[fostermom]

I have a rescue that, for various medical reasons (including needing antibiotic treatment for lyme), ended up on multiple courses of antibiotics, pred, antihistamines, etc. After almost four months of constantly being on one course or another of medication, Rocky started chewing on his paws and would even refuse to go out on wet surfaces... we finally found out he had inflamation between the pads of his feet. His coat became very coarse and started falling out, he got yeasty ears. He developed a UTI. The vet suspected food allergies. She also kept putting him back on meds for these "issues"...I argued that I thought the meds might be WHY he was developing all these symptoms as from researching, I too suspected a yeast overgrowth. I ordered Dogzymes probiotics off the net and started adding that to his food and the change was dramatic. I also started doing maintenace ear washes (using Blue Powder Ear Treatment) which I've decreased to once a week and his ears have had no further problems with his ears. To clear up the inflamation on feet I started wiping them once to twice daily with betadyne and have also decreased the frequency of that to once every several days. His coat is now soft with no shedding. He's just a much happier, healthier dog.
BTW, I did do a thyroid panel as the symptoms for that can be similar and his values were normal. I would also make sure your lab is on a quality food, probably something novel to the dog in case food allergies might be contributing. I was alternately feeding Eagle Pack duck and sardine.
Rocky is doing great now. I did not use the yeast removal kit although I considered it. Simply adding the probiotics worked for Rocky. Best wishes your lab starts feeling better.