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Thread: Ear Irritant / Infection Gone Wild!

  1. #1

    Ear Irritant / Infection Gone Wild!

    Any thoughts from experience welcomed and thoroughly appreciated...

    I have an outbreak spreading through the yard. My dogs, mostly puppies are shaking their heads. Let me get this out of the way, I do not have fleas, ticks or any other parasites. My dogs are healthy I take their health ultra seriously. This has been ongoing but hasn't been much of a concern I'll explain.

    Back in May we had tornado warnings, I was asked to pick up a couple pups at a friends yard who was out of town. Their kennel had blown over and they were running the chicken yard (lots of chickens). They were very healthy visually and like pups had eaten whatever trash or chicken shit they could find which ended up on my lap on the travel home. One pup with kinda large ears always shook his head.

    I really didn't think anything of it at the time because the other pup would ring his bell when they got all riled up. They stayed for 6 weeks or more, I had to litters at the time, one was born in Feb and the other in June while the pups were here. I did let all the pups who would tolerate the two visitors play from time to time. Later after the two visitors left I began putting the bigger pups on chains freeing up kennels to disperse the June batch.

    One of those guys had bloody ear tips I noticed, I also caught him shake his head from time to time. Then another of older ones. Then I noticed the younger litter shaking occasionally. So I cleaned those guys ears with a solution of Alcohol, boric acid and gentian violent, no change.

    Then a couple adult dogs would shake their heads, and one of the older pups who was still up in the front kennel area. I took that one to the vet, they gave me Trizultra + Keto ear cleaning solution and treated his ear with EKT which is similar to Panalog. They wouldn't give me medication to treat any others without seeing them. They did not do a cytology but did look under a microscope and said no mites looks like yeast or fungus.

    That pup only showed marginal improvement, I used that cleaning solution on every dog shaking their heads, 17 total. No improvement so I took the two brothers who were the first displaying symptoms to another vet. No cytology done, not even a look in the microscope, they did use an Otiscope and thought it was an allergen causing the outbreak. It was suggested to me to remove all their bedding (I use clean Bermuda and cedar shavings) so I did and replaced with pine shavings. They dispensed an aloe based ear cleanser and an ear ointment with genticin, clortrimazole and a steroid. No major improvement with any of the pups, one had his salivary gland infected, and one is having major issues with his ears worse as they are super tender to the touch and his left eye is so swollen the red meaty part is protruding into the eye area. He's light sensitive and his pupils are dilated. I discontinued the gentizol medication on those two. As well as my house dog who could not be exposed to those allergens as my vets claims other than them being on us coming inside.

    She's an old lady, her ears became tender and she would occasionally shake, after the gentizol she lost her hearing completely so I discontinued it with her, the swollen eye dog and the salivary dog, 3 of the older littermates are still getting the meds but no change. This isn't a huge issue with most of the dogs who are displaying signs, as they are only shaking occasionally. It worsened on the ones who I guess are genticin intolerant.

    The guy with the two original pup has an adult doing the same thing. Never been to my yard. He took that one to another vet who did do a cytology, said it was yeast and treated with a medication that lasts a week and dispensed cleanser. Not sure which medication was placed in the ear or if there has been marked improvement yet.


    Any help?

    Thank you,
    S_B

  2. #2
    Ouch! That sounds like a bit of a mess with no clear answers...

    If the one vet who checked the dog on the other yard said it was yeast, you might do some reading on line about yeast infections and treatments, also look up fungus.

    I wish I had more info for you but this is all I can think of to try as there is a lot out there on the net.

    I do remember cleaning ears on one of my old dogs with an Apple Cider vinegar and water mix, and I think ACV does help get rid of yeast. Might be worth reading about that too.

    Also look up Tea Tree Oil as I think that is good for things like this, but it has been a long time since I read about all this stuff. Tea Tree Oil has a lot of uses but it is strong stuff too.

    I hope others will post and have more help. Good luck with this and I hope you get to the bottom of it as ears are pretty sensitive and it is now causing other problems.
    Common sense isn't so common these days.

  3. #3
    Thank you for the advice SGC,

    I've been searching online for answers and there are just so many things and treatments that are vague. I think this could be perhaps the most commonly misdiagnosed condition in dogs. These 3 vets so far are just guessing and most of the dogs are still symptomatic.

    I took the dog with the eye that started out dilated then became swollen, light sensitive and whose nasal cavity swelled to the vet this AM. What an incompetent moron he is. He argued with me saying this dog scratched his eye. I challenged him to show me and he just opened the eye and said see on the cornea. I said I do not see any scratch and I respectfully disagree. A scratch wouldn't make him slobber, have trouble chewing or swell the nasal cavity! He didn't bother putting dye in the eye and turn the lights off to prove it to me.

    I put Tea Tree oil (a few drops) into my ear cleaning solution, stopped at Wal-Mart and purchased Miconazole. I think I'll try a drop or two of Baytril and the Miconazole on a control group. I'm going to try Sulmet in the water of another group and I bought Corona Fung-A-Way for the third group.

    My ears seem to be itchy also, and we've both had a very slight sore throat. Maybe the weather or sympathy pains...lol I'm open to any other suggestions.

    Thank you,
    S_B

  4. #4
    Tresaderm has been suggested, I've still got go look into that and the Pharmacist at Wal-Mart said she had a similar issue with her dog and vet without a resolution. She said she tried Zymax HC and Zymax enzyme solution...I'll explore those options as time allows.

    S_B

  5. #5
    Sound like yeast infection with the ear shaking symptom's

  6. #6
    Subscribed Member CRISIS's Avatar
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    try a product called zymox. its worked for every bacterial/yeast infection in my dogs ears.
    https://www.zymox.com/zymox-enzymatic-ear-solution

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by CRISIS View Post
    try a product called zymox. its worked for every bacterial/yeast infection in my dogs ears.
    https://www.zymox.com/zymox-enzymatic-ear-solution
    I'll look into that Crisis, thanks. Back to a vet in the am with the eye infection.

    S_B

  8. #8

  9. #9
    ear mites ? I routinely use a product called thornit powder on all the dogs ears, works great as a preventative and also on infection if not to far gone and ears have started to close, as far as I can find online these are the ingredients .
    Thornit ear powder recipe

    4 oz. zinc oxide powder
    4 oz. boric acid powder
    1/2 oz. Iodoform powder

  10. #10
    It isn't ear mites, a cytology says yeast. I'm back at the first vet and saw him today (saw the other last visit) he suggested olive oil and weekly cleaning. That's what I'm going with for now. The eye dog has an abscess that's coming to a head now poor fella but ears are better go figure.

    The one pup that the other vet gave the cortisone shot to is the worst, he claimed allergens which I disagreed and shouldn't have let him give that shot but he was sticking him before I could get a word in. Anyhow that shot will just have to wear off I guess. Most are shaking less so that is a good thing. I appreciate all the advice guys.

    Thanks,
    S_B

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