Possible ear problem, not sure

Question
Yesterday morning, my feist, Walker, was laying on his left side, rolled over to his right, and began hollering loudly.  He got up, holding his left foot up, but when he tried to walk, it was like he was drunk as he was wobbling everywhere.  It took me about 5 minutes to calm him down.  This same thing happened again several times over the next few hours, so I took him to the vet.  The vet palpated his leg, neck and back very aggressively with no signs of pain.  Very briefly, as the vet had me lead Walker around, his back legs began to slightly curve around to the left side as he was walking.  The vet decided to look in his ears.  No problem with the right, but as he began to look in Walker's left ear, Walker started whining and gagging.  At first, the vet couldn't find his eardrum, but after a bit of looking, said he did see part of it.  Other than that, the ear appeared fine.  The vet gave me some pain meds, and a 5 day anti-biotic, and said to bring him back in a few days if Walker wasn't better.  The next steps will be to do bloodwork and left side xrays.  He has had 2 more of these episodes today, and they always start the same way, with Walker laying on his left side, and turning over.  I have noticed that if I massage the left side of his neck and around the ear, that he seems to calm down more quickly.  I hope you have some suggestions as the hollering is so upsetting, and he's obviously in a great deal of pain when it happens.  

Thank you.

Answer
IF this is a middle ear and inner ear problem, the he will need to be anesthetized and X-rayed.  The middle ear will need to be flushed out and antibiotics put directly into the middle ear.  Taking pills will not help that kind of infection usually.  In addition, the dog should be on high dose steroid therapy to reduce the irritation of the nerves causing the wobbliness and there is a medicine called meclizine that may help.