Hi, I am wondering if anyone has similar experiences and any help/advise to offer. I have a 1-year-old labrador who, over the last 7 months, I have continuously had to take to the vet for episodes of ear infections. Her ear becomes significantly potent; with a red and inflamed external ear canal, and persistently scratching at her ear. Her infections have been paid and predominantly treated through insurance. We initially planned to remove certain high-risk proteins from her diet going down to a fish-based diet. We have had continuous antibiotic treatment, we've had steroid treatment, we have also tried the medicated shampoo and we've used frequent ear cleaning solution, we've had her ears shaved to reduce risk. Even more recently we have changed her to a hydrolysed protein diet, not covered by the insurance, and fairly pricey. This again all recommended for trial from my vet. However, I have noticed over the last day that she has since redeveloped these signs of infection, and will no doubt need to see the vet before the end of this week. The only other thing I can think of that may be causing these infections are she seems to develop these infections after a higher intensity walk, ie. if we go out >30 mins with persistent running for her. Please any help or advise would be much appreciated. I have full trust in my vet but I am constantly having to initially put funds out to pay for treatment and foods that have not worked.
Has she been tested/treated for ear mites? What are you feeding? Excessive discharge from ears can be a sign of an allergy. Because it's so easy to try, with nothing to lose, I'd try putting her on a natural and raw diet - try a complete raw mince.
Captain is nearly 9 months, and has had several ear infections; though, i wouldnt say as bad as your and your pup. It's terrible to hear, and i hope something gets worked out ASAP. We considered switching his food, but the vet explained symptom differences between food allergies, environmental allergies, inner ear, and outer ear infections. What we found was he was having outer ear infections, and the indications were more aligned with environmental allergies. We put Captain on a few rounds of allergy medicine and everything slowed down significantly. In fact, we have been medicine-free and infection-free for a couple months now. All we do is an occasional ear cleaning, but this is only when he seems to be showing some irritation and we use an ear cleaning solution available in most pet stores. Since your pup seems to be more adversely affected with longer outdoor times, it may lead to some sort of seasonal/environmental allergy. I see that you mentioned some form of approach was taken with this matter, but maybe there is other roads not thoroughly explored or explained.
I have been feeding my 12 breeding Labrador retrievers a raw food diet (BARF DIET) for going on 6 months. I had 2 females with constant ear infections and another female with continuous foot irritation that have all gone away. I don’t like to push this diet very much but it has done wonderful things for my dogs. You should consider it and give it a real 60 day trial to see if it helps..
