Fungal ear infection- anyone had it before?

[wellington77]

I have a fungal ear infection ( in both ears) since February, I’ve had canestan ear drops, some oral tablets - can’t remember the name, some oral syringe stuff they put in at the ENT department at hospital and microsuction twice. It still has not gone! One of the ears now also has a perforated ear drum from the infection so I can only have microsuction and nothing else in that ear in order treat it.

Has anyone else had a fungal ear infection before and if so how long did it take to go away and are there any other treatments I have not listed above?

You'll probably need a long course of Itraconazole or Terbinafine orally if it's bad enough to have damaged your ear drum. It can take months though

Thankyou for giving me your in put I will ask about that

Just had a look the ointment they put in one ear , once at the hospital was triadcortyl

Hi, did you get your ear sorted? I’ve currently got an ear infection I’ve had since March. I’ve had two lots of oral antibiotics and then some antibiotics ear drops until they did a swab and found out fungal and bacterial. I’ve now been put on the canasten ear drops (only my fourth day) but I wonder when it will ever get better! Did you have any luck with anything?

Ugh. Mine went on for months, just in my right ear, and it was very painful at times.

Three courses of medicated eat drops just about sorted out out but it gets sore again every now and then.

I’ve always had a lot of ear problems as a child but not too much in my adult years until now. It’s my left ear that infected and that’s my best ear lol, it still has a grommet in it! I don’t know if that makes any difference to any of it. Just fingers crossed these drops work this time!

Hi, so I’ve finally had the ‘ all clear” a few days ago. The ear that wasn’t perforated took two rounds of canestan and three microsuction sessions. The perforated ear drum was harder to treat, my GP originally prescribed the wrong canestan- it was for athletes foot and not the ear!! Worst pain ever! My dad keeps saying I should sue ( I’m not into that whole sueing culture so no!) anyways they then gave me the correct stuff which still hurt but less as the spray obviously was going into my inner ear and Down my throat, my throat stung for a good hour after using it. Not really sure why the GP said it would be fine. Anyways so this ear became harder to treat, so the only treatment option left was microsuction as tablets didn’t work and canestan spray hurt with the perforation. I think I also had it three times on that side too. It’s all clear however the perforation hasn’t gone yet- they thought I would need surgery as the whole was huge and it’s been like that since February but a few days ago they were pretty surprised to see the hole is getting smaller but they estimate it could take another two months to heal. In the meantime I can’t swim and unfortunately in the perforated ear and still can’t hear much, uk hoping that improves when the hole goes but they said if not they will assess me from there. I am also getting smelly greens/ orange watery discharge for a day then it stops for a few days then comes back from the perforated ear drum. The ENT consultant said it is my ear trying to self clean and flush out anything bad as it’s perforated.

Oh crikey! I’m so glad it’s starting to heal for you now! When the chemist gave me a prescription for canasten last week they gave me cream! Luckily as I’d had trouble with my ears a lot before I thought it was probably wrong. So went back next morning and they apologised and gave me solution instead. Silly question- but will that be the right thing or how do I know? As I don’t have much faith in them now as they’ve messed up a few of my prescriptions for this and this solution hurts like hell but I’ve assumed it’s because my ear is sore! And as you say all into my inner ear and down my throat! I do have a grommet in that ear so I’m assuming that’s how it gets all down there? X

You can use earcalm once it's settled to stop reinfection. Also keep your ears as dry as possible in the shower/bath/swimming. I have had issues and get eczema in my ears and this leads to fungal infections. It's horrible and that's time to clear up. I have been given antibiotics as well as the drops but sometimes takes a few courses. They said they wouldn't suction my ears as it wasn't safe to do so if they couldn't clearly see the ear canal?

Hiya, to make sure it’s correct, make sure you look at the info leaflet and check it says it’s for ears. I realised I was given the wrong one when it said it was for external use only. Rather worrying how they can prescribe wrongly so easily like that!

Hi, I think I will definitely look into ear calm then, thank you 😊

Hi, where are you based Wellington? I’m glad you’re feeling better! I have had some form of ear infection since December, it was bacterial and fungal, now just fungal but doesn’t seem to be responding to the caneston at all, they’ve chucked a crazy amount of antibiotics at it. No pain but just full and icky, and quite numb in front of the right ear.

Today I saw a specialist ENT who was talking about checking it hadn’t spread beyond the ear with a CT scan. It’s a week to wait (minimum) and as you can imagine I’m feeling terrified after googling (currently trying desperately to hide this from my partner, as he is away on a trip tomorrow and don’t want him worrying). Your story gives me hope but my goodness they’ve messed around with sorting this.