Ear Problems

Question
Since getting my Bichon pup at 9 weeks he has had problems with smelly dirty ears. The vet treated him for an ear infection and told me to clean them out once a week. This has proved virtually imposssible as he goes hysterical when I go near his ears. He since had his ears plucked and cleaned under sedation, and they gave me a solution to flush the ears every day until we go back in a couple of days. I changed his diet to one free of grains. I wonder if ear powder would be better as it would help to dry the ears rather than continuously wetting it. I'm interested in Mitomax, but wonder how much to give a 5 month old puppy. Thank you, Teresa, Ireland.

Answer
Puppies with ear infections either have ear mites or they have a yeast infection secondary to a food allergy. Rather than change to a grain free diet, change the protein source to see if that makes a difference. It these ears are very painful and you cannot treat them, then your vet may be able to provide an ear "packing" that is put in and left in for a week or so.  I would be very hesitant to tell you what medicine to put into the ears until I knew what type of infection is present.