Constant Ear Infections

[goldiegirl]

We adopted our rottie about 3 months ago. She is 8 years old and has a few minor health issues (worms, arthritis, and ear infections). Everything has been addressed sucessfully in one form or another EXCEPT the constant ear infections.

Since January, she has been on 5 rounds of antibiotics and has had her ears surgically cleaned out under anethesia. The vet also shaved her ears so increase her airflow at the time. She even took before and after pics inside her ears to show me what it looks like.

We clean her ears several times per week with a cleanser the vet had us purchase, we also had her on baytril for her ears as well.

We bathe her weekly to make sure she is generally clean and try to keep her ears dry at that time. She is constantly shaking her head and trying to get at her ears.

Any suggestions?

Also, the vet did culture the bacterial in her ears to make sure that the antibiotics were addressing ALL the types of bacteria. Just wanted to add that.

Anyone with similar problems? I feel so bad for her.

Hugs

Ames

[Shelby427]

Originally Posted by goldiegirl

We adopted our rottie about 3 months ago. She is 8 years old and has a few minor health issues (worms, arthritis, and ear infections). Everything has been addressed sucessfully in one form or another EXCEPT the constant ear infections.

Since January, she has been on 5 rounds of antibiotics and has had her ears surgically cleaned out under anethesia. The vet also shaved her ears so increase her airflow at the time. She even took before and after pics inside her ears to show me what it looks like.

We clean her ears several times per week with a cleanser the vet had us purchase, we also had her on baytril for her ears as well.

We bathe her weekly to make sure she is generally clean and try to keep her ears dry at that time. She is constantly shaking her head and trying to get at her ears.

Any suggestions?

Also, the vet did culture the bacterial in her ears to make sure that the antibiotics were addressing ALL the types of bacteria. Just wanted to add that.

Anyone with similar problems? I feel so bad for her.

Hugs

Ames

You should not be bathing her so often. Dogs have a natural oil so when you bathe so frequently, you strip them of that natural oil. I only bathe my dogs when they are dirty, roll in something etc. Other than that, they get hosed off in the summer. They maybe get a real bath 2-3 times per YEAR.

What are you feeding her? Food reactions are common causes of ear infections.

[Weily4Life]

Originally Posted by Shelby427

What are you feeding her? Food reactions are common causes of ear infections.

An allergy to something in the food was also my thinking.

A couple years ago Greta had an ear infection, and after 2 rounds of the antibiotic cream the doc suggested allergies. He wanted to put her on a special diet kibble supplied from his practice, very costly, as well as having many suboptimal ingredients on the label. I found the allergen culprit in the home cooked meals, eliminated it and haven't had a problem since.

[Shane]

I was thinking food reaction as well.

[hokisteph5]

Originally Posted by Shane

I was thinking food reaction as well.

Add me to this train of thought. Samson and Gretchen have had about two infections in the 2+ years I've had them. One I chalked up to them swimming in a nearby lake (they each had their infection at different times). I've since learned in that case that cleaning the ears out after each swim is important.

The second infection came about 6 months ago when I was feeding the dogs Canidae ALS. I couldn't say it was swimming because we were done for the season. I went to the vet, got confirmation it was an ear infection, got drops, and switched the dogs back to Innova. It took a few weeks for their systems to go back to "normal" but the infections have never returned.

I may try Canidae Chicken & Rice since they did well on that when they were puppies, but there's something in ALS that doesn't agree with them.

[goldiegirl]

She is currently on Merrick. 1/2 can wet with about a cup of dry Merrick. She gets it twice a day.

How do you know when you have found the culprit.

[calebmyboy]

My poor Caleb suffered for so many years with ear infections, finally I discovered the raw diet and he never had another occurance again.

I felt bad he had suffered so needlessly for so long.

[AngelBunny]

Originally Posted by goldiegirl

She is currently on Merrick. 1/2 can wet with about a cup of dry Merrick. She gets it twice a day.

How do you know when you have found the culprit.

It will take time.

For the first 6 months of being our foster, Sailor, had no end of problems. One of which were bacterial and yeast infections in his ears with his right ear being particularly bad.

We started getting a handle on his ear conditions when he was switched to raw and was fed no grain.

Has your girl been tested for hyprothyroidism? Among other reasons (such as ear canals that don't get an opportunity to dry out and food allergies) I understand there's a connection being yeast infections in ears and hyprothyrodism.

Our foster is hyprothyroid. We found this out early in the game and he was put on meds. It took awhile to figure out the right dosage for him. His ears are still not the way I want them to be but there're so much better than they were. I really think his raw diet helped with Sailor's ear condition.

[goldiegirl]

I think from all I have been reading on this thread and another I posted, that a home cooked diet is in order. I cannot do the raw diet because of some limitations here at the house but I can certainly make home made with only meat and the appropriate vegetables. I was reading some recipes on the net that exclude the grains etc.

Its worth a try I figure.

Its funny about the thyroid issue...one of my golden retrievers had it and just passed away from it in January. He just kept losing weight despite the meds. He was just leaking protein into his urine and eventually went down to 49 lbs although was eating like a horse! Will have my girl tested immediately for it.

She has a WONDERFUL coat and skin thankfully (my golden was almost bald from the thyroid issue) and has almost no dander. She just has the stinky ears. We have been supplementing her food with fish oil/E capsules and when we bathe her we use an oatmeal shampoo which keeps her from drying out.

I guess I am off to study the yeast causes!

Hugs

A

[frontierrots]

food is the number 1 cause of ear troubles, even some good brands bother some dogs

My sister's Golden was on some good brand (can't recall what) and he had hundreds of $$ worth of ear infections in his first year of life

I got her to switch him to California Natural herring and sweet potatoe and his ears cleared up with the first bag of food and in 6 months no more infections and that's a record for him

My Annie eats every food we do with no problem and her kibble is fine also BUT let her get ahold of just 4-5 pellets of deer/cow/horse grain and within hours her ears swell up and start oozing gunk and it takes a week of yucca, benedryl and "ears alright" solution to fix them again

[poohbearsmom]

I'm not so sure that thyroid isn't a big culprit in conjunction with recurring bacterial/yeast infections of the ears.

Might do you well to get a full thyroid panel run, to eliminate that, and then start playing around with foods.

[goldiegirl]

Well the good news and bad news is that we know what we are dealing with now. The bad news is that its staph based (among other things) and we are now giving her the correct treatment. We had gone to the vet that the shelter preferred and 500 later the damn vet didnt even read her labs correctly. Every antibiotic she gave us was listed as resistant with the particular bacterial that was present in her ears. SHEESH>

We have six weeks of some intense treatment but after 2 days, she already looks better!

The only thing I strongly disagreed with that our family vet did (after giving us such good advice about premium dog food) was to put us on Science Diet Allergy formula so we can rule out a possible food allergy. I had suggested a limited protein diet (raw or home cooked) and he insisted on SD. So I thought, what the heck, I bought a case of food and took it home with a 20lb bag of dry.

WHAT CRAP!!!!!! It looks like plastic play dough, dog hated it (dont blame her), gave her the farts all day and to top that, I read the label and there is so much crap in there it hurts.

So I took her off it and am going to either go with EVO, RAW or that other one from Dick Van Patten (natures something or other). Going grain free for the first 6 weeks or so and going to add back in ingredients slowly once we have a clean culture on her ears.

What a project this has been. The first vet charged me 486 bucks for NADA and now my own vet ended up charging me another 450 for a two hour consult with her and ALL the drugs and food. She even has a custom compounded drug coming from a pharmacy in California which will be another 66 bucks.

If this doesnt do something, I am just jumping off the cliff! LOL

Thanks for all the help everyone!

[AngelBunny]

I sympathize.

Other than the food issue, it sounds as tho you're [finally] making progress.

With the exception of our foster, Sailor, who's grain intolerant and is thriving on his raw diet and my first Rottie back in 1984 (who had hot spots his entire life--I fed SD because I didn't know any better), I don't have experience with dogs who are allergic to items in their food. This means I can't make suggestions as to what you might feed your dog that has few ingredients while her ear condition gets under control.

I am sure, tho, other RDNs will chime in with concrete suggestions.

[OnyxGold1]

Just my 2 cents......

I'm thinking allergies too.....however don't just limit it to possible food allergies.

My 8 year old suffered for chronic ear infections for at least 4 years of his life....costing thousands in treatments, ear cleanings under sedation, you name it.

I finally had enough and took the leap for an entire allergy panel to be done. Basically it was drawing several vials of blood which they sent off to a lab and I got the answers a couple of weeks later.

Contrary to our beliefs that it was a food allergy it turned out to be environmental allergies. Mason's top three allergens were found to be (1) grain dust~~which was a biggie as he used to be chronically in the graineries chasing squirrels or mice on the farm; (2) red cedar~~which turned out to be a biggie as most pet beds have red cedar chips in them to repel bugs/mites; and (3) snow mold.

As it turned out all we had to do was close all the graineries to keep the dogs out; and throw out their dog beds and keep him from rolling his head in the snow in the winter, and he hasn't had an ear infection in years!!!! It wasn't cheap having the testing done (between 4-500) however in comparison to the thousands we spent treating the problem.....I'm glad that we followed thru on discovering the underlying cause of the issue.

Heather Peters

[goldiegirl]

We do plan to do blood work at the next visit to check if they are environmental allergies! We are just hedging our bets to see if food is the initial cause at this point since it really doesnt involve a whole lot on my part.

He even talked about what the "cure" rates were for environmental allergies and shots etc. and that a great deal of animals do not respond to shots etc.

So at this point, its just a precaution. The staph infection is my major issue right now and want to get that cleared up.

Thanks for all the feedback!!!

Hugs

A