Lab with ear infection

[Redbeard]

Hey all I'm looking for a little help. I have a four year old lab that gets pretty bad ear infections. The vet told me they are a yeast infection. I have in the past used a perscription cleaner with a cottonball to keep the ears clean, but it is rather expensive. My vet did tell me to try mixing equal parts vinegar and water as a cleaner. It does work, but not as well as the perscription.

Does anyone have something else that they use, either a home remedy or even an over the counter product?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[rick savage]

the vinegar and water works ,you just have to stay after it. we also use pennisilion every other day three times.good luck

[Redbeard]

Rick,

Thanks for your help, it has become our daily routine to clean them and we will keep at it.

[huntingvet]

Yeast infections in dogs can be a frustrating issue to manage. Labradors have increased cerumen and sebum secretions in the skin and ears - that is why they are great water dogs because they have a partial water barrier in their coats. However, this increased cerumen secretion in their ears predisposes them to overgrowth of normal yeast and bacteria.

Ear cleaners with acetic acid and boric acid have been shown to be very good in management of yeast infections. Duck hunters have known this for years and have been making home made varieties with vinegar. There are commercially prepared formulations that may have nicer fragrances, may be milder for the ear canal, and may have increased effectiveness.

The frequency of ear cleaning varies from dog to dog. I would recommend at least after every water episode (bathing, swimming) and every 1-2 weeks for maintenance. Over cleaning the ears is similar to overbathing and may actually contribute to the problem

The bottom line is you will have to stay on top of it to prevent complications. Good luck

[Redbeard]

Huntingvet,

Thanks for the information. I will try skip a day between cleanings, I do not want to aggravate the situation. I will also check for some commercial formulas with the ingredients you mentioned.

Thanks again.

[Doc E]

One of the more common causes of yeast infections is because of an imbalance of "good bacteria" in the animal. The good bacteria keep the bad bacteria and yeasts in check. One of the most common causes of an upset in the "good bugs vs bad bugs" is having had the dog on antibiotics. Antibiotics kill the bad guys, but they also kill the good guys and the balance is frequently not restored.
Get a GOOD (unflavored-unsweetened) yogurt. Read the label and get the one with the greatest number of different bacteria in it. Give your dog a big heaping tablespoon with the food, twice a day for two weeks. Then drop down to one tablespoon three times a week.
The best yogurt I have found is Nancy's brand.



.

[Redbeard]

Doc E,

I will give the yogurt a try, thanks for the info.

[rick savage]

redbeard, how;s the lab ?

[Nulle]

This is not uncommon and my Shelter Tech. has some pre-medicated pads we wide the ears with that works pretty well.

[hofts]

don't know why but i know of three people over the years that had probs with ear infections in their dogs,,,,they were told to try switching dog foods,,,,,and in all three instances it worked, or at least cut the ear infections in half. just a thought, i really can't remember what they were feeding or what they switched to.

[Ruddyduck]

Some labs are more prone to this type of ear problems than others. I've also noticed that it is usually more of a problem when the weather is warmer.
If your dog is prone to this one thing I have found that helps keep the reoccurance down some is to trim some hair from by the ear to help increase air circulation. If you look at your dog's ear you will see the area I'm talking about. I've found it helps to keep the problem from coming back. Use a little ear wash after each swim and with the trimming you should keep the problem under control.

[Redbeard]

This is some great information, thanks to everyone for your input.

My Wife was able to find Epi-Otic online for a reasonable price, about a dollar an ounce. We have been using that daily for about a week and the results have been amazing. This seems to work, for my dog anyway, much better than the vinegar and water solution.

I have not heard of the dog food being part of the problem, but it certainly cannot hurt to try a change. I have traditionally fed my dogs Purina, I did change to a store brand for about a month, but the only difference I noticed was one of my dogs developed bad gas, so we switched back. I did not notice any change in the lab's ears, but the store brand was a pretty close copy of the purina.

I will also give the hair a look and try a trim job around the ears.

Thanks again, everyone, for your help.

[fabsroman]

I have heard that diet can sometimes cause the ear problems, or I guess it would be actually allergies. I once had a golden retriever with serious ear problems and the vet recommended that we try giving him some Benadryl to see if was allergy related. It seemed as though the ear infections were at their worst during the spring. I think we gave him half a pill a day, and it seemed to be doing the trick. I was very hesitant to switch his food because I had both dogs on Iams Weight Loss and they had lost a ton of weight and were actually at a spot where they were able to hunt all day.

We also tried cutting the hair around his ears so that his ears could breath, and while it helped a little, he still experienced ear infections, albeit less frequently.

[hofts]

my wife is a hairdresser okay, so anyway i had a german wirehair that instead of having wirehair had 3-4 inches of fluff. his ears were the same, so after taking some advise from a vet used my wifes hair removal wax, put it on a popsicle stick (your wives can relate), and it pulled out all of the ear hairs, and he didn't ever flinch, i think he actually liked it. any way it did help with the ear infections, especially during the hot summer months.

to make a long story short, he never hunted worth a darn and was a great loving,calm, housedog, so i gave him to a couple that did not hunt and adored him, and he has lived happily ever since, still getting his ears waxed. spoiled little ***** (male). i will say this though, he was a retrieving fool