Ear Infections-Chronic in a puppy - Page 1

I have a 6 month old male pup that has had chronic ear infections. He's been on Canidae (original formula) since he was 8 weeks old. The breeder had him on Royal Canin Baby Dog from his start of solid foods.

I've taken him to the vet several times she says it's an irritation but never a yeast infection. Bloodwork and allergy tests all negative.

I live in SW Missouri and we've been extremely wet here. I don't know if this would have anything to do with his condition or not. He stays in the house for the most part.

I've been cleaning them out with a blend of alcohol, witch hazel and peroxide as directed by the vet and given a ear drop called Tresaderm.

This problem seems to be chronic though, I get it cleared up then it comes back again.

Any suggestions?

Is this an infection or just an itchy irritation?

They sometime's are irritated by something in their environment, try some change's along those line's.

One of my dog's kept getting a yeast infection and finally a change in diet seemed to help, or maybe he grew out of it.

But now what I see is he has a dry ear, no natural secreation's in the ear, the other ear is normal.   My vet added something to an ear wash that he said would numb the ear and the dog stopped digging at it, this really helped and his ear doesn't bother him right now, its still dry tho and he will still scratch at it after a while.  

I'm still looking for answer's myself.

Good luck.

It starts out as an itchy irritant then turns into an infection.

I don't notice it until he's rubbing his ears on the side of his crate. Needless to say, his ears are always drooping which is frustrating, mostly because he rubs them everytime this flares up.

You might need to see another vet ar specialist. If thats going on for a while the infection sits too deep to treat it from the outside only. Also, I think culture swabs are a necessity to determine excactly what the culprit is. Wish you the best of luck.

I was dealing with the same thing constandly  for one year my boy had earinfections nothing seems to help, I went out of state to visit family and he started to scratch and rub again took him to a vet there she gave me clavamox 375 twice a day for 10 days  this was last year  he has not had an earinfection since.

That Vet explained to me that there is an infection going on in he's body somewhere and that most infections come out somewhere and with most of dogs is the ears.

Vet gave my  Dad's lab a product called Zymox Otic. I found later it was available without a prescribtion. I used it for 4 weeks, but it cleared him up. This dog had a chronic infection and had scratched his ears bloody.  It also has hydrocortisone which helps itching. Lots of info on this product if you do a search.

Best, Rik

 Keeping the ear canal dry and changing the pH of the canal will help. Using a 50/50 mixture of isopropyl alcohol and apple cider vinegar will do two things: 1) change the pH to slightly more acidic and 2) the alcohol will help dry the tissue. The mixture should NOT have water in it because moist environment is part of the problem almost always. Make sure there are no open wounds first as otherwise it will sting like hell and your pup will not appreciate that. Most people do not actually treat the ear infections properly because they fail to give the medicine in the right way or don't give it long enough.

As Elknoor about says, deep seated infections often are difficult to clear up without putting the dog under light sedation and really cleaning. If one must go to that length, then yes, having a culture done to try to identify the organism and also then test for an appropriate antibiotic/antifungal is also a good idea. But I would try the mixture above first, along with a systemic antibiotic. 

It is generally not necessary to change food or add supplements etc. If you want to do so, fine, but the proper treatment is to identify and treat the organism that is in the ear canal. Unless your dog is chronically ill, it is highly likely simply a localized problem and that is all you want to treat.

At app.  one year of age my girl (now nine) was swimming alot and got a chronic bacterial yeast infections. I battled this for years going back and fourth to the vets. It would clear up for awhile but always came back and I hated to keep giving her medications all the time.

I now treat her daily with the bio-groom  with boric acid and it worked great. (someone on this board suggested it) , Took a couple of weeks to clear up.  After about three weeks of a daily cleaning with the bio-groom and I alternate with a 50/50 mix of white vinager and water as the alcohol mix was too painful for her.

I miss a few days but still treat her at least 5 days per week except for one week on vacation. Her ears are clear and stand up perfectly now(her right ear was the bad one).

My plan is to slowly taper off and try to clean once a week but taking my time because I am hoping eventually to totally eliminate this problem.

Good luck