Winston's Ears - Prepare for grossness

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

I wanted to share pictures of Winston's ears so you can see how badly infected and inflammed they are. His ears smell so bad that when people pet him they tell me he smells and ask if he rolled in something. Even after he was groomed today. He really does smell bad, my poor boy. We are going to the vet tomorrow for a full work up, and it will give him a chance to see how the ointment he prescribed is working, which I'm thinking isn't working all that well yet.

 

Here are pictures I took the day i brought him home.

 

This is what they looked like tonight after two days of cleaning and ointment.

 

Notice the strange looking lump inthe last one. I'm really hoping this is nothing, but will be asking the vet about it tomorrow. It looks really scary to me, and was bleeding a bit tonight - I think Sophie might have gotten it while they were playing. :(

 

Any and all advice on taking care of Winnie's ears is welcome. I'm so worried about them...

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

Here are Winston's ears after one week of regular cleaning and antiobiotic ointment, and three days of antibiotic pills. They are starting to show improvement, slowly but surly.

 

 

 

 

In other news, the vet called me back on friday and said his blood tests showed low thyroid. They wanted to check is T4 levels (i'm not sure what this means but it is a special test for thyroid). I did some quick research on hypothyroidism and some of the descriptions seem to fit so I wouldn't be too surprised if the T4 test showed that he has mild hypothyroidism. I'm hoping to hear back tomorrow.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

If he does have hypothyroidism, it's easily treated with an inexpensive medication. But to accurately diagnosis it, they really need to run a full thyroid panel and check all of the thyroid values, not just T4. The link below will explain why. This is a good article that was helpful to me when we were trying to diagnose JD's problems:

Hypothyroidism

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

Thanks, after reading this I have a better understanding of what the vet was saying. The T4 level was low in the regular blood panel, so they are now doing a special thyroid panel. That must be (better be) it because they charged me an addition $70-something dollars for it!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Yep, that's it. It will probably take 10-14 days to get the results.

[2loqbxc1f3777]

Easy fix, clean and apply TEP Thornit ear powder daily for a week then go to monthly maintance....

 

Yes it does work beautifully....

 

Carol/scl

 

Southern Charm Labradoodles

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Thornit Ear Powder contains Zinc Oxide, Talc, Iodoform, and Boric, none of which can cure an infection. It was originally developed in 1907 for the purpose of killing ear mites, and that is still what it is marketed for. (The boric acid is what would kill mites).

It is NOT an "easy fix" for ears that are already infected, especially when it is a bacterial infection and not just yeast. It absolutely will not get rid of an ear infection, especially one as bad as Winston's. None of those ingredients will fight a bacterial infection.  It might be okay for maintenance purposes, to keep the ears dry and prevent infections, but there are much better, more effective products on the market.

The main antiseptic in Thornit is Iodoform. Here is some info on Iodoform:

Iodoform is the organoiodine compound with the formulaCHI₃. A pale yellow, crystalline, volatile substance, it has a penetrating odor (in older chemistry texts, the smell is sometimes referred to as the smell of hospitals) and, analogous to chloroform, sweetish taste. It is occasionally used as a disinfectant. It is sometimes also referred to as carbon triiodide (which is not strictly correct, as this compound also contains hydrogen) or methyl triiodide (which is somewhat ambiguous as that name could also refer to the methylated triiodide ion, CH₃I₃).

The compound finds small scale use as a disinfectant.^[1] Around the beginning of the 20th century it was used in medicine as a healing and antiseptic dressing for wounds and sores, although this use is now superseded by superior antiseptics.  It is the active ingredient in many ear powders for dogs and cats, to prevent infection and facilitate removal of ear hair, along with zinc oxide and propanoic acid.

 

 

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

Wow, that's interesting.  I agree, the only thing that will help Winston now given that his infection has been developing for a very very long time, is the three weeks worth of antibiotics he is on, and regular cleaning.

That, along with the new meds for his thyroid which I think will likely reduce his susceptibility to the infections.

 

Until now I had heard only great things about thorn it. Sophie's breeder swears by it and says none of her dogs ever get ear infections. I was just about to order some until I saw this and now I am having second thoughts.

 

Is there a product for maintenance that you would recommend?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I have always used Epi-Otic for regular cleaning and maintenance; it contains a drying agent, which is helpful to prevent ear infections. There are lots of discussions here on DK about similar products. They are colorless, and easy to use: you soak a cotton ball in the solution, place it in the ear, massage around the base of the ear, and remove.

I am all about effectiveness and ease of use. Powders are very nice as far as aiding in hair removal, mainly because it's helpful to have the hair very dry for gripping, so you get a clean, painless pull. That's what the talc is for in Thornit. But it hardly makes sense to me to use a messy, less effective maintenance product when there are better, easier products readily available. Ditto for all this blue ear wash stuff you read about.

There are no dangerous chemicals or anything else that's harmful in the current ear cleaners on the market. I'm not saying Thornit is dangerous either, but it won't cure anything except ear mites, and it's not the best product for maintenance.

[Kyoko]

Ohhhh It looks painful.... poor boy....

[Carrie B and Maggie Goldendoodle]

how are they now? I have been battling a double yeast ear infection for a month, worn out and broke!

[Carrie B and Maggie Goldendoodle]

how are they now? I have been battling a double yeast ear infection for a month, worn out and broke!

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

they are so much better!!! Regular cleaning, ointment and keeping them dry is all you need...that and a little patience (something I really don't have when it comes to my doodle's health).