[Sanjosedale]

We recently had our dogs ears checked, she needed to be sedated, found both ears were infected. The vet said this is very common in this area and could even be caused by allergy. We were supposed to give her antibiotic ear drops daily and an ear bath every few weeks. We were able to do this for only a short time, eventually she just wouldn’t allow us anywhere near her ears, it just became impossible. At this point, she doesn’t seem to be hurting, but we cut the treatment off way too soon, so we are going to take her in for another check.

The vet said this is the only treatment for ear infections, but I wonder why oral antibiotics or an injection couldn’t work? (Like on humans...lol) Wondering if anyone else here has had issue and if you found any other treatment?

If not, any suggestion on how to administer drops. She is very determined to keep us away from her ears. We tried a few times while she was sleeping, but we felt terrible at her reaction to this....like we tricked her.

 

[Steve Strom]

Oral meds won't effect whats basically growing in her ears. Some dogs, its gonna be a fight. All you can do is don't be angry, but you have to be physical enough to hold her still and get them in there. One of mine, I put a cloth muzzle on. It just settles him down enough to do things like that. I can put ointment in his eyes no problem without it, but anything in his ears is too much. I generally straddle them and pin their head against my leg, one side then the other. Its hard to describe, but my forearm holds their head turned and that same hand opens their ear up so that I can see in and put drops or cleaner. Luckily once you get rid of the infection, they don't need deep cleanings very often.

 

[Magwart]

Yikes. Cutting off the treatment too soon encourages antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the ears.



Ask your vet to consider ordering Oti-Packs for you (I think they come from Roadrunner Pharmacy, a compounding pharmacy in Arizona -- https://www.roadrunnerpharmacy.com/img/RoadrunnerProductAndServicesGuide.pdf ) -- your vet may not be familiar with them, but hopefully will investigate upon request to help you out. They're basically wax plugs infused with the antibiotic of your vet's choice. They go in the ears and stay there for about 10 days, slowly releasing the medicine. Then they break down. Finally, you clean the ears once to get the remaining wax out, and it's all done.


While the Oti-Pak is in the ear, you don't clean them, or mess with them. You simply leave them alone. The Oti-Paks will reduce the dog's ability to hear temporarily...kind of like foam ear plugs do when we wear them.


This mode of medication is AMAZING for dogs who fight ear drops. It's also extremely effective in my experience (probably because of the constant slow release of medicine). We've done lots and lots of this mode of treatment for dogs in our rescue because fosters have varying skill and diligence in getting drops in the ears -- and it seems to be better for resistant infections.


Here's a video of it being applied to the ear:

Some people claim the oti-pak's cause deafness, but so do ear infections. All I know is that we've had zero bad events in the rescue, doing this on quite a few dogs -- and in one case it fixed an ear infection that had been raging on and off for years in a former home, despite repeated attempts to treat it with drops. Side effects are always possible though.

 

[Sanjosedale]

Great info, thanks. I’ll talk to our vet about this,right away.

 

[Sanjosedale]

Steve, you may recall, I posted about a problem where she was fearful of me after an incident where she got caught up in a fence. When I held her to put in the drops, it caused this fearful behavior to return. So, I reversed roles with my wife, she doesn’t seem to blame my wife for the fence incident!

We’ll keep at it, hopefully this Oti-Pak will do the trick.