Hi all
My vet has done several things to my cockers ear however none worked. He had his ears packed and been prescribe momentamax like five times and gave me 2 prescriptions for an antibiotics that is really expensive like 60 dollars for 14 pills. He prescribe them twice. Works great while he is taking them and about 3 days after he is thru with the meds the smell comes back. I don’t think they are giving me enough to kill all the bacteria and it comes back. I’m tired of it. They also suggested a 2000 dollar surgery to remove his ear canal which will leave him deaf in his left ear. So I wanted to try something different like diluted bleach with water to place drops in his ears. I made my own ear flush from alcohol and vinegar. Any help will be greatly appreciated. I cannot afford to keep going to the vet and getting prescribe the same thing over and over again. It cost like 145 dollars for each visit and I’m running out of options. The smell is so bad it smells like its rotting
Since this is a real-life medical(doggy) question, let’s put it in IMHO rather than General Questions.
samclem, moderator
Holy Crap, Don’t Use Bleach!
Bleach is hell on tissues, I’d hate to think what it would do to ears. Probably make them more irritated and easier to infect.
Flushing it out sounds like it may be worth a try.
I’d try flushing it out regularly with a Debrox earwax removal kit.
A doctor told me a drop or two of dilute hydrogen peroxide would work too, for a person. I wasn’t sure if the stuff out the bottle was dilute enough though.
If it’s ok with you’re vet.
It sounds to me like what you really need is a second opinion. I’d call around to other vets and describe the problem and your dissatisfaction with your current vet’s approach/results. You should hopefully be able to find a better vet based on their responses.
Can’t speak with any authority about your home-remedy, except to say that it sounds like a bad idea, and I wouldn’t try it.
Don’t ever use bleach even if it’s extremely diluted, unless your vet says it’s okay to do so.
We have a couple of veterinarians on the board. Hopefully one will be along shortly.
I just signed up today and still learning the sight. So u suggest I pose my questions on IMHO and do I go about putting it on IMHO
I just signed up today so I’m still learning the site and ty for ur help
BLEACH??? I think leaving the poor dog partially deaf would be far, far more humane. :eek:
Your thread has been moved to the correct forum by samclem one of our moderators.
What kind of infection does your poochie have? I have a dog with recurring yeast infections in her ears and we use Zymox OTIC HC 1% solution. It works as an antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal. The first bottle came from the vet and was $35. I got a second bottle on Amazon for $15. May be worth a try and certainly better for your doggie than bleach.
Is your veterinarian doing ear cytology to find out what is growing in your poor dog’s ears? At this point, your dog needs a culture with sensitivity testing done to find out not only what is growing, but what will kill it. If I had to guess, I would lay odds on Pseudomonas, a particularly nasty bacteria that will completely remodel the ear canal.
I would recommend a second opinion, preferably with a veterinary dermatologist. I know how I would treat these ears, but he’s not my patient, so I can’t really tell you what to do. But please, for the love of everything, do NOT put bleach in his ears!
And yes, I am a veterinarian.
I had a Rottweiler once with chronic ear infections (due in part to atopic allergies) and I strongly suggest you heed FrillyNettles’ advice, it will cost you less money in the long run to get the right treatment, right the first time, and most importantly, will give your dog relief from a very painful condition. This same dog came to me from the shelter with a vicious staph/bacterial skin infection that was very resistant to initial treatment and it was only after culturing that the vet was able to decide on an antibiotic that actually worked.
My vet also cultured her ear goop and I had a six-week pulsed antibiotic treatment - long ago so I no longer remember the antibiotic except it wasn’t one of the normal Ceph/Ampy type ones. It took more than seven days to kill; some bacteria are really resistant, but it WORKED.
Thereafter for the rest of her life I douched out her ears regularly - about every two weeks - with a weak white vinegar/water solution (recommended by my vet) and she never had a recurrence with either ear or skin infections as long as I stayed on top of maintenance.
Cocker spaniels are pretty much poster children for ear infections due to their abnormally heavy, drooping ears. If you have a groomer, talk to him/her about keeping the fur in and around the ear canal trimmed. That can also help with keeping ear infections at bay.
I am a pet owner (currently, cats) whose pets frequently need ear cleaning. I am not a veterinarian. However, I will say this:
Do not use bleach, no matter how diluted. That would be painful and cruel to your dog. I use a cleaning solution and gauze pads provided by my vet. But the solution is nothing like bleach. My cats may not like having their ears cleaned, but at least the cleaning solution is not painful and dangerous to them.
If your current vet is recommending an expensive surgical procedure to help, I’d suggest seeking a second opinion. FrillyNettles seems to know what he or she is talking about, so I will support his or her opinion. But again, do not use bleach.
I have had a cultures run on him and the vet said it was a really nasty strain of bacteria and that’s why he packed his ears. And when I went back for a follow up visit he made up a solution called chlorhexidine/amikacin which was thirty dollars and 28 pills of orbax 22.7mg tablets which cost 61 dollars. And when it came back I had only one vehicle and my spouse had to go to work so the vet here in my town called skyline to see what tablets they gave Max and so she gave him 20 tablets of baytil taste tabs 68mg Anne that cost was 75.50. Do you think he may need to be on this antibiotics more than 7 days to kill off all the bad bacteria or should I go back to the vet that did the culture and see what he thinks. They wanna take his ear canal out but he can hear in that ear and that’s a very expensive surgery and I cant come up with over 2 grand to have it done.
The amount of time the dog needs to remain on oral antibiotics, along with topical ear meds, is determined entirely by ear cytology. In other words, the dog needs to be re-checked at the end of the antibiotic course (I typically treat for 2 weeks), including ear cytology to determine if the bacteria is actually gone (and also if something new is growing). I have my clients bring their dogs back repeatedly until and unless the ear cytology is clean and the ear canal itself looks healed. This is especially true in cases of chronic ear infection.
If your vet was treating based on a culture, I would assume he re-cultured the ears at the end of the treatment course. If the treatment course is too short, or if you decline to let him check to be sure the infection is gone, your dog will develop a resistant infection and be in worse shape.
If your vet is recommending the ear canal ablation, it probably is necessary. However, there is not much to be lost from trying a longer course of antibiotics, based on culture and sensitivity, and also a course of steroids to open up the ear canals. Also pain meds–this is extremely painful for your dog. If he is on steroids, he CANNOT have any NSAIDs, such as Rimadyl, but there are many other pain control options. If this has already been done, and your dogs ears are no better, then the ablation really is the solution. This is pretty typical of under-treated ear infections in Cockers.