Thread: Dog ear infections

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

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.

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!

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!

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