Treating the dogs ears .... now she's near deaf

bessiedog · #1 10-29-2017, 08:15 AM

My lab had an irritated left ear for most of the summer. We have regular cleaning stuff which we used, but then it'd come back soo....

Took wunderpooch into the vet 2 weeks ago. Turns out both ears have a yeast infection of some kind... so the doc gave my wife some anti fungal goop that needs to be applied with a syringe to both ears... stuff gets swuirted way in there.. then massage.

Last weekend, the dog would range way to far for pheasants and seemed to blatantly ignore my verbal calls.... I thought maybe it was the wind. Hand signalling worked just fine. I was miffed cause I had some good friends with me and I figured my pooch was just being a horses arse and challenging my alpha status because she had others to hunt with.

That night at home... called her to get her attention (we were in the same room) and nothing.
WTH...?

Subsequent tests by myself, the kids, and wifey this week.... shows she's pretty deaf.
So no pheasant patch this AM.... me and pooch are sitting here feeling sorry for ourselves.
Oh.. I got a head cold thingy that has blocked up my inner ear canal ... I'm walking around like a drunk... which sucks.

Doc said the ear drums looked fine and healthy when we got the anti fungal stuff. We'll be taking her in this week... I'm really hoping she's just super plugged up with wax or hoop or sumpin.

Anyone else have experience with this?

gmcmax05 · #2 10-29-2017, 08:25 AM

Maybe she's tired of hearing you spout off about the Oiler's & she's ignoring you haha. Hopefully she's just plugged up & her hearing returns.

bessiedog · #3 10-29-2017, 08:27 AM

Naw

She loves da mighty Oil!

Everyone should..... why don't u?

artie · #4 10-29-2017, 08:36 AM

I am going through the same problem with my nine year old but in addition to the ear problem he scratched lots of hair off. Went through three different vets until one female vet who spent a lot of time examining him found the scratch marks he made when scratching were all infected so was put on a heavy dose of antibiotics for a month. Plus special bath, plus anti mite, anti worm, the ear syringe goop you are talking about but the best pill was the anti itch pill over $100.00 for a small vial but they work and he has stopped scratching. She also gave me a spray I can use when I see him itching. In a follow up visit she said his ears were now o. k but in the last while he has started shaking his head like there is something in his ears. Walmart sells a good ear wipe for cleaning ears and I was up last night at 3 a.m cleaning his ears. I blame some of his problems on the drought as he seems worse when lying outside on the grass. Could be mites or the sharp brittle grass. He is also on special dog food which costs $140.00 a bag. I tried the trick where you have him sleep on a white sheet and then in the morning you check for small brown drops. If you spray the drops with water and then they turn red it indicates fleas but for him this test was negative. I have noticed some hearing loss and I put it to old age but you might be on to something. So far this ear and scratching has cost me over $1000.00 so I guess owning a dog in the future is just going to be for the rich people or you can be like my old dad who would not take the dog to the vet unless he needed stiches.

sewerrat · #5 10-29-2017, 08:50 AM

We usually go through the same thing couple times a year, So the vet proscribe Avena Sativa wipes first we had to wipe the ears clean then squirt Surolan which is a prednisone , in both ears had to fill both ears for a week.

Got to be careful that the dog doesn't shake its head to much, the vessels in the ear might burst and it will really swell up the ears and another costly vet visit. Been there done that.

Cdnbushnerd · #6 11-05-2017, 06:40 AM

same issue here... dogs ears messed up... turned out to be a developed food allergy brought on by age. Changed to an allergy food... ears started clearing up.... maybe check with vet on allergy possibility...

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BackPackHunter · #7 11-05-2017, 07:47 AM

My male has more allergys then I thought a dog could have .
1st buy the kit for getting her tested. Then change the diet etc

I also have tried a lot of different ear cleaning solutions.
The best I found is a home remedy, I buy it from K9 complete in Lacombe
Call and order some up,
I soak a cotton ball , then jam it in the ears , n rub n rub, for a couple min.
Then remove .

Does wonders
If you want contact etc, pm me

densa44 · #8 11-05-2017, 08:05 AM

When I had labs, we used to use a soap called Phisohex which you can't buy any more. There must be other newer and better products. As one member has said, squirt a fair amount in one ear at a time and massage vigourosly (all the way down the neck) then rinse her out with clean water as best you can.

Dry her off and keep it up for a few days until she can hear you and/or stops shaking her head.

Good luck with this.

CNP · #9 11-05-2017, 08:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by densa44

When I had labs, we used to use a soap called Phisohex which you can't buy any more. There must be other newer and better products. As one member has said, squirt a fair amount in one ear at a time and massage vigourosly (all the way down the neck) then rinse her out with clean water as best you can.

Dry her off and keep it up for a few days until she can hear you and/or stops shaking her head.

Good luck with this.

in the olden days lol.................I remember that being used on MY face.

Quote:

If your doctor has directed you to use this medication, remember that he or she has judged that the benefit to you is greater than the risk of side effects

Hope your buddy recovers soon BD.

rosh · #10 11-05-2017, 10:40 AM

My last dog, retriever/lab had a ear problem. She had something bothering her ear so was shaking head and cause a big blood pocket. Had to cut, drain and stitch.( was brutal). Anyways that vet said inner ear infection caused this, so gave us stuff to squirt in and do all you said. That was the end of her hearing, I was ****ed and will never squirt stuff into dogs ears again. I hope yours is just plugged up or something. Best of luck

silverdoctor · #11 11-05-2017, 10:46 AM

What medication was she treated with?

My ex's dog used to get fierce ear infections, was a side effect of an endocrine problem. Poor bugger would scream in agony when he scratched. Tried many different drops from the vet - but the best one is called Mometamax. Unfortunately, one of the side effects of overuse can be deafness. I've talked to people that are using it - and what the vet told them to do would be classified as overuse.

rosh · #12 11-05-2017, 07:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silverdoctor

What medication was she treated with?

My ex's dog used to get fierce ear infections, was a side effect of an endocrine problem. Poor bugger would scream in agony when he scratched. Tried many different drops from the vet - but the best one is called Mometamax. Unfortunately, one of the side effects of overuse can be deafness. I've talked to people that are using it - and what the vet told them to do would be classified as overuse.

Not sure what the name was, she has been gone 11yrs. Sucks something could cause deafness.

Nova · #13 11-05-2017, 08:13 PM

Not entirely relevant to the issue at hand, but as an owner of a deaf (from birth) dog, I'd advise anyone that it is a good idea to train your dog with hand signals regardless if they can hear. There are situations where it can be useful in daily life, and make for a much less stressful transition in later years in similar cases where a dog loses hearing due to old age or health complications.

Dogs are primarily visual communicators, so they pick up on hand signals really quick.

ETOWNCANUCK · #14 11-06-2017, 11:47 AM

My dog (female rottie) gets going on her ears quite a bit at times. Usually a few squirts of mineral oil seems to ease the problem.

She had mites last year and those were a pain to deal with so now she is extra sensitive to her ears, but I clean them with soft Kleenex and then put some drops in.

bessiedog · #15 11-06-2017, 04:20 PM

Ok... so update..
Took my lab in, they sedated her and gave her inner ears a good cleansing.

They pulled out a large amount of black wax and spear grass pieces.

The eardrums seem to be ok.
We (wife and I) stopped treatment for a week.

Dog seems to be able to hear. Ommands up close.
Commands from more than 15-20 feet away she seems to not hear at all.

We can still work together as I have trained her to hunt left, hunt right, sit, stay, 'good girl' and come with hand signals. So she was kindof effective when we went for pheasants. I would. I would verbally control her ranging..... so that's a problem.

I'm going to start reinforcing her hand signals and perhaps find a way to make her 'hold' at distance. Maybe a vibrate collar.

Thanks for the well wishes and pms.

This sucks....

Oh... and the dog seriously hates being sedated...
Worst trip ever.

wwbirds · #16 11-06-2017, 06:53 PM

If I check their ears every few weeks it is amazing how much floating crap as well as dirty slough water they can get in their ears. Inside a dogs ear is the ultimate breeding ground for viral and biotic infection garbage. They are dark, warm and moist.
I routinely flush the ears with a drying agent (Optisomething or other) which is squirted in the ear and massaged a bit before the anticipated shaking of head to get it and debris out. Only once did I not do this frequently enough for my 3 year old (who gets most of the tough water retrieves) so we had to clean and then put an antibiotic in the ear to clear up a yeast infection.
I know many retriever owners who occassionally get ear infections from a build up of dirt and slough water but most like me prefer to rinse every week or two in hunting or water training season rather than treat the inevitable infections.