Ear infection again

[MsMarvellous]

Nothing anyone can do but just need to vent. I have a vet appointment booked for next week as soon as they can get us in but my poor boy has had another severe ear infection come on fast.

Since his last bout, which the vet strongly felt to be allergy related, he's been on daily apoquel (lockdown management), managed diet to relive grain and chicken, I've kept the outside ears clean and dried them after swimming. He's had yoghurt daily in case it was yeast infection based.

I feel like I've taken such good care of him and now he's still obviously uncomfortable and just not right.

It's clearly sore too as he won't let me near, but when I got a look when he was drowsy last night it looks very bad going into the ear canal.

On the plus side, this time it's just the one ear not both.

I know I can't do a lot until I see the vet. But does anyone have anything else they do to prevent ear infections that I can be watchful for?

[Lonecatwithkitten]

The vast majority of vets are offering the majority of their services even if in a different way. Now I would be starting investigation of allergies. Food wise grain is not a common allergy, chicken is the most common, but ideally you should do a proper exclusion diet supervised by your vet.

[MsMarvellous]

Thanks. I'll raise that when I see them on Wednesday and ask for more involved support.

[D1ngledanglers]

What are you feeding?
Chicken, beef, pork, eggs, grains are common allergens.
Try an unusual protein source - ostrich for instance is available as dry food - Happy dog Africa.

Or if you feed raw, you could try kangaroo or horse
And what breed of dog? Are their ears trimmed to let air circulate? Some breeds have narrow, hairy ear canals...

[OliviaBenson]

Our dog has this. Once we were on top of it, we did a white vinegar wash which seems to keep on top of it along with apoquel. Google for details.

[ruthieness]

We put sudocrem on the dogs ear flaps to help healing.

[MsMarvellous]

I'm feeding duck and pork at the moment. He's a Dalmatian. Short hair.

The vet did think it was linked to allergy as when she checked him and flushed them Last time the skin irritation was prime allergy response apparently.

I did not know pork was an allergen. Will add that to the list of things to discuss with the vet. Thanks

[Girlintheframe]

Our dog has reoccurring ear infections due to allergies. We seem to go on top of it now (touch wood!).
Through trial and error we've found the only proteins he can tolerate is fish and duck. We also give piriton up to twice daily from March - September just before we walk him.

[romdowa]

I've a dog with allergies and I didnt find appoquel much good. My dogs allergies affect his skin and we started getting him cytopoint (spelling??) Injections once a month and he is flying it since. They are more expensive that the tablets but it's worth it. I would also suggest skipping the swimming for a bit, it's just not always possible to get the whole inner ear dry and that could be contributing to the ear infections.

[D1ngledanglers]

I'd agree with cutting out swimming for a bit. Later on you could look into ear protectors for dogs to keep them dry - they have these at hydrotherapy for those dogs who are prone.
Yes to the vinegar washes as well. But the ears must be healed first or it'll sting like anything! (50/50 acv / water I used for my big boy who never had an infection diagnosed by a vet, but had yeasty ears - this really, really helped & managed him really well)

[D1ngledanglers]

Just remembered "Thornit" ear powder - was good for a dog that had sensitive ears & wouldn't tolerate a wash.
Bear in mind that a lot of vets can only recommend their own products....

[MsMarvellous]

Thanks everyone. I'm taking note for when I get to the vet and Once we've got him cleared again. It's so useful and much appreciated

[PenelopePitstop49]

Our cocker was really prone to them when he was younger. He's on grain free food too.

I've found that clipping all the hair off from around his ears and just inside massively helps them get some air to them, and I clean them using Cleanaural once a week, with a light dusting of Thornits powder with an eyeshadow brush just around the outer ear (not inside). Touch wood he's not had one now for around 3 years.

[MsMarvellous]

Thanks! He's almost no hair but I'll look at the cleaning stuff too. Appreciate the tip.

[BigSpringy]

Food allergies cannot really be treated with medication and require a controlled exclusion diet to properly assess. Environmental allergies can be detected with blood work. It is worth getting the tests done to try and pin down what you are dealing with.

Make sure your vet is swabbing to also know what bacteria you are dealing with and push for a dermatologist referral. Not just guessing with general antibiotics.

We are £10k and a vegan diet into trying to get to the bottom of ours and I wish we'd just gone to a dermatologist sooner. Even now with their help it is a long slog - but we are seeing progress.

Personally I'd also ignore home remedies. They wasted time and effort here - Thornit and vinegar were next to useless and wasted precious time. Repeated infections can cause narrowing of the ear canals making treatment less effective and the chance of reinfection higher. The sooner the specific infection is treated the better. The sooner you work to pin down the underlying cause the better.

Good luck!

[MsMarvellous]

Thanks springy. What was involved with your allergy testing?

[Amicompletelyinsane]

You can have bloods taken for allergy testing. Think they need to be off apoquel for a while first. Can test for food and environment allergies. My dog is all good allergies so he's on a grain free white fish based diet with no other food at all. With environmental if he is allergic you can get vaccines made up which gradually desensitise the dog to the allergy. If he's insured i would go down the allergy testing route. Does he chew his feet etc

[MsMarvellous]

First time round he was feet chewing, scratching, and had sore skin patches. This time it's just the ear. I've checked him for skin irritation and can't see anything and he's not fussing his feet.

I could have got it quickly this time or it could be something different causing it.

I do wonder if it's a yeast infection as it's got that sort of odour. But obviously want a vet to see it before doing anything with it.

[maisiemoolou]

We had the same problem with our Cockapoo (he has VERY hairy ears!). Up until he was 12 months old, we were back and fourth from the vets, with umpteen antibiotics and ear cleaners.
After an op to flush his ears out and another course of antibiotics, his ears flared up again.
I decided we wasn't going back to the vets and began to do some research, which all pointed I the direction of Raw food.
He wasn't a big fan of the raw food, but it worked and his ears were amazing! No dirt, no head shaking or stinky ears.
We decided to try Butternut Box, which he enjoys and his ears have been fine.
We also have some ear drops (Zymox) in the cupboard in case of a flare up, which does happen, usually when the kids have give him something he shouldn't have.

[BigSpringy]

We are under the guidance of one of the country's top dermatologist and here's what we were advised:

Bloods tests for environmental allergies are pretty reliable - he took blood and sent it to two different test centres to compare results. He was clear of them.

Blood tests for food are next to useless. Instead e vet put him on a grain and meat free diet to eliminate all chances of food allergy. Only then did we start to make progress.

One option when the ear is clear is then to slowly introduce one meat at a time to see if he has a flare up. If he does, that meat is out and you move on to the next one. If he doesn't you introduce another meat and see. So on. Giving each meat a window of two to three months before declaring it safe and adding another.

Grain = always out.

[MsMarvellous]

Thanks.

He's already on raw. He is totally grain free and we also omitted chicken as the vet said it was the most usual meat allergy.

Clearly if this IS a recurring allergy response we need to take this seriously and properly figure it out.

All your experience and knowledge is really helpful. I fee I can have a conversation with the vet with a. It of knowledge behind me.

[OliviaBenson]

It's funny as it's such personal to each dog. Thornit made ours far worse, but had it recommended on here so gave it a whirl. Yet the vinegar wash has been a godsend and was the only thing that has helped after years of trying all sorts of things (diet too). Good luck op, a lot is trial and error but hope you can get on top of it all.

[MsMarvellous]

Well the vet has given us treatment for this - the gel that sits in his ear and antibiotics. She wants to get the worst of his pain under control so she can get in to have a better look. We are back next week for a second dose of the gel and another chat.

[Sitdowncupoftea]

One of my dogs had a really bad ear infection when he was younger. I'm not sure shat caused it. He got antibiotic drops off vet they didn't work. In the end he was sedated his full ear cleaned out and then antibiotics put in the ear canal while he was sedated. The problem is dogs ear canals are awkward to get drops right into. After he had this treatment he was fine.

[D1ngledanglers]

@MsMarvellous

I hope the ear is better soon. Poor pup...

[MsMarvellous]

Aw thanks. He's looking much less red and swollen already and he's definitely less stinky.