Ear infections

Hi there. I have an almost two year lab who started having red swollen ear canal with discharge was commenced antibiotics from vet this cleared up a bit n know it has come back. Has any or else had this problem it sounds like there water in her ear n she welps when scratches. Any advice rather then keep going bk to the vet for ear drops thanks. Sam x

What is she fed on?

Does she swim?

It it one ear only?

I've only experienced this once with one dog - my CKCS. It was one ear and vet said the flappy ears made it hard to clear it up as it was nice and dark and warm in there.

Eventually he did what he called 'a deep clean' of that ear under anaesthetic (bear in mind he speaks Greek and I speak English!) he did it while she was under anaesthetic for something else.

It did cure the problem.

my dog has had this on and off for about 3 years. she has had a few deep cleans under GA and they did give her a few
months off well ears each time. but we have now had 5 months of clear ears which is a major thing and hasnt happened before. We saw a skin vet who did a deep clean then made me some ear drops her self instead of having AB's they worked wonders. she still gets mucky ears but i just clean them out weekly with cotton wool and some of the ear drops. I have one happy pooch when it comes to her ears now

I sympathise with you. Its horrid to listen to them scratching and know that they are hurting. Swimming sometimes causes problems if they cant get the water out by shaking. Buffy (Lab) has had bad ears in the past and she too had them cleaned out under GA twice and my vet wasn't happy to do it again. It seemed that nothing I did to keep them clean was working. Her ears were always sounding gloopy and she used to yelp sometimes because it hurt to scratch them. What I fed her on wasn't particularly relevant because she suffers from pancreatitis and I was limited to what I fed her on. I had tried everything. She saw specialists and their suggestions did nothing at all. In desperation I sent for some ear drops and cleaner from Aromesse. I clean her ears once a week and if she scratches I use the ear drops. Touch wood she hasn't had problems on any great scale for over 2 years. Although the heat sometimes aggrevates the problem, because I think it makes the 'wax' so soft. Hope you get the problem sorted.

When humans get persistent ear infection, a good doc will take a swab to identify which bug is causing the problem so he can prescribe the right meds to deal with it. Why can't they do that with dogs too?

My CKCS had a cyst just behind the ear that was troubling her. The ear infection was making her scratch and she scratched and cut the cyst. They were not going to remove this benign cyst until she got this problem with it. Then it had to go because it kept bleeding.

I am hoping I've returned to problem free ears now I am back to having a dog whose ears permanently stick up!