Ear Infection nightmare - help!!!!

[Sue, Lola, Pongo & Hubby]

Hi everyone.....

So our poor Lola has yet another yeast ear infection (she's had them on and off since she was a pup)...this one is never-ending, though (it's been over a month). We're on our third batch of ear drops from the vet. Our vet has also cleaned out her ear multiple times over the past month, revealing large wax buildup. So her last recheck was about a week ago, and when the vet looked into her ear, there was still a lot of wax buildup...so more drops.

Has anyone found a "natural" way of fighting this, or is there anything I could do in addition to the strict cleaning/medicating regimen we're on??

 

Any advice would be great....my poor baby needs some help!!!!!

[Sharon & Monty]

I have no idea if yeasty ears are the same as the infection your dog gets, however I feed Monty a bit of plain lowfat yogurt every morning.  I've been led to believe this might help with yeast infections in the ears.  He has never had any, so I have no way of knowing.  He certainly likes yogurt, that I know!

[Yvonne N]

We battled a yeast ear infection for almost four months...we eventually had to clean daily, drops twice a day and an oral medicine too.  When we started the oral medication things started to improve.  I forget what it was called, but it helped.

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

Poor baby. We were also told to cut the hair short under the ear for air flow and also in the ear, we do the best we can. We have the bottle of ear cleaner from the vet that we drop in there, that's if we can catch Myla! Chloe is finally ok with it. Good luck!

[Lynda Kamrath]

We had a standard poodle who had lots of ear problems and many trips to the vet.  So we have some things we do with our doodles now and (knock on wood) have had no ear problems.  FIrst of all, whenever we bathe the dogs, we clean their ears first with warmed Hy Otic ear rinse.  Put about a teaspoon full in  each ear and massage well.  Then clean out with cotton balls and place new cotton balls in their ears during their bath.  Leave the balls in their ears while you dry them, and then take out the cotton balls and you should have nice clean, dry ears.  We trim the hair under the ears and also on the inner flap with a scissors.  Pull all the hair out of the inner ear with your fingers frequently (couple of times a week) so the ears stay nice and clean and dry.  It has worked with us and we definitely did not want ear problems like we had with the poodle.  If you dog likes to swim or play in the water, I would also place cotton balls in her ears whenever she gets around water.  Don't you give her a regime of antibiotics to get rid of the yeast infection?

[Sue, Lola, Pongo & Hubby]

Thanks everyone for all your support and kind words!!! I'm a fanatic with grooming my Lola. Her ears are always trimmed, hair is kept at a very minimum within the ear, and I'm constantly poking around and sniffing her ears "just in case". You should see the list of thing I have written down to research/buy thanks to all your suggestions and experiences!!! I really hope something in this list will help us ease our baby's discomfort!!!! Unfortunately, we JUST bought a giant bag of her food, so I don't know if we should finish it before starting a new one....maybe I'll get a small bag of Orijen/Taste of the Wild/Fromm and see how is goes before tossing the old one out. Yes, I will do that. Thanks again!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Sue, I know how confusing this must alll seem to you, but if you read the veterinary literature or the professional information on caring for poodle's ears, you will see that it is simply not true that most ear infections are related to food or food allergies. Chronic ear problems may or may not be related to a food allergy, but the majority are simply related to physical conditions. It's related to poodley wooly fur and drop ears. I have lived with poodles for 53 years, and dealt with infections in many dogs who had no allergies to any kind of food or anything else.

There is also a big difference between a yeast infection and a bacterial infection; a dog can have one or the other, or both simultaneously, and the treatments for them are very different. Bacterial infections can often develop from a yeast infection, but they are not caused by allergies. Yeast infections might be.

Here is some clear, factual information about ear infections and ear care:

http://www.parispoodles.com/EarCare.html

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_ear_infections.html

 

Hope this helps.

 

[Lori (Wilson and Woody's Mum)]

I have had some success with adding organic apple cider vinegar (ACV), "with the mother" to his food.  When we adopted Woody, he had severe yeast infections in both ears and all 4 paws.  I immediately started switching his food and started adding 1 T of ACV to his food daily (he is 36 pounds).  In addition, he went on a RX, ear drops, and a regular cleaning regime.  According to his history, he has suffered from yeast infections for a long time.  After the rx's were done, I kept up the ACV.  Does it work?  Honestly, I don't know, but I have kept it up and we have not had one recurrence. In fact, I check his ears weekly but haven't had to clean them since his flair up!  I do believe his yeast infections were caused by food intolerances and I am careful, but for me I also believe the ACV helped get him over the hump.

[Sue, Lola, Pongo & Hubby]

not sure if anyones still following this, but just an update. Had another vet appt this morning, and poor Lola has to be sedated and get her ear flushed tomorrow morning. The wax just isn't going away. We're going to have a "get better soon" cake for her upon her return. My poor doodle.

[Jess and Pippin]

Oh, poor baby.  I'm sure she'll feel much better once it is done. 

[Jess and Pippin]

Hi Sue.  Our previous dog, Sam (cav/poodle cross) had multiple ear infections.  We found that cleaning them weekly (I used "ears all right from "boutique" pet store) worked really well.  US manufactured by Ark Naturals.  It had glycerin and aloe vera in it.  Couple of drops in the ear, massage in well and leave alone.  When dry, I would wipe out gently with a baby face cloth.  Nice and soft, not too thick and this did a good job of cleaning out wax build up.  Our vet advised against cotton balls, Qtips etc.  Our vet also pulled out fur in the ear canal (Sam had epilepsy, so we saw her every 3 months or so.  I was too squeamish to do this.  Sam was amazingly good natured and forgiving and nothing bothered him), so nothing could accumulate around the hair in the ear.  We also kept his ears trimmed short, and the fur underneath his ears trimmed short to create more air circulation.  My 12 yr old dtr would also "pin" his ears up (can't remember if she used doggy "hair ornaments" or what) to help his ears dry out after drops.  Don't know if that helped at all, but sure was cute.  I didn't use these drops every week,  A water dampened baby face cloth would loosen the obvious and then every so often the drops.

[Sue, Lola, Pongo & Hubby]

Thanks, Jess!! We do clean her ears regularly, this was just "one of those things". Lola doesn't have much hair in hr ear, but i do trim whatever I can find in there on a regular basis!!!

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

How are the ear infections going? Any relief since April? How did the flushing go? We have had our nightmares with ear infections too and although have been pretty free of them for about 18 months now, I am always on the alert and expecting to find one any time. I don't clean as often as I used to now as his ears are always perfectly clean, but I do still pluck the hair out. It's really not hard and it may bother them a little, but no more than it bothers him to clip his nails.