Ear infections

[Stacy]

I have a constant battle with Katie's ears. They get yeasty and red and itchy. We have treated over and over again with mometamax (sometimes called mometavet.) Antifungal, antibiotic, and steroid. It works, but no matter how much I try to keep them clean or try not to mess with them it feels like a losing battle. Very frequent recurrence. I'm kind of at a loss and the vet hasn't suggested anything else. Her ears aren't horrible, but they're not great either. 

I just read this article from Whole Dog Journal. They recommend putting a little boric acid in the ears and then filling the ear canal with Pellitol and leaving it untouched for a week.  That just sounds wrong to me, but I wondered if this was something that sounded like valuable information at all. 

I feel like there has to be a better solution than just medicating her ears all the time, or even a better medication. But I have no idea what it is. 

https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/issues/7_6/features/Canine-Ear-In...

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Yes, the allergies can contribute to ear infections. 

[sandy b]

I think it’s very important to know how to clean the ears. Henry had yeast & bacteria infections for over 6 months. We eventually found a new vet and she prescribed Surolan and within a week no infection! She also showed us how to clean his ears with epi-optic: soak cotton with solution and squeeze into ear canal while holding ear up. Then massage at base of ear. Use cotton to clean/dry ear. We clean them weekly and his ears are perfect! Our vet office also has groomers on staff and they know how to pluck the hairs. Initially he had a lot of long, gunky hair in his ears!

[Laura and Angus]

A couple things - 1) if no one has mentioned this, do you not use Q-Tips to clean out your pup's ears...this is very dangerous.

As Sandy B mentioned - you should squeeze in the ear cleaning solution (we get ours from the vet or a pet store) and massage the ear. Then you put a cotton ball in and wipe around there to soak up the liquid and clean and dry.

2) our doodle has seasonal allergies that make him itchier all over (including ears) and increase eye boogies and ear stuff. You might consider having a conversation with your vet about Benadryl or antihistamines. Our doodle gets Zyrtec (the same kind I use) daily during allergy seasons and this helped IMMENSELY with his itchiness- although it's like 10mg per 25 lbs, so he takes 2 pills when I take one ;) 

Hopefully you find what works for your pup! It can be very tricky to figure out the right combination. But if your pup has very poodle-y ears (like ours) that hair needs to come out. Good luck with everything!

[Lori, Winnie, Bob and Indie]

I really like the Zymox products- they have a cleanser for regular ear cleaning, and an Otic product for infections. I used to use Epi Otic- is a good cleanser, too, but my poodle actually got itchy ears from it.

There are a couple of Zymox products for infections (check out the website, it explains the differences)  and they work really good. I know several vets that recommend them rather than antibiotics or anti fungals. The key is to NOT clean the ear before putting the treatment in. I've saved myself a couple of trips to the vet by using it. The product not only takes care of infection, but the hydrocortisone in it helps the dog to stop scratching. 

[Stacy]

That's good to know. Sometimes it seems like there's no real reason to go to the vet every time she has one, as long as we still have medication. The vet doesn't seem to do anything special. He looks in there, proclaims it yeast and gives us more of the same meds. I mean, they work. It's just a recurrent problem. I wish there was a permanent fix. Not ablation. But I've gotten some great ideas from this whole discussion.

[Jolene, Sassparilla & Josie]

Glad this post is here our newest pup has been battling ear issues.  Not sure if there is an infection or just allergies but she's scratching them raw.  Last vet visit vet said allergies on all three of my girls as they were just red but didn't offer much other than suggested ear washing?  This new pup has an incredible amount of hair in her ears and yes it goes deep.  We've been trying to slowly pluck them but we've got quite a ways to go, we can now finally see flesh in the ears so we are making progress.  Just learned about the powder from my doodle friends today so I'll be picking some up ASAP.  The wash we are using isn't working so I'll be changing that as well, I think it's the Epi you mentioned above. Based on the comment above I wonder if that's why they seem worse? I was given two new recommendations Zymox and Eco Ears. Our vet usually prescribes Otomax and that has worked well in the past.  I'll be taking Josie in as she's stopped eating the last couple days and wondering if it's related to her ears. They are all on Zignatures and fish oil so I know it's not the food. Plus they also get EPO every night? Is there anything else I can do?  We'll have to start back on the allergy meds to see if that helps but it will be the first time for the puppy, anything I should know or just based on weight, she's 15 weeks now (approx 20#).  First of the month I'll get her added to the insurance we have already on the other two, black Friday tapped us out this month. TIA

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I'm very surprised that the vet didn't do a culture on the ears to find out if there is an infection, and if it is yeast or bacteria; treatment is different for each, and you need to know what you are dealing with before you can effectively treat it. And you can't tell that anything is caused by allergies by just looking at it. But an infection requires more than washing. 
Epi-Otic and other similar ear cleaners are just that, cleaners. They are not medications and will not help with an existing infection. Not sure what kind of powder you heard about; I'm guessing Thornit, which is popular in internet doodle groups. But that won't cure an infection either. Otomax is antibiotic medication, totally different from cleaners, washes and powders. 
I must be getting senile, did I know you had a new pup?

[Stacy]

Karen - I've seen you mention before about the ear culture, and I confess, I've never had a single vet suggest culturing them. Is that common at your vet? My vet just does a sniff test and proclaims it - usually yeast, although when I first got Ava he said it was pseudomonas. I'm pretty sure it was caused by the essential oils that her "breeder" swears by putting in their ears. No essential oil in ears people. She never had another one. But the preferred treatment for my vet is Mometamax and it has a steroid, an antibiotic, and an anti fungal, so perhaps they don't feel the need for testing because it pretty much covers everything. For us, it's not that the treatment fails. It's just that she continues to get them. I wish we had a permanent fix.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I'm on my 4th Poodle or Poodle mix going back to 1977, so we've seen a lot of vets in that 41 years, and every single one of them has done a culture every single time there was a suspicion of an infection. It's such a simple thing to put a swab into the ear, and it happens to be standard veterinary protocol. To quote one veterinary website I follow (and it's one for vets, not owners) : "All otitis cases require swab cytology of the otic exudate." And when you know exactly what it is, you can treat it effectively and not throw so many drugs at it. Why use antibiotics when you don't need them, and risk building up a resistance so that they'll be useless when you do need them? And if you do need them, let's use the most effective one for that particular bacteria. Pseudomonas responds better to some antibiotics than to others. This just seems so logical to me. 
Maybe it is the treatment that's failing. 

[Stacy]

I know our old vet was super low tech, so I even took her to a different vet (who we didn't end up sticking with) for a second opinion. He also just looked at it and called it yeast and he didn't even want to prescribe anything for it. He wanted me to get some lotrimin cream and put that in her ears.  So we're 0/0 on the culture. It seems like other people have shared that experience as well.he expense, I never do. They've just never suggested it. I really wonder why the vets I've encountered haven't done it. To be fair, Katie is the only dog I've ever had with ear infections. All those years of giant papillon ears that were always pink and beautiful. 

It makes me curious how many vets are actually culturing ears. Yours have, mine haven't. I know I've read of other vets that haven't. Is it regional? Is it expense? I kind of think, without insulting any vets that there is a large range in the quality of vet care. But really, the same can be said for human medicine as well. I can almost tell by which doctor signs up for a patient. They're either going to get a million dollars worth of tests or they're going to get some ibuprofen and told to follow up with their PCP and strong return precautions for if they get worse. Some of them do too much, some don't do enough, and a few of them get it just right. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

There are huge regional differences in veterinary care. I've run across it working with the DRC fosters across the nation. Two very problematic areas are Las vegas, where you cannot get a vet to give you Panacur and where they all seem to be part of the same network, and St. Louis, where it's almost impossible to find a vet who offers the current three year vaccination protocols. And these are major cities; I don't get it. 

[Stacy]

The rabies vaccine really gets me wound up. I don't understand why they fight so hard against that. Well, I do. It's all money. They claim that they want to see the dog yearly for a checkup, but then they are potentially doing harm by over vaccinating. I think it's unethical. It's the same vaccine. They are either giving it yearly or every three years. And they lie about it. 

You know, panacur is not prescription only. You can buy it on Amazon. I'm not one of those "do it yourself, I don't need a vet" people. But if a vet only wants to prescribe metronidazole when you need panacur, I think that is a benign enough drug that I would give it to my dog without vet supervision.