The never-ending ear issue

[Gempress]

*Sigh* Zeus is at it again with the ear problems. He was on antibiotic drops from the vet, and it seemed to help. It's been about 10 days, and he's back to shaking his head.

I checked his ears and saw no redness, but he has a lot of gooey black ear wax again. The vet said Zeus has extremely deep ear canals as well as flop-ears, and that's why he's constantly getting problems. But I'm starting to wonder if it's allergies of some kind. I'm going to try cleaning his ears daily with an antibacterial ear cleaner for now and seeing if that helps. I'm also debating on switching him to the Natural Balance potato and duck formula food.

Anybody else have ideas? How should I deal with these chronic ear problems?

 

[filarotten]

Try to keep the ear flap back as much as possible. This allows air into the ear canal.

 

[Gallien Jacks]

I would go ahead and try a change of food, it cant hurt, andf it may help, what about cleaning the ears daily, even when he hasnt a problem

 

[GSDMom]

"The DixieDog Ear Treatment"

Ear Infections - One Solution for Treatment - Some Dogs are known to be especially susceptible to ear infections due to the floppy nature of their ears. Antibiotics may not necessarily treat the underlying cause of the infection and so, in many cases, the infection returns again and again. The underlying cause could be mites, in which case the antibiotics would solve the infection but not the mites.

"The DixieDog™ Ear Treatment®"INGREDIENTS - (Available at any pharmacy)

16 Oz. Isopropyl Alcohol
4 Tablespoons Boric Acid Powder
16 Drops Gentian Violet Solution 1%
Mix ingredients into a plastic squirt type bottle, these work best to dispense the solution to the effected ears.
Shake this solution every time you use it to disperse the Boric Acid Powder. Your dog will not object to even the first treatment. The Boric Acid Powder soothes the ear. The Gentian Violet solution is an anti-infection agent.

TREATMENT - Evaluate condition of ears before treating and if very inflamed and sore do not attempt to clean out ear at all. Wait until inflammation has subsided which will be about 2 days. Shake the bottle each time before using. Flood the ear with solution (gently squirt bottle), massage gently to the count of 60, wipe with a tissue. Flood again on first treatment, wipe with a tissue, and leave alone without massage. The dog will shake out the excess, which can be wiped with a tissue; the Gentian Violet does stain fabrics.

SCHEDULE - of treatment is as follows - Treat 2x per day for the first week to two weeks depending upon severity of ears.Treat 1x per day for the next 1-2 weeks.Treat 1x per month (or even less frequently, depending on the dog.) The Success Rate for this treatment is 95-99%.

You MUST complete the schedule. Should an infection persist in the treated ear after the above course of treatment, you may also have some bacteria in the site. This can be eradicated by using a gentle flush of raw apple cider vinegar and water (warm). Use 2 Tablespoons of vinegar to one cup of water, 2 times per week.

 

[Gempress]

Thanks GSDMom! I'll give that a try. Can I just walk into the pharmacy and find the ingredients on the shelves, or do I have to ask the pharmacist?

 

[Sirius]

Aw! Poor Zeus. Maybe when you take all of that yucky nasty wax out of his ears, keep his ears back, or you could use some drops that break up earwax.
Poor Zeusey boy

 

[Mordy]

gempress - i would consider a different brand of food. natural balance has had massive problems with their potato and duck formula recently, i have read reports from many folks who have been feeding it for a while with good results and suddenly their dogs got sick, refused to eat the food anymore and so on. people also noticed a difference in look and smell of the kibble.

if the "blue power"* treatment listed above doesn't help, i have another remedy that a friend of mine used with good success in her shar pei, who has massive ear infection troubles to the point that the vet even considered ear canal ablation surgery.

* side note: i find it funny how so many different groups on the internet lay claim to the invention of this formulation, but i haven't seen someone claiming it as a trademark yet. GSDmom - where did that come from?

 

[Gempress]

What would be a good food for him? Unfortunately, my only source of pet food is Petco.

edit: I just looked through the Petco website. They now have Eagle Pack available online! Maybe I'll do that instead, although I prefer to buy food in person. Also, how about the Natural Balance fish and potato or venison and brown rice formula?

 

[owned by dogs]

I had a cocker spaniel with similar ear problems. The vet thought it might be food allergies, and we put him on "Limited Ingredients" food. It helped some. I found that if I cleaned his ears every other day with just a damp washcloth...no special solutions.....we could stay on top of the ear problems.

 

[smkie]

one thing that helps with mary ..they have a new q-tip for babies and children that has a much bigger and absorbant end to it then the regular qtip does. It is great for soaking up all the water after a swim and makes cleaning much much easier..dont know if that helps but it did make a difference for us

 

[Debi]

I'd suspect the food, also. I also clean Ham's ears regularly with a vinegar/water solution and then wipe the entire ear (not going into the canal with this) with an antibacterial. he hasn't had any problems since the last bad infection a year ago. the vet said the ears must be kept clean. I think it really was more his diet. Ham just seems to have alot of ear wax, just like it varies with people. ear wax is necessary and there to remove debris, but if it builds up then it holds bacteria. same with humans. just clean gently. use caution with cotton swabs or balls, cotton is very abrasive. it can leave tiny abrasions that will pick up bacteria easier. (that is a rule for humans, too....no q-tips in your ears)

 

[GSDMom]

you have to ask the pharmacist for the Gentian Violet drops only
I am telling you from experience, this really works !

 

[Debi]

I've heard of making a garlic rinse. boiling garlic in a small amt. of water, then when cool placing a couple drops into the ear canal. garlic is nature's antibiotic, and a tiny bit of liquid (extremely tiny...drop) would loosen hard, tarry wax. but...guess your dog would smell horrid! I've actually heard about the garlic in regard to children with chronic ear infections. anyone else ever hear of that? also, just thought I'd mention that you have to be careful when going deep into the ear canal that you don't actually impact the wax more. (again, same with people)

 

[showpug]

I can't stress it enough. Use Malaseb ear flush every few days and you shouldn't have an ear infection pop up again!!!!! I would also switch to a different food that Mordy can recommend for you. Food allergies do show up in ears. Here is a link to the Malaseb flush. We used to sell it at the vet clinic I worked at. It's available without and Rx. Good luck.
http://store.yahoo.com/healthypetscom/malflus12oun.html

 

[Gempress]

Thanks for all the info everyone! I didn't try the "blue power" treatment because I wasn't sure if it really was an infection or not. I've been washing his ears twice daily (both flooding the ear canal and using antibiotic wipes), and he's a lot better now. Showpug, I'll try that wash you suggested and see if it helps. His food is getting switched, so hopefully that will help too. I have checked with the pharmacy, though, and they have the ingredients for that "blue power" stuff in case I ever need it.

 

[Bexi]

Hi! I'm not sure if you have this in the states- "Thorn it", it was given to us by the breeder of our lab, and is meant to be excellent for gooey ears and wax. Vets don't mention it coz obviously it would lose them money! ****!
Although our lab has not had ears problems so far, our previous dog had lots, and we spent lots at the vets due to this!!
If you can get it, it should be worth a try, obviously it is totally harmless xxx