Re: Ears Thanks everybody....and thankyoumfor the product explanation Lochan ,my vet did seem quite confident it's not ear mites....I had a good peer down myself and it sounds like even my untrained eye could see them.....horrible Still nothing has come out or can be seen so I'm making an appointment for Saturday morning then the drops have had a good 4 days to do their magic... On a good note the upset tummy settled immediately back to Normal,I think they had all got him just so hyper excited .....everyone has been really good obeying the psycho dog owner ;D and yesterday they saw how he really is in the house,which is pretty much a lovely calm chilled boy. It's not just dog training this lark is it,it's visitor training too ;D x
Re: Ears Glad that his tummy has settled Very sorry about the Advantage/Advocate/Advantix stuff-up (wish they hadn't called them all the same bloomin' thing....).
Re: Ears Just because you can't see the gunk coming out, doesn't mean it's not. We had a routine of flushing and cleaning Charlie's ears and never seemed to get much gunk out. But after a week, we had removed 95% of it. The flushing and cleaning broke it up, and it did disappear - probably shaken out when we weren't there. I have to say, a big error for us was not cleaning the ear before applying drops. The vet hadn't told us to do so, but the dermatologist said that was step one, always, ear drops (this was before the dermatologist knew what was wrong with Charlie's ear). When I looked up the ear drops the vet had given us, sure enough, it said clean the ear first before applying (this wasn't on the box, I found it on the internet, on the website). That said, Dex might just have a little infection, which the drops will clear up without any fuss at all.
Re: Ears Ear cleaning prior to application of medicated drops is indeed vital otherwise the medicated drops just sit on top of greasy wax and don't do anything. However, depending on the cleaner you use you might have to leave several hours between cleaning and medicating as some cleaners inactivate the antibiotics in ear drops. It's never easy this ear disease lark.....
Re: Ears Thanks everybody...am sorry I've been so slow to come back ( visitors have left the building now!) Absolutely nothing had appeared out of Dex's ears,although he's not shaking his head as much. I've just got back from getting him checked out.They were still the same,so my vet cleaned them with a really thorough flush and massage and did her best to prompt as many head shakes as she could ( wish I'd trained that like Julie's OH now :)and a few bits of gunk came out.I've got to keep doing the drops for another couple of days and then take him back Wednesday for a repeat of what she did today....it's really far down ,it's beyond the length of the otoscope....and the length of an earbud.dexter has never had dirty ears except for the yeast infection.driving home I was thinking about this and wondering if this means his ears will never self clean ...will muck always just build up in the depths of his ear canal,is what I'm seeing the buildup since they yeast infection?hope not! I'll ask her when I go back on Wednesday....you always think of something when you come away don't you! :
Re: Ears Poor Dexter, I hope his ears get better soon. Hattie has her fair share of ear infections and I have to keep her ears plucked and clean - yukkkk. Next time you go to your vet make a list of all the things you want to ask
Re: Ears Back to the vets again today.....this whole event has been a tad inconclusive .... Vet says ears are still 'mucky' despite daily drops.....a few bits have come out for me on an ear wipe ( I can't do the cotton bud swipe,it terrifies me) and she got some more out today but then looked down again and said there is still debris very deep down that is unreachable :'( Dexter has stooped shaking his head so I'm not proceeding any further.the vet said to remove properly it would need to be flushed under GA which feels totally unnecessary when he's not seeming irritated by it.Vet agrees and has given me some liquid to flush with a couple of times a week and to continue using the drops every other day.she said it's not mites,it's not an ear infection...just plain old muck don't know how it's got down there though,his ears are always pristine ??? Keep your eyes on the ears seems to be the conclusion! X
Re: Ears [quote author=Dexter link=topic=4741.msg60361#msg60361 date=1394629067] she said it's not mites,it's not an ear infection...just plain old muck don't know how it's got down there though,his ears are always pristine ??? [/quote] It sounds exactly like Charlie. It doesn't sound likely that muck has entered the ears from outside. It sounds like excess ear wax and ear debris? This is caused by excess yeast in Charlie's ear. If you think it might be that....we stopped all oily ear drops (particularly applied on top of the ear wax :). We got almost all of the muck out by a twice daily flush with body temperature warm water (just in a syringe, squirted in and massage), followed by a yeast killing cleaner - we use sancerum ear cleaner. We didn't see the muck come out. We had some ear drops that matched the cleaner (this is important) but stopped those, and now just clean. There is just a stubborn bit of wax right at the end now, which if still there when he has his x-rays we'll remove then. I doubt that we'd even have that problem if we hadn't been messing around for months with ear drops.
Re: Ears Thanks Julie,the yeast element is a common factor I think as Dexter did have a yeast infection last August .... Looking at the ingredients of the flush I've been given today it's basically saline with a nozzle that is syringe shaped( oxyfresh pet ear cleaner).....how the vet has shown me is to almost fill his inner ear and then massage it....this is probably second nature to you!the 'muck' looks exactly the same to me as the 'yeast' manifested.......she says it's NOT a yeast infection though?hmmmmmmm,my plan going forward.....I've got 2 vets,I'm going to do the saline flush and stop the oily drops and if I see the head shaking increase I'll go for a second opinion,tummy rub to Charlie and thanks for replies folks x
Re: Ears [quote author=Dexter link=topic=4741.msg60393#msg60393 date=1394639351] she says it's NOT a yeast infection though?hmmmmmmm,my plan going forward.....I've got 2 vets,I'm going to do the saline flush and stop the oily drops and if I see the head shaking increase I'll go for a second opinion,tummy rub to Charlie and thanks for replies folks x [/quote] Hmmm. How does she know what it is (or isn't?). Has she looked at a sample under a microscope? Lochan gave a really good explanation here: http://www.thelabradorforum.com/index.php?topic=4318.msg53481#msg53481 None of the vets I went to actually looked at a sample until I got to the dermatologist. Who did exactly what Lochan described.
Re: Ears Poor Dex. Hope he's better soon. Meg had ear problems when she was younger and then just seemed to grow out of them. Jen xx
Re: Ears Thanks for the link Julie,I've stopped the oily drops and am just flushing them every other day...ears perfectly clean ...no debris coming out...he shakes his head about half a dozen times a day......I think he always has though?maybe the frequency of shaking has slightly increased....does this tell me he's always had an ear problem?that he's always been irritated/ in discomfort?do dogs shake their head a couple of times a day as normal?i haven't got anything to measure normal by with him being the first dog :-[ im booked in on Saturday for a second opinion with my other vet......let's see from that x Thankyou x
Re: Ears Does he shake just his head or is it an all-body shake? Dogs do all-body shakes pretty often - easily half a doz times a day. If Obi has an uncomfortable ear he kinds of paws at it with a hind foot and makes moaning noises. The offending ear is also held lower than the other one which makes his head look a bit tilted to the side.
Re: Ears I will observe his next shake carefully as thinking about it I actually couldn't answer that Rachael...... He has never scratched them or pawed at them or given any indication that they trouble him ,this has only been flagged because I thought he was shaking his head more often and asked the vet to look when he had his kennel cough booster.... X
Re: Ears Well Simba does a head shake a few times a day but doesn't bother the ears otherwise, so I'm actually not sure about what is normal. Previous dogs being Border collies I've never dealt with ear issues...
Re: Ears Have watched the last couple of days...his shake is as if he was wet and shaking himself off.....he has started doing it more frequently though so something must be bothering him.ill see what my second opinion says tomorrow ,I feel a bit of a time waster to be honest but I just want reassurance he's not in discomfort ...something is just niggling at me about this .... :-\
Re: Ears I have spent months and months, and an awful lot of money, on clearing up something vey simple with Charlie's ears. Big lesson? If you don't knock the simple stuff on the head quickly, ear skin thickens, and becomes a problem in itself, condemning the dog to a lifetime of problems. I hope it's not too late for Charlie. You get that second opinion, that's what I say! Best of luck with it!
