Need Help! My dog has a ruptured ear drum with Severe inner ear infection. Vet bill is close to $3,000.00

Question
Hi, I need some URGENT expert advice on my 1 year old labradoodle who has severe inner ear infection and ruptured ear drum. 3 months ago after I cleaned her ears carefully, she woke up the next morning not well....Her symptoms were equilibrium was off, couldn't walk, trembled, rapid eye movements, couldn't focus etc.  Took her to the vet and at first they thought she was poisoned but, after blood work coming back all normal they then concluded her symptoms were deep inner ear infection. We did an ear culture and she was placed on meds- Baytril, prednisone, tramadol.... For 5 days, I had to hand feed syringing yogurt and use a syringe to keep her hydrated every couple hours she was so weak. I even had to carry her to go potty and hold her up.
About a week later she was much better, and then was healthy enough to be sedated and have her ears flushed. The vets found she had a ruptured ear drum and behind it was full of yeast bacteria. They were shocked at the amount of yeast behind that ear drum. We did another ear culture and it came back to keep her on the same medications and one other med starting with a K. She did great after having this done and was 100% for about a month!
But then about a week ago at Christmas, she relapsed fast and by the next day, she was back to all the same symptoms and now back at step one again.  Had her ears flushed again, only to find the ear drum has had no healing whatsoever and is still broken and that the yeast/fungus looks worse than before.

This been very costly;almost $3,000.00 trying to get her healed! We've had ear cultures done, ears flushed, been treating her going on the last 3 months with Baytril, prednisone, tremidol.... We are giving her one more month or will sadly have to put her down. We've been to the vets office no less than 15 times in the last couple months. There have been 3 vets at the vet office who have over 40 years experience combined and have never seen an ear infection this severe. The next step is to send us to have cat scans and MRI of which I cannot afford to do.  They don't believe it to be cancer for she got to 100% on the meds after having her ears flushed the 1st time. She is back on the expensive meds. Her symptoms are all back and although the medication is helping and she is slowly getting better with the meds but, I can't afford 500.00 a month in just medications. The one month supply/dosage of Baytril pills was 275.00 alone! We've had her on Fromm dog food and recently switched to a no grain Innova.  I am desperate and am wondering what your thoughts are on this?  Is there anything you recommend or could refer me to.  My vets don't know what to do and I can't afford anymore expensive treatment. Thank-You, Karen ()

Answer
Rarely will Baytril get into the middle and inner ear in any therapeutic amount.  In fact, Baytril is not indicated at all for yeast infections, so I don't understand why they are even using it.  I have never seen a yeast infection cause inner ear disease, so there is something else going on here.

The best way to treat this is to flush the tympanic bulla with warm water under pressure to clean it out and if it is yeast, to put clotrimazole, miconazole, or ketoconazole directly into the tympanic bulla.