Hearing loss in a schip after Tri-Otic

Question
QUESTION: My schipperke had been swallowing hard, no known cause, took her to vet and found MILD ear infection(no other symptoms until she found bacteria after deep ear swab). After 2 days, 4 doses of Tri-Otic/Otomax, we noticed she is deaf. Took her back to vet who gave her injection of dexamethasone and 5 days of dex in pill form. Is there anything else we can do? She is a top rated agility and pet therapy dog, but already has severe congenital cataracts and I am afraid this hearing loss could put us out of doing these things together. What is the chance this will reverse? Are steriods(dex)the best choice?

ANSWER: Most of the gentamycin toxicity you are seeing is reversible.  The dexamethasone may help, but it may take 2-3 weeks for the gentamycin to diffuse out of the inner ear.

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QUESTION: Is there anything we can do to help expedite this? Would cleaning her ear with a neutral solution help/or hurt?

Also, which frequencies return 1st- high or low? I am thinking it is low, but curious.

thank you!

Answer
I know of nothing that can hasten diffusion of gentamycin out of the inner ear hair cells.  As far as hearing returning, it all depends on which frequency hair cells are damaged.  There is no way to tell that without a Brain Auditory Evoke Response test to see which frequencies the dog can hear at any one ime.