Ear infections

Question
Hi!  My cocker spaniel "Maggie" is 8 years old and has had recurring ear infections over the past 6 months.  She was on and off prednizone and antibiotic and would improve for a while the the ears would swell and get gunked up again, so after keeping her on Prednizone for 3 weeks straight the swelling went way down so we took her off and I started cleaning the ears every day with a half and half mixture of alcohol and vinegar.  Her ears have looked alot better and are alot more opened up but about a week ago they started having a dark brown discharge in them.  Do you think this is the infection coming back or is  something else.  Should I be alarmed?  The ears don't seem to be bothering her at all.

Thank you,

Lori Blackburn

Answer
First - stop using alcohol & vinegar.  1/2 water & 1/2 plain white vinegar will do it.

There's a new product that Vet Dermatologists absolutely love and it works brilliantly.  It's called Zymox and you can order it online.

They have an ear cleaner and two different meds.  One med is for what you're describing now (yucky discharge) and one is for inflamed or swollen ears (it has a bit of hydrocortisone in it).

The cleaner you use as normal.  The meds you fill the ear canal, squish around, let dog shake head and do NOT clean out canal.
(Just wipe excess from ear flap). (The instructions are a bit confusing - but do NOT wipe the meds out of the ear canal).

You put the meds in daily for 7 days and don't use the cleaner while medicating.  And don't use any other cleaner - these all work together.  A bad infection may take a bit longer.

The joy of this product is no vet visit required because it works on yeast - bacteria and fungus.

For dogs like Maggie where this is recurring, they advise using the non-hydrocortisone med once a week or so to keep things under control.

So I'd order it asap.  I use EntirelyPets.com - just type in Zymox in their search box.  Get the cleaner and both meds.  That costs about 1/2 the cost of one vet visit.  The med bottles are small but last a long time.

Personally I wouldn't be without this stuff.  cockers are so prone to ear problems and it can go to a very bad place.

I'd also like to know what you're feeding Maggie?
Delores