Ear infection questions...

[ACChamness]

Our Chuck decided a couple of years ago to be a "lop-eared corgi." This is either because of, or perhaps the cause of, ongoing problems with fungal ear infections that never quite clear completely up.

Last week our vet said she really doesn't want to see us forever dosing his ears with the meds she's been prescribing, because the meds can become toxic after extended treatment. So now we're just cleaning daily with ear wash for a while, and Chuck is scratching up a storm!

Several people have suggested that we try lavender oil drops as a holistic treatment, since it has antifungal properties and is regarded as safe to use, at least for humans. Has anyone heard of this for dogs, and would anyone recommend it?

Thanks!

[MyPemCharlie]

Has your vet every recommended an allergy screen? My last dog lived his whole life with chronic ear infections starting when he was 6 months old. First it was fungal, then bacterial, then both fungal/bacterial ear infections. The prescription ear medicines only cleared him up for a few days. The vets tried every single prescription medicine available and even started mixing "custom" solutions. Nothing cleared his ears up. Finally the vet suggested that chronic ear infections can be a symptom of severe allergies. We ran a screen, and sure enough, my poor dog was allergic to 70% of everything. We put him on a very expensive series of allergy shots which almost killed him...I think he had a bad reaction to something in the serum.

We never could clear his ear infections completely, but I cleaned them every morning (with alcohol/hydrogen peroxide) to just attempt to keep them as clean and dry as possible. Put him on a very low ingredient food which mimimized his allergy symptoms and gave him a Benedryl every day.

Outside of his "itchy" runny ears (which were obviously painful), he lived a normal happy, long life.

The lavender oil sounds like it might be soothing, but I don't know about holistic medicines for dogs. Maybe someone else here has tried it who can help.

[Michael Romanos]

Yesterday the vet asked me if I would like some ear washing stuff for Taylor's ears but it didn't seem necessary because the inner area of his ears were clean/clear. However I am sure you can buy 'off the shelf' 'harmless' ear washing liquid from either/or a well stocked pet shop or a vet clinic.

[ACChamness]

Yup, that "blue juice" pet store earwash is what we're using right now. Vet told us to moisten a cotton ball and wipe down the visible areas gently, then give the ear canal a squirt and gently massage from the outside to loosen anything else up. It doesn't seem to do anything much for what I assume is itching and stinging from the yeast, and appears to make it hurt worse... so now Chuck runs when he sees us getting out the stuff, whereas he's always let us put in the drops with no problem.

Poor little baby... I might ask her about the allergy screening theory, though...

[Peggy]

Originally Posted by ACChamness

Yup, that "blue juice" pet store earwash is what we're using right now. Vet told us to moisten a cotton ball and wipe down the visible areas gently, then give the ear canal a squirt and gently massage from the outside to loosen anything else up. It doesn't seem to do anything much for what I assume is itching and stinging from the yeast, and appears to make it hurt worse... so now Chuck runs when he sees us getting out the stuff, whereas he's always let us put in the drops with no problem.

Poor little baby... I might ask her about the allergy screening theory, though...

An over the counter medication won't help if it's a yeast infection. That you need something from the vet for.

Has your vet ruled out a yeast infection? If not I'd have him/her check into that.

Peggy

[ACChamness]

Fungal infection/yeast infection (same thing, I think, in "vet speak") is what he has, as I said in the first post.

We've done quite a bit of Otamax (Rx) and some other kind of drops from the vet over the past year, and although it helps, the infection is aparently chronic and never quite clears up completely.

Our vet says those meds for yeast can become toxic to the dog if used constantly (by what she said, I assumed she meant metabolizing the meds is hard on their kidneys) and we don't want that, so she wants to give the prescription plan a rest for a while, and just go with careful cleaning.

[glencorgi]

The lavendar oil would be worth a shot. You might also want to try some genetian violet.

Debbie

[glencorgi]

Here's another idea for you. As background, my sister has a rescue Standard Poodle that has had chronic ear infections since she got her. Been through all the usual treatments, prescription, over the counter and hints and tips from the dog world. Anyway, she was at Walmart the other day picking up some Monistat (yes, the one to treat feminine yeast problems) to apply topically to Piper Poodle's ears. She came across something AZO YEAST, a homeopathic medicine for treating vaginal yeast infections.

I babysit Piper sometimes and travel with her when we're off to dog shows, so am very familiar with helping treat her ears. As it so happens, Piper is spending the weekend with me and I've just seen the difference this medication has made. They are 100 times improved. YMMV, but thought I would pass it along.

Debbie