedding, increased fatigue, and maybe even some strange-looking stools. This is called the Herxheimer Reaction, and it is completely normal.
One Last Exodus
You've actually dealt with this before. Most of the symptoms your dog's been suffering from are excess yeast cells trying to escape the body, just in little spurts, over and over again as they are overfed, overgrown, and over-excreted. (Hence the recurring symptoms you have been dealing with for so long.) This is just one last, and final mass exodus.
Now that we have cut off the food source with the diet transition, if you stick to our guidance and stay strict in keeping your dog's diet clean, you should never have to go through this again.
If you can both weather the storm together, you’ll wind up with a new dog who feels very good. By the way, owners of some dogs, like large mutts, may not even notice this Herxheimer Reaction. Good for you.
An Important Note
Because antibiotics do not discriminate between killing good and bad bacteria, putting your dog on antibiotics at any point of this journey will start your dog's gut over from scratch. If your vet prescribes an antibiotic, make sure to ask if there's an alternative before giving it to your dog.