I have been through this…the best thing is to clean the dog’s ears weekly (I recommend a non-alcohol cleaner (like Dr. Jeff Weber’s). If you do this religiously, you can prevent these nasty infections. Spaniels and other dogs with floppy ears are susceptible, because their ears don’t get good ventilation.
As far as allergy stuff goes, that may be tricky. A dermatologist for animals is the best person to go to for allergy testing. Derm vets are kind of rare. There are only two that I know of in Chicago, where specialists are common. A dermatologist can do the skin patch testing just like you’ve heard of doing with people. They will shave portions of fur off and introduce groupings of allergens to the different areas to see what the dog has reactions to. From there, depending on whether the allergic reactions are food or environmentally based, you pup may be prescribed anything from a special limited-ingredient diet, to a hypoallergenic diet, to allergy medications such as Zyrtec or other long-term antihistamines.
I wonder how old your dog is? If weekly ear cleanings have worked fine for years up until this 3-week incident, I wonder if it is the change in environment that’s giving him problems, more than food or other allergies. If he’s older than 2 or 3, and he’s had the same food all this time, it’s probably not food allergy, though of course allergies can form later in life, too. It’s hard to say because he’s in a different climate now, too, yes? It could be a combination of all of these changes.
If it were me, I would start by finding out exactly what’s in there and medicating appropriately. Then research the type if infection to see if it’s the type more associated with allergy problems. A visit with a dermatologist would certainly rule out that entire spectrum if the testing came back negative. If positive for something, then you can get a plan for long-term treatment. If a dermatology appointment is out of the picture, you may be stuck with trial and error on your own. It’s possible the regular veterinarian can help you with prescription diets to do food trials with, and appropriate antihistamine treatment if the problem might be environmental.
Also, in my opinion, dogs that are fed twice a day are happier. Splitting the daily allotment in half and feeding every 12 hours-ish can keep the digestive system happier. While your dogs are smaller and less inclined to have bloat issues, and while there is still much debate as to what exactly causes bloat, smaller and more frequent meals are usually less suspect to cause than single large meals. Besides, who only wants to eat every 24 hours? Food’s gone from the stomach after 2-4 hours (usually less), and pup feels hungry for the rest of the long, long day. Feeding time is good socialization time, and the two dogs bond with each other and their feeder twice as often that way. But that’s totally just my HO. 
The dog is about 3 and a half years old. He was born and raised in Jakarta, and hasn’t really experienced many changes in his environment (even when he was boarded, he was boarded with the people we got him from, so it was like a visit back to his puppyhood home rather than something new). So while it’s a good point to think about, that’s probably not a factor.
It’s been a while since I worked at a vet, but one of the doctors there loved to use a product called Zymox.
Therein lies the rub. As SeaDragonTattoo mentioned, there are advanced diagnostics that specialists can perform, but I suspect you’ll be hard put to find a veterinary dermatologist in Indonesia.
For the vast majority of the pets I see, we never figure out exactly what is the primary cause of the pet’s allergies. I have a couple of pets where we still have no freaking idea despite having been to the dermatologist for the fancy testing.
But, it doesn’t really matter all that much. The goal is to control the symptoms and prevent secondary infections. If you happen to discover what the pet is allergic to, and if it is something you can remove from his exposure, then that just makes it easier to control the symptoms. Sometimes, anyhow. Allergies are weird and they have a way of flaring up for no good reason.
Maybe, but only because it is unclear if the medications prescribed were adequate for your specific case (and no one who isn’t physically able to look at your dog would be able to tell you that for sure).
For what it is worth, I can usually get an ear infection under control in my patients on the first try with only a 2 week course of treatment, but I tend to be a bit heavy-handed about the meds because it frustrates the hell out of me to have a pet come back over and over with the same problem. And by “on the first try” I mean get it to clear and stay that way for at least 2 months. Other vets have fine success rates using different combos of specific meds. It just depends on the situation, and success or failure can be completely unrelated to how good or bad the veterinarian is.
Like I said, you often don’t. But that is less important than controlling the symptoms.
My usual first recommendations for folks who are having recurrent symptoms consistent with allergies, summarized:
- Get the infection understood and under control, now.
- Flea prevention (and tick and heartworm for your part of the world. A general GI parasite deworming would be nice, too. If you can get it, Revolution would do all of that for you)
- Antihistamines (duration depends on pet’s response)
Once these steps are done, we reassess and decide where to go next.
SeaDragonTattoo IIRC, there aren’t really strains of bacteria that are more likely in allergy cases. The normal bacterial populations just takes advantage of the skin’s weakened defenses; they don’t care what weakened the defenses.
Man, that sucks… it’s useful for a lot of other around-the-home applications too.
I have an update: results of the culture are back, and the diagnosis was pseudomonas aeruginosa. He has been prescribed three drugs:
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Claneksi, which according to the internet is not available in the US but “is reported to contain in Indonesia” amoxicillin and clavulanate. 2x/day.
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Ketoconazole 110 mg by capsule 1x/day.
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Garamycin as an eardrop 2x/day.
This is to be done for 6 weeks, but I’m supposed to bring him back every 2 weeks for monitoring.
Hopefully this is a good approach, but if any of the veterinary experts participating in this thread wish to suggest alternate medications, please feel free. Changes are they will not be available in Indonesia, but I could possibly purchase them using the 1-800 number and have them sent to a US address from which they could be DHL’d to us in Indonesia. Obviously that would take a while but it beats letting the ear infection go on forever.
- bump *
Where’d those smart vet types go?
- looks around *
Thanks for the update, Carol. Hope Poochie gets better on the new meds.
Sorry, no time to post thoroughly, but that antibiotic is called Clavamox in the US.
Thanks for the update, Carol. I’m certainly not going to try to backseat drive your veterinarian from half a planet away. But, I’m curious: Will your dog not allow daily ear cleanings? Are they concerned about middle/inner ear infections or a perforated ear drum?
Pullet, I thought part of the treatment with the ear medications was to clean the ear out before applying it. Or at least, that’s what I remember of ear infections, that part of the treatment was the cleaning. Is that what you’re getting at?
Exactly. When I’m managing cases like this, a great deal of my success comes from daily ear cleanings with the right products. But, there are legitimate reasons not to be aggressive with topical medications. Particularly if the dog will eat your face if you try.
Hah hah, our dog is about as gentle as they come, not the face-eating type at all. He is rambunctious though … i just put the eardrops in, or at least I tried. He is far too wiggly for this to be done well by one person, but I forgot until my husband left for work. So MAYBE he has eardrops in now.
Regarding ear-cleaning, my husband does that chore (he’s better at controlling the wiggles than I am) so I don’t remember what the vet said - either daily, or still every 3rd day, I’d have to ask.
Cleaning with what?
This is available in the US under the human brand name Augmentin and the veterinary brand name Clavamox.
I’m on it right now for my tonsillitis.
Reported.
My little terrier has been diagnosed by my vet with “leather ears” the outside of his ears he lost all his hair, he does not have a yeast infection , his ears have always been clear .The vet though it could be a fungus problem. Anyone hear of such a thing? Anyone knows of any special treatment for it? kaana
ZOMBIE ALERT!!! Start a new thread please.