Dog ear infections

Righto, my eleven year old collie cross keeps getting an ear infection. It's been going on for the last six years. Apparently, just before she came into my possession, she got a barley seed in her ear, it was operated on and since then she's been getting alot of dark brown, foul smelling wax buildup, I clean it regularly with a cotton bud ( I only use the bud as far as I can see, not right in diggin deep) and cleaning fluid when it gets bad. For the last year, there's also been a pussey discharge amongst it. The vet just gives me drops to put in to clear the inflammation and basically shrug their shoulders, which works til about a week after it's finished, then we're back to the wax etc again. They have a look in there and say "there's no foreign body in there".
The vet reckons there's not much they can do other than me keeping it clean.
It's getting very frustrating because my dog ends up in pain and I'm at my wit's end. It also stresses the poor dog out as she HATES going to the vet.

I changed vets 5 yrs ago because they argued with me about which ear was at issue! So
I stopped with that vet.(if they dont remember which ear is crook 5 min after the been in it, I'm out)
I guess I'm asking, has anyone got/had experience with this sort of thing, and what would your advise be. I can't change vets again without at least an hour's drive to a different town.

two things....contact Ruff and Kawhia one of them will know the recipe for the magic stuff...its got condies chyrtals in it is all I remember
2nd..we had big black dog who did the same...and would come up with rash on his guts and scratch himself raw.....we put him on gluten free diet JUST CAUSE and buggermesideways issue dissapeared and didnt come back...we got local butcher to make up dog rolls without fillers/bread/crap..it was meat,veges,meat,cornflour to make it stick and meat.

I've had a couple of dogs that have had ongoing ear problems. Warm salty water is pretty good. Mix up some really salty water and get her to lye down on her side, and pour it into her topside ear and hold the flap over the opening and massage by holding the cartilage near the base. This should help loosen the wax and very salty water is great for mild infections.

I assume she has long hair around her inner ear. If so, trim it with some scissors so you can keep a good eye on the colour of the discharge.

With the salty water I would do twice a day for a start, then a bit less as it dries out. Just watch out for her ear getting too dry from the salt after a couple of weeks.
Anyway good luck, and I hope it comes right

One of our pointers suffers ongoing ear infections. We use some type of drops from the vet, we too have changed vets and the results have improved markedly.
anyway our boy is on a permanent low dose of antibiotics which seems to have sorted the problem at least for the last 12 months, We have to make a vet visit once every 12 months and then they just write the prescriptions as needed ie when we run out
Sure it a hassle but so what our dogs deserve good care and at 11 its nearly that tearful time.......................again

Yeast infection ?
Could be food or something in the environment a.
Half a tea spoon or so of garlic per feed can help. (Sometimes they get a teaspoon)

The brown, smelly, waxy gunk is either a fungal (yeast) infection or bacterial infection. Symptoms are similar, but the fix is different. Sometimes the bacterial infection originates from ear mite infestation. The only way to know for sure is to look at it under a microscope.

So you really need to find a vet who is prepared to do the right investigation and determine the cause conclusively.

The puss however, is a different matter and typically a sign of foreign body.

@kidmac42
Mix 50/50 vinegar and warm water. Get a small sprayer or eye drop bottle put a few good squits in. Controls our Springers issues no worries and lasts about 2 months. A few cents a year not a few hundred!

Hey, thank you for the replies fellas, I really appreciate it. When I was in there last month, the vet checked a swab under the microscope and came back saying there was alot of bacteria in there. Today a different vet in there(I seem to get different vet every time , they appear to go thru the staff) just looked and shrugged, keep it clean with the fluid (otocleanse) once I've finished another week of anti inflammatory medicine she says. Reckons no foreign body (standad reply Im learning).
@Fireflite what sort of vinegar would be best?
@gqhoon I'm pretty certain that earmites are not it, I enquired about that some time ago.
@llewelyn crushed garlic or fresh clove? Probably won't t do her breath any favours haha.
Thank you again to all you guys, am going over all replies carefully and thinking hard.
Cheers.
P.s. I would hit like on these replies but it ain't workin for some reason

@kidmac42 either or man. 😉
Half a clove or half a teaspoon crushed

Coconut oil is another option, drop a small lump in and let it melt.

I have a old springer spaniel that has ear problems every time it gets wet.

the issue with dogs is they have a poorly designed ear that dosent drain effectivly and starts the warm wet conditions when the wether gets rainy

the last trip to the visit (after ottoclean and hair drying it dry after didnt get on top of the issue) I had them do a culture of the ear guk. there was four hard to kill bugs in they added some things to the special medicated wash im using.

there is a surgery that costs around 2.5k that can be done to straiten the ear canal out to make it drain way better but my dog is old as and I dont want to put her thru a major thing like that

Id be real keen to hear what other people have had success with

Epi-Otic is useful for routine cleaning the gunk out. Squirt some gently inside and then massage it into the ear and then let them shake which will flick some out, clean the rest with a paper-towel. Repeating every few days keeps on top of the worst of the gunk as it disrupts the warm / wet environment that fungus / bacteria likes to grow in (Epi-Otic has like an alcohol base to it to help dry).

@Ruff @kawhia

Couple of my dogs had very hairy inside ears. Plucked this regularly and it releases a lot of wax buildup. Tried various vet remedies with temporary success. A good friend suggested a few drops of teatree oil mixed with an eggcup full of olive or coconut oil. I administered a couple of eyedrops into each ear canal daily for a week and had no more problems. Told vets and they frowned mightily not apptoving of "home remedies" at all; but for my dogs it worked better than any other treatment. May or my not work for others. Plucking excess intetnal ear hair is a good first step.

http://jlsdals.com/PURPLESTUFF.pdf

We just use malt vinegar. The smell and waxy gunk clears up very fast!

I used to keep a large bottle of OtoCetic around for my old dog with chronic ear infections. 3 washings the first day, then 2 then 1, then 2-3 times a week.
You might want to ask the vet that found the bacteria what type of bacteria she's got (basically gram-negative or gram-positive) and get drops to kill it. Chronic bacteria infections can lead to worse things including precancerous growths, burst ear drums and deafness.
White vinegar and water mix is also good, just don't use it on broken skin. It'll make things worse.

Poor mutt is going to be covered in a lovely mix of malt vinager, salt water, garlic, cloves, otocetic, tea tree and coconut oil.... You won't be able to get close enough to see if the problem has been fixed

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Woody

Couple of my dogs had very hairy inside ears. Plucked this regularly and it releases a lot of wax buildup. Tried various vet remedies with temporary success. A good friend suggested a few drops of teatree oil mixed with an eggcup full of olive or coconut oil. I administered a couple of eyedrops into each ear canal daily for a week and had no more problems. Told vets and they frowned mightily not apptoving of "home remedies" at all; but for my dogs it worked better than any other treatment. May or my not work for others. Plucking excess intetnal ear hair is a good first step.

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it is important to take these ear problems seriously, and anything you put in their ear needs to be safe
if you stick something in their ear when they have a ruptured ear drum it will make the dog go deaf
because of this and constant ear problems my dog is almost completely deaf

This may not be of use for you @kidmac42 - but I spent over a $1000 on my last boy in six months - 16 month old when I got him - he turned out to be an allergy dog (vet description) after trying all sorts of pills, drops, sprays and different foods - it seemed that steroids were the only thing that managed his allergy problems
I think that Vets know what is best for our pets - ears and eyes are critical health issues - but although four different vets from the Group saw our boy, analysed and tested him and we tried various food options - steroids seemed to be the only answer
Feet and ears were the worst parts - initially a smelly yeast infection in his ears and itchy between his pads- but cleared that up fairly easy - but he never stopped rubbing his ears and licking his feet - eventually the vets told us if he stayed in our BOP environment and the bush work I was doing - he would be on steroids for ever
He was a very special dog and the breeder also loved him heaps - so eventually they took him back to their breeder environment on a small farm near Auckland and apparently managed to get him well with homeopathic remedies
Virbac Easotic Hydrocortisone drops were very effective inside the ear canal - Virbac Cortavance spray was incredibly effective on external skin surfaces - both very expensive - I recall the 76 ml spray was about $170 and may have lasted for a couple of months
We tried hard to get him right - washing and checking each foot after every outing - and spraying the affected parts - but I couldn’t do that forever!
I am hoping my new girl will be a safer option - God - I hope so - she is a 3 year old having to be rehomed due to family domestic issues - we took a punt and have got her 10 days ago - we just today got her Vet records - they spent a lot of money on three eye ops and also having her spayed - Labrador eyes are often too loose or sometimes too tight - no amount of drops are going to fix that
We couldn’t start a puppy as I wanted a companion dog for trapping - 12 month seems to be when they are strong enough for some bush walking without risk of joint damage

wow @Timeout you have been through the wringer.... sounds similar to what our old boy did,we manged to fix it with diet...seems yours not so much. plurry vets seemed to love getting us back in over n over again charging like wounded bull without resolution.....

Anyone who has a dog with bad allergies. Ask your Vet for a drug called Cytopoint. Its a new anti allergy treatment.
It works almost instantly (injection). in our case 3 treatments over 18 weeks has resulted in a different dog. last treatment was 2 years ago. Prior to this we had spent an absolute fortune (at a different and gold plated vet, Halifax in Nelson)

@Fireflite we used the same plus a few mils of colloidal silver on our springers ears. Worked okay.

@ishoot10s yep I agree, We must all remember that there are a lot of backhanders that "Professionals" receive for marketing/using/promoting products!
A previous comment made was to "trust vets as they are professionals" or something like that!
All I know is that over the previous 3 years we have spent more than $700 in vet fees and for medications and "NO" improvement.
Actually our Springer become profoundly deaf trying all the $700 of recommended medication!
Sore ears when rubbed and that horrible rank smell!
50/50 Vinegar and water solved the sore ears and the smell.

A few cents a year any day and we get to have a holiday instead instead of the Vet!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fireflite

@kidmac42
Mix 50/50 vinegar and warm water. Get a small sprayer or eye drop bottle put a few good squits in. Controls our Springers issues no worries and lasts about 2 months. A few cents a year not a few hundred!

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YES! Or buy Vosol ear drops from the human pharmacy. Cheaper than vet preparations. Use instructions on bottle.

Active ingredient is acetic acid, aka vinegar, and a bit of antifreeze to make it sticky. It works by rendering the ear environment acidic which is the natural ear defense which suppresses growth of microbes (and this defense gets broken down by repeatedly getting water into the ear when swimming etc - that's why ear canal infections get called "swimmer's ear").

The low pH gets to fungi, yeasts, resistant bacteria, even super resistant bugs like pseudomonas. There is NO antibiotic resistance to it... because it is not an antibiotic. A couple drops morning and night into each ear and you are sweet for prevention. For an infection which has taken hold, it's used more times a day and in slightly larger amounts.

Do Dalmatians have a higher risk of having dog ear infections ? I checked out https://dalmatianpuppyplace.com , had some very good and useful information , just trying to cover all basis and basics before adopting