ear infection

Question
My ragdoll is on her third go-around with an ear problem that I call "stinky ear".  The vet had seen her for both previous rounds,cleaned out a bunch of yucky brown gook, and has ruled out mites or an infection.  She says it is most likely some type of allergy.  We get it cleared up and the oily mess around the ear finally goes away, and a few weeks later her ear starts to stink again.  We also have been having a problem with acne, which I think is from a vinyl watering bucket that we have for our dog.  I am going to replace that with a stainless steel one in a couple of days.  I noticed that when I washed it out with bleach every day, the acne problem subsides.  I don't know if these are related, but the ear thing started last fall, about the same time as we brought the bucket into the house for our aging dog, so she could spend the winter nights inside instead of the garage.
Is there something I can do routinely, like cleaning her ears with peroxide or something, to prevent this recurrence?  I am nearly at my wits end.  Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Answer
well the acne is indeed from the vinyl bucket. plastic food bowls can cause it too. use either stainless steel or glass bowls for food and water, or ceramic.

use a qtip and peroxide to clean around the outside of the ear. sounds to me like it could indeed be an allergy.
just try to clean out the ear as much as you can and as often as you can to keep the flow of yuk coming out, hopefully once you replace the bucket the allergy will go away.