Poor Mr. Blue has a bad ear infection

[Mary Plummer]

I took him to the vet this morning, and she gave him Otomax and wants to see us again in 10 days. I had cleaned his ears on Saturday (just a pet store-variety ear wash), because it seemed to be bothering him. He didn't mind the cleaning at all, but it seemed like it just kept getting worse. He kept rubbing his left ear on the carpet, or in the grass before our walk. Then last night, I smelled his ear, and it smelled like fresh-baked bread, so I thought yeast infection, so off we went this morning. The vet used a cotton swab in that ear, to put on a slide, and I couldn't believe the brown crud she got! I was fumbling a bit and stammering how I'd just cleaned his ears over the weekend, and I couldn't believe how much crud there was. She reassured me, after looking at the stuff in a microscope, and said the crud was there because he had a bad ear infection. She also wanted a thyroid test done, so she drew blood for that. She said that hypothyroid dogs don't deal with allergies very well, and we know he's got those, so she wanted to check. So what do all of you think about this: is the Otomax as good as it sounds? I read the flyer on it, and it seems it's got an antibiotic, an antifungal, and a corticosteroid in it. Mr. Blue doesn't mind the treatment; his ear must be feeling awful! He just loves going to the vet; he was so excited this morning! The staff there just love him; when we walked in, one person said "Oh, it's Mr. Blue," and a bunch of people came out to see him. It makes a dog person's heart proud!

[davet]

otomax is great but i still liked my old fashion remedy

Tannisol

5% tannic acid
5% salsylic acid
5% boric acid

qs alcohol

but it used to make me feel good when my secreterary or whoever was working at the time would say to the client, How is "mr Blue" or whatever the name was...that meant that that dog had been coming in either for a long time or coming in often..recpgnizable pets were the ones that payed the bill....made the client feel good as it did you but also made the vet feel good also..

[k9Karen]

Sorry to hear about Mr. Blue. That nasty gunk in the ear is typical of a yeast infection. I fight them in Allie all the time. Don't beat yourself up, washing out the ear was a good idea, since the itch could have been due to something other than an infection, but it isn't enough to cure it. It's amazing how fast they can develop. Hope he's better soon.

[Mary Plummer]

Thanks Davet and K9Karen! Can you give me a quick primer on yeast infections in dog ears? How do they get them, and do dogs ever give them to each other? The reason I'm asking is because our good friends just adopted a stray Black-and-Tan Coonhound (I thought Mr. Blue had long ears, but this dog's ears are probably 3 times as long!) Him and Mr. Blue get along great, and always sniff noses and "rub faces" (I've never seen dogs do this before), so I was wondering if they could pass this stuff on to each other. Poor Hank has been fighting a yeast/ear infection for the last couple of weeks, ever since they got him, and we see them every couple of days. I talked to the people tonight, and we've decided to start a Dog Fashion thing here in town. We're going to start tying those long hound ears up with ribbon - blue of course for Mr. Blue, and red for Hank to match his collar

[davet]

they can transfer it but the fungi and other critters are very abundant in nature so it is hard to avoid them...it is a matter of susceptability of each individual animals....some are prone some are nt and the best prevention is bi weekly cleaning of ears with qn acetic solution...but i doubt that you can say one dog gave it to another cause even very solitary dogs get it....