Chronic ear infection - any ideas for treatment?

14 years ago

I recently adopted a 6 yr old female yorkie from a woman who could no longer care for her. She was originally a Petland puppy so she came from a puppy mill and no doubt was bred without any regard to congenital health issues. I think she has some daschund mixed in because her body is too long to be a yorkie (I jokingly refer to her as a "dorkie") and her ears don't stand up like a yorkies.

Anyway, she has ear infections that have been plaguing her for years because her ears have what is called "excessive ear folds". It's hard to even tell where the ear canal is, making it a challenge to get the medication where it needs to be. I've had her to the vet twice and have tried 3 different medications: Tri-otic, which the original owner was using; Mometamax and Keto Flush, which my vet gave me when the Tri-otic didn't work; and then I purchased Zymox, when the Mometamax wasn't effective. The first two actually seemed to make the problem worse - her ears were red and she scratched and shook her head all the time. On the Zymox, even though her ears are still smelly, they aren't red and she doesn't seem to be uncomfortable anymore.

My basic question is, since the Zymox hasn't actually cured the infection from what I can tell, has anyone had success with a medication or treatment that is super effective on yeast infections? My vet did a swab and confirmed that it is yeast. She says the next step is ablation surgery which is unfortunately too expensive for me to consider.

To compound things, the little girl is blind in one eye (attacked by previous owner's other dog) and already can barely hear due to the ear problems. I think this is the real reason the woman got rid of her - she was probably told by her vet that surgery was the only option left. She denied to me that the dog had ear problems and said it was "just an infection."

I really want to keep her, but since the surgery is out, I can't let her suffer with ear infections all the time. Hopefully someone out there has faced and solved this problem!

Here's my little "dorkie":

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (7)

Meghane
14 years ago
I'd have to see the dog but when my patients have really bad ear infections, I use systemic antibiotics, topical antibiotics in the ear, and prednisone to address the inflammation. As you mentioned, getting medication to the source of the problem is almost impossible when the canal is slammed shut with inflammation. If it isn't just inflammation causing occlusion of the ear canal, then she probably needs some sort of corrective surgery, or a TECA depending on the condition of the canal. But you're not going to get anywhere pouring goop into the ear when it's closed off.
dabunch
14 years ago
First of all, she's ADORABLE ;)

It sounds as though you may need ear medication on hand at all times, or surgery.

I'm not sure if this will help, but I've had Shih Tzus all my life and they are prone to ear infecions because of the hair growing inside the ears, which trap moisture and bacteria festers.
I'm guessing that the extra folds(trap moisture) must have similar effect on your baby's ears.

I use Nolvasan twice weekly. It's an ear wash which cleanses the ears, brings out the debris, and dries it up so bacteria don't multiply. I pour it into the ear canal, work it in at the base (or folds in in your case). Wipe it with cotton balls/Q-tips. Using this method, they have not had an infection in ages.
Related Discussions
Chronic tonsillitis after mono?
Q
Comments (14)
"So....besides just surgically having her tonsils removed, do any of you have any "alternative" suggestions to keep these infected tonsil episodes away? I'm thinking her immune system needs some boosting, but I'm not sure how to do it." You might want to try what I and my DH use when we feel we are coming down with something. Vit C. Last week I thought I was coming down with a cold or the flu. I started taking Vit C crystals in orange juice. The bug never really took hold and I was able to keep doing what I normally do. Felt a little run down, but I really feel it helped. You can't really take too much. The way to tell if you are overdoing it is if you experience diarrhea. Then you just cut back the amount you are using until your stool normalizes. I first read about it while researching polio. There was a doctor who used it Vit C to cure polio cases in the 50's before the polio vaccine became popular. Dr. Klenner said that very high doses were necessary to combat infection and that Vit C works against most virus's. It might help Epstein barre? I also have read that it is useful to take equally large amounts of Vit D. 1000 units/20lbs of body weight along with it. I'm not a doctor, so please take this for what it is worth! Free advice (my opinon) in an internet forum. Best of health to you and your family. Links that might be useful: http://www.doctoryourself.com/klennerpaper.html http://healthyprotocols.com/2_mycoplasma.htm
...See More
Diet/ Tips for cat w/ chronic UTI?
Q
Comments (31)
I call that the "Everything Must Have A Name" rule. None of this "poultry fat" stuff - gotta tell me if it's chicken or duck or whatever. Just "animal fat"? Run away screaming. On the "meal" issue... if your pet food contains fish meal, make sure it is specified as "ethoxyquin-free". Not that the entire pet food in total is ethoxyquin-free, but that that particular ingredient is. (Pet food manufacturers are not required by law to tell you what may have been added to an ingredient before it comes into their possession if they don't want to, so all kinds of preservatives, contaminants and such can be in there. They just have to tell you what THEY do to it.) By US law, fish meal not intended for human consumption must be preserved with ethoxyquin. A very few processors have been granted waivers to produce fish meal preserved with something other than ethoxyquin and usually it's trumpeted loud and clear as a marketing point when a pet food manufacturer uses ethoxyquin-free fish meal - Wellness is one of them, and it took some digging but Natura Pet Products (Innova, EVO, California Natural, Healthwise, and Karma Organic) is on board there too. "Digest" must be avoided at all costs even if it does have a species name although more often than not it's just on there as "animal digest". It's gods-only-know-what waste material chemically or enzymatically broken down - predigested - into a slurry in order to convert it into supposedly-bioavailable protein that a less-than-scrupulous pet food manufacturer can use to raise the "crude protein" content on the label. Not only does the animal usually get little actual nutritional value out of the substance but what can legally go into "animal digest" is gruesome to say the least - there is no control over quality, source, or contamination. I do have to nitpick just a little bit though - by-products are not necessarily always bad, but it's a case of Know Thy Manufacturer. See, people go on and on about by-products being whatever junk swept up off the factory floor when by legal definition it is just the stuff that isn't "striated muscle" (either skeletal muscles, diaphragm, or heart): "lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, stomachs and intestines freed of their contents" and specifically excludes "hair, horns, teeth and hoofs". If you've got a food company that gets that material fresh and handles it properly so it doesn't spoil, it's very good stuff. C'mon, people eat kidneys, brains, liver, blood (usually made into sausage - black pudding being a famous variety), stomachs (tripe), and intestines ("chitlins" and sausage casings), and many of the frozen-raw-diet manufacturers are all over the stuff. A hot trend in natural pet food is "green tripe", which is cow stomach without the contents removed, just ground up semi-digested grass and all. (The smell of it will clear a house though. Whoooo-eeee!) So really it's more a question of knowing your manufacturer than avoiding an entire class of ingredient. Many of the better pet-food manufacturers are avoiding brains entirely these days though, because of worries about BSE.
...See More
food change & ear infection?
Q
Comments (16)
The only way to be sure that an ear infection, or any other allergy symptoms, are caused by food is to do a complete food trial. If food is a problem, your dog should have symptoms year round. If her symptoms are not year round, she probably has environmental allergies and not food allergies. 1. All infections must be properly treated and gone. The Rx your vet gave should clear up any type of ear infection with the exception of ear mites, unless the infection is resistant. The fact that the infection came back within days of stopping treatment makes me think that the medication course wasn't long enough or that the infection is resistant. The infection must be cleared before starting the counting phase of the food trial. You should still feed the new food during the time that you are trying to control the infection, in case food is a problem. Otherwise, you will have a lot of trouble clearing the infection. 2. The counting phase starts after all infections are cleared and continues for 8 full weeks. During this phase, the only thing your dog can eat is the new food. You also have to change heartworm prevention to Heartgard Unflavored or to oral ivermectin, because all other heartworm preventions have beef and other flavorings in them that can interfere with the food trial. No treats, bones, or anything else besides the food can be given during this time. If something is accidently fed, you have to start the countdown all over again, because it takes about 8 weeks for the body to clear the effects of the inflammation. 3. The next phase is the challenge phase. This is often not done, but it absolutely necessary if you want to be sure that there is a food allergy. If your dog showed an improvement during the countdown phase, you feed the original food for about a week. The symptoms should return- ie your dog will get another ear infection. If the symptoms do not return, it was not a food allergy. If there was no improvement during the countdown phase then either your dog is also allergic to the new food, or she doesn't have a food allergy. I really like Natural Balance foods for diet trials, as opposed to most of the foods vets recommend (usually Science Diet, which I hate). You could also do raw or homemade diets, but it is difficult to afford foods that your dog hasn't eaten before. Duck is expensive when you buy at the grocery store, at least around here.
...See More
Chronic cough-- ideas??
Q
Comments (16)
Given the age, it's probably kennel cough. Sometimes it takes 3 different antibiotics to get rid of it. KC can be stubborn. My puppy had it when I brought her home from the breeder. It turned into pneumonia ( I insisted on a chest x-ray, because I felt rales when I carried her outside. The vets didn't hear anything! I got 2 opinions. Go figure.). Her pneumonia looked weird. Sort of like she could have aspirated something. Anyway, I think she was on 3-4 different antibiotics, before she got 100% better. It took almost a month to eradicate it. Granted, she was only 9 weeks old, and probably around puppies with KC, at the breeder's. Let's hope that's all it is. A dog should not be coughing...Things with heart, lungs, tumors....all come to mind in a mid-older age dog coughing. I think you can bring KC home to your dogs on your clothes, or they can pick it up in the park. That's why if your dog is not immunized for KC, you shouldn't play with puppies at the pet stores...
...See More
quasifish
14 years ago
She is so cute!

Since you said it was a yeast infection, I'm thinking about my old dog who had floppy ears and chronic problems with yeast infections in them.

We used OTC miconazole in her ears with pretty decent results. Sometimes we used the human woman yeast infection cream, and sometimes we used the human foot powder- just had to make sure it was miconazole. The foot powder tends to dry things out (if that's needed) and we never had much problem with it caking up in her ears, though we did carefully clean her ears from time to time with doggy ear wash. It sounds like access into the ear is really limited, but I thought I'd mention this and maybe you can ask your vet if trying these products in an option. Abby always seemed to get a lot of very quick relief and comfort whenever we used one of these on her for a yeast ear infection.

FWIW, the meds we got at the vet never helped Abby for very long. Time and again we went back to miconazole in one form or another.
debbiep_gw
14 years ago
I don't have any advice for you,I have bassets and so far they have been blessed with good ears.I just wanted to say that dog is adorable.Good luck.Debbie
pompeii
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks, all, for the suggestions. Yes, she is a sweetie and I'd love to figure this out so I can keep her. I'm out of town for a few days right now, but I'll check out the suggested medications when I get back.

In the meantime, if anyone else has a doggie with stubborn ear problems and had found THE cure, please let me know! Thanks.
Meghane
14 years ago
No such thing as THE cure.

Miconazole is great for yeast, but won't work at all if you can't get the medication to the source of infection, as with closed up ear canal. Sounds like your vet thinks TECA is the best option. Without being able to open the ear canal surgically, you're fighting a losing battle that costs the dog a lifetime of pain and suffering.

Have you tried CareCredit to allow you to pay off surgery over time? Tried to price shop the surgery? Specialists are not the only vets who do TECAs; I can do them as does my boss, and we are *significantly* less expensive than the vet school and specialty practices in the area.

Hopefully the little cutie gets some relief soon.
trinigemini
14 years ago
I have english bulldogs, who also tend to get ear infection. The last time my baby had her ear infected, I cleaned them at least once a day everyday, with Maleseb. After about a month the infection was completely gone and i have not seen a repeat episode. I still check her ears frequently, but now she only has to get them cleaned occasionally, and I put Malaseb in. But I seriously had to clean her ears every day. If I missed just one day, you saw a difference. Also every time she gets a bath or is in water, I put Malaseb in to dry her ears out.

Chronic ear infection - any ideas for treatment?

Comments (7)

Meghane

dabunch

Related Discussions

quasifish

debbiep_gw

pompeii
Original Author

Meghane

trinigemini

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Chronic ear infection - any ideas for treatment?

Comments (7)

Meghane

dabunch

Related Discussions

quasifish

debbiep_gw

pompeiiOriginal Author

Meghane

trinigemini

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

pompeii
Original Author