Ears, yeast infection - Page 1

I have a 15 month old male who gets a yeast infection in one ear, he has had this three times now and all the vet says is that he may be prone to this and gives me ear wash (multicleanse 2% acetic and 2% boric acid solution with sufractants)

Another bout is just beginning and I am looking for other advice short of going to another vet which is my next move.

Opinions?

Give Blue Power a try. http://www.mariebennett.com/blueear/

Ask the pharmacist for Gentian Violet. The large chains don't tend to carry it but if you have a home-town pharmacy nearby you can probably get it.

I've had some excellent success with this.

 Two Moons,

May I ask what you're currently feeding and how long your male has been on it?  I have a 10 year old female who had chronic yeast infections in her right ear.

Funny you should mention the solution

I was making some up myself and bought hte gentian violet behind the counter at CVS (they also stock boric acid but were out). Boric acid was on the First Aid row at Rite Aid.

The solution I use works, I am more interested in knowing the why of it..

ecbromley, I feed a locally made food (Sports trail high pro)as a base and add to it many things for different needs.  They get different kinds of meat scraps, cheese at times, salmon, sometimes oatmeal,eggs. I mix in large breed puppy foods sometimes purina sometimes others.   I sometimes throw in table scraps, veggies , carrots for treats.  If your heading towards allergies it would be impossible to pin down.    This dog runs loose and they find things in the woods and drag home.  Turkeys, deer parts, fish, I'm sure they find garbage at my neighbors because the A-hole throws it in the woods out his back door.   

I wonder if he is predisposed to infection because of something genetic.   Most dogs can handle bacteria naturally they all are exposed to it.  Mine had skin irritations as a pup that he has since grown out of. 

He runs loose, spends time in the kennel, stays in the house a lot also.  Environment is also hard to pin down.   I do keep him out of the kennel as much as I can because this was my first guess with the rash, he doesnt like straw.

I just hate to have to treat this every few months and not know why.

 Two Moons,

Obviously I can't say what the root of the problem  is with your dog nor do I know for sure with mine.  I had resigned myself to just dealing with the ear issue as you seem to be also.  I have noticed though that since I've switched to Solid Gold Wolf King her ears seem to have cleared up over the past six months.  Prior to the Wolf King she had been primarily fed either Nutro Lamb and Rice or Nutro for Large breeds.  She had also had bouts with hot spots that have now cleared up.

Of course I'm not willing to leave well enough alone and have just switched her and the new guy to Orijen.  Large Breed Puppy for him and Senior for her.  He didn't do well on the Solid Gold (loose stools).

Ted

The Sports trail I have used for over twenty five years, I have never had any problems with it other than no matter what you feed dogs get tired of it and appreciate anything new.     So I spice things up with odds and ends at different times.

I am hoping that my male will grow out of this problem in time, he's still growing and going thru changes.   I do plan on showing him to another vet and getting his opinion as well.

I will also inquire about the other ear solutions mentioned.

Thanks.

I had an yeast infection in my ear got some meds from the Doc worked very well when I got my boy 2 years ago he keept shaking hes head I thought he had mites and treated him for it, as time goes on he still was shaking so I took him to the vet well it was yeast infection and she gave me the ear wash did'nt work so I thought since the drops my doc gave me for the my ear yeast infection worked on me so well it should work on the dog, I rinsed hes ear and put couple drops in from my meds for 3 days and I notized very little shaking so I keept it up for a couple more days and it worked nomore yeast infection in hes ear since a year.

The dropes I used was Homeopathic Ear Dropes Similsan

Active ingredients

Chamomilla HPUS 10X Mercurius solubilis HPUS 15X Sulphur HPUS 12X

Manufactured by Simulasan AG Switzerland

Plus I switched him from Nutra Max chicken & rice to Diamond Naturals Puppy Lamb & Rice.

Two Moons, if the ear infection keeps coming back then clearly the solution you're now using doesn't work. It treats the symptoms but doesn't eliminate the cause. You knock it down but it comes back.

I have a very similar situation with my dog. He had some serious skin problems (puppy acne) as a whelp and while it hasn't come back with such severity, in the spring he gets itchy, gets a rash on his belly, and loses hair in his armpits and on his chest. I've learned to avoid this by giving him Benadryl during the high pollen months and we've largely eliminated the itching, rash, and hair loss, but we've fought the gunky ear since forever.

What I get from the vet is ever more ear wash, ear rinse, ear drops. I think we've pretty much paid for his Swim-X pool by now with just ear stuff. But the Blue Power has put a serious dent into recurrences. I use it strictly for maintenance now, such as when he's been swimming to get the water out.

Chronic yeast infections are very hard to manage as you know. We live in a high pollen, high humidity area and environmental allergies are a by-product of our lives. I've pretty much ruled out a food allergy and I'm not going to do the allergy testing and desensitizing routine because the answer is most likely "molds, spores, pollens". He's not going to live in a bubble, I can't stop allergens from coming into his life, so I do the best I can to manage their effect on him.

Two Moons,I have been combating yeast and itching for long bouts and it is either,food intolorance OR inhalent allergins.It is much easier to change his food to a protein source that he has NOT had ( or had alot of also since you feed scraps).Say if he is on a food that is chicken based then go to say lamb and rice for instance or vica versa.I know you like to give extra goodies but if you can just try this for 8-12 weeks it might get rid of your problem and then you will know that it was say the chicken.Then you can try SLOWLY giving the other goodies.And YES i know you said about your AH neighbour but this might be what keeps the dog UNDER the threshhold.Good Luck