Severe, recurring (yeast) ear infections

[Holly]

Hi all! 

A little intro... My name is Holly and I have a 3 year old Goldendoodle named Peyton. He is our baby and by far the most well behaved, well rounded, friendliest, happiest dog we've ever been around. He is our 'child' and we are so thankful to have him :) 

One issue, though, that we've been unable to conquer is his recurring yeast infections. His ears are CONSTANTLY filled with black/brownish snotty-like-substance  goop. They are stinky (although his whole self does not stink, just if you lift the flaps and get a whiff) and constantly irritated. We clean them out every day and have for the past year or longer, we have tried a million things and nothing seems to stop the yeast.

We have spend THOUSANDS at the vet trying to get to the bottom of his issues. We have had approximately 10 prescription drops made for us, all of different mixtures. Some really caused his ears to be inflamed and seemed to make issues worse, while others seemed to possibly be slightly working, but never once were his issues gone despite constant and very consistent use.

We then searched the internet and went the holistic dog food route. We've spent at least a thousand on that ($75 a bag, feeding a 100lb dog, it adds up quickly!) ... we tried fish first, grain free, everything we read on the internet, we've been doing this for almost a year now. Still, nothing.

We've used Zymox a lot over the past year and while we saw a slight improvement, it was extremely inconsistent and despite using it at the exact time every day, we could never really tell if it was helping. We've tried daily oral allergy medications as well, and still, nothing. He is not a swimmer and is never in/around water. He's only been bathed maybe 3 or 4 times his whole life (could this be it?? I've seen things that say you have to clean them often to rid their body of yeast, but then others that say bathing regularly could CAUSE skin issues - and the last thing we need is to make him more uncomfortable!), as he never needs it and has a perfect coat/skin without it. We are constantly plucking hair out of his ears and we keep his fur pretty short to try to increase air circulation to those nasty ears.

I am desperate ... we've reached out to his breeder and she's never seen an issue this bad. When he was at the groomers, she said the same. Our vet is wonderful and always willing to try new things, but nothing has gotten to the bottom of it. He deserves to be pain/bother free and its hard when twice a day we are in his ears removing the gunk and/or applying this or that medication.

Our latest try has been at homemade food. We were doing beef/eggs/supplements for the last 6 weeks and I swear it made it WORSE! He is now chewing on his bottom?? And seems to be itchy (he's never had skin issues prior).. So... at least we can eliminate all of those things and never go back, as possibly one of those elements was the issue (possibly the supplements?) ... we are now doing chicken and vegetables with a little bit of plain yogurt. We just started this this evening and as with all food changes, will not see any results for a while. I figured, in the meantime, it would be worth a try to ask you guys here.

Any experience/suggestions would be so appreciated. We have the sweetest puppy and are at a loss on how to clear him of these awful, yeasty ears! 

Thanks in advance and happy new year!

Holly

[Ginny Nightingale]

Great advice--yeah for DK! The only thing I would add is that my dog that has trouble with her ears is MUCH worse when on chicken and I see that you have just switched to chicken--she does better on fish--and you might want to try the foods with limited ingredients...good luck!!

[Holly]

YIKES! This scares me enough to stop the chicken before we even really begin... do you feed kibble or homemade? We've tried a holistic fish kibble, but continued to find ingredients down the list that were recommended to avoid for yeast issues. It landed us to the beef/egg/supplement mixture... the supplement seemed to have increased the yeast - but I wasn't positively sure which of those three things it was so we just switched it all (only as of yesterday) ... Any food suggestions or info on success you've had with certain diets is very appreciated! 

[F, Calla & Luca]

Medically it does not sound reasonable that chicken causes a problem.

[Lynda Kamrath]

Chickens these days have so much fed to them, that the meat must be affected.  My husband and dogs still love routisserie chicken and eat one every week.

[Karen & Maple]

Holly, I use Proviable DC by Nutramax

http://www.nutramaxlabs.com/dog/dog-digestive-health/proviable-dc-f...

I get it from my vet. I have ordered it online (Amazon). I am however concerned about the storage and shipping temps as it needs to be kept at or below 77 degrees. I recently had a chat with an Amazon rep who tried to find out exactly where in the U.S it was coming from. She couldn't nail it down. I now also see that it's sold on chewy.com they could probably tell us how it's stored and they do have fast shipping. I suppose you'd have a better chance for those temps this time year vs summer. But if your vet carries it, you may want to spend the extra $10. But who knows if shipping to them is any safer? So far though, it continues to work great.

[Lynda Kamrath]

Oh, we have had this problem with several dogs and this is the routine we have come up with.  First, use ear cleaning solution and apply several times a week when the dog is having problems.  Clean ears out with cotton balls or q-tips after the ear cleaning solution.  Then apply NeoPrefef powder (get it at the vets) and apply this daily as needed.  Then we also use PhytoVet CK spray and apply to irritated areas and skin rashes.  This seems to clear up any ear problems we have had.  BTW, yeast infections are very contagious as I discovered when I got a vaginal yeast infection from my son when he was a baby.  I asked the doctor how in the world could I get a vaginal infection from my baby?  He responded, so you wash your hands every time you change a diaper?  I had to respond that I probably did not, and he said well that is it.  You better believe I was very careful about washing my hands frequently after that.  So, just make sure that you are not reinfecting.  Wash all her bedding and give her more frequent baths while she is having this problem with her ears.

[Lynda Kamrath]

And, apple cider vinegar is also good for yeast infections.  I would clean the ears well with ACV and then wash well.  Might help.

[Tina de Freitas]

I have a 2.5 yr old goldendoodle who suffered badly from stinky black junk in his ears. I too tried many things and I think I learned what turned out to be successful from this forum. 

Two things were suggested. One from the vet and that was that it could be a food allergy. I did some research and concluded that chicken  appeared to be the most common allergy so I removed all chicken based foods and switched him to Blue Buffalo basics. We also never give our dog any people food.

At the same time I tried the suggestion I think I got from here. My understanding the black gunk is from mites and that you needed to clean the ears every day and put in 3 drops of olive oil. The olive oil essentially suffocates the mites. So I  leaned his ears daily but putting the cleaner on to cotton rather than putting some in his ears and allowing it to slosh around. Within a week it had completely worked. Thaf was last October and no problems since.