Sophia has an ouchie ear.
Submitted by AmyandSophia on September 15, 2010 - 6:06pmI need some advice. Sophia has an ear that is infected. It started as a yeasty infection of just the outer ear, now it is a painful infection in the canal. I have been treating it and treating it with Apple Cider Vinegar, but now I need actual ear meds. What do you guys recommend I use for this?
Thanks in advance.
__________________
Amy and Sophia
Amy, our vet gave us Mometamax for ear infections...
It's kind of like otomax, but I think they don't make that anymore. Hope she feels better soon.
thanks Kathy.
I will ask my vet about it:-)
Amy and Sophia
Poor peanut
I don't remember what type of drops I've used for Q. He (fortunately) only had an issue a few years back.
Give Missy Sophia a hug from Auntie O!
Olivia
Thanks Rotti....
Sophie has only had one ear infection before so I don't know what's out there to use! I will probably go with Zymox.
Amy and Sophia
Audrey had a stubborn ear infection :-(
but the vet tested it and gave me stuff to use. I can't even remember now what it was. But it did not go away until we addressed the root cause of it, which for Audrey was food allergies. That was the biggest inital benefit we appreciated the most when we switched her to raw, That dang ear infection FINALLY cleard up.
Cathy and Audrey
I would like to try raw
But it is too expensive for 3 dogs for me. But maybe sometime I will try it with just Sophie. I would feel bad about not giving it to my other girls though!
Amy and Sophia
I was in the same spot when I was considering raw
I had 3 dogs, and was feeling guilty about the other 2 being left out. But Audrey was clearly in need, so I started off with just her. The improvements were dramatic! The other 2 were old at that point and I was worried a drastic change would be too hard for them. But I couldn't deny how much it helped Audrey, so I figured I'd just give it a try with the other girls. Plus the other 2 would look at Audrey's bowl, then their bowl, then Audrey's bowl, like "WHAT!?!" They handled it perfectly, and I was surprised at how well theri arthritis improved, very quickly.
When considering the cost, are you thinking of the vet bills too? Think of how much you are spending on ear infections, and skin issues. Audrey's ear infection cost us a LOT of $$. She kept having to go back to the vets, so there was the visit to pay for, the test to see if there was still yeast/bacteria growing in there, plus the medicine to treat it. For the other 2, who's only issues were arthritis, we were able to keep them comfortable without any pain meds, which can get really expensive long term.
I feed raw in probably the most expensive way possible. I do it because for me it's just easy. But there are ways to do it for signifigantly less than buying it all from the grocery store. Call a butcher shop, and see what kind of prices you can get for bulk meat. Look for a co-op. Are there any meat processing places near you? Audrey eats like a Queen, chuck roasts, london broil, flank steaks, plus her chicken for bone and organ packs, for around $62 a month. You can get MUCH cheaper meat, even at the grocery store, for a lot less. Since we lost our other 2 dogs and she is the only one, we spoil her because we can. But you can do it cheaper than that! Plus you will (hopefully-but I fully believe you will) be saving because you won't have to go to the vet as much.
Cathy and Audrey
Thanks Cathy.
I don't have any issues with Sophie as far as allergies really, and this ear infection is not normal for her. She is on a new variety of Natural Balance right now and I am not liking what I see, so I may just trty raw for her and see what happens. I just want her healthy. I also want my older girls healthy, so would want them all to eat raw. If I feed it to one, I need to give it to the others. Especially Millie, my German Shepard rescue, who is old and not in great health to begin with. She would need to be given a chance with raw. I will think about it and pray about it.
Thanks SO much for the encouragement. So, what do you feed, I mean, what is your program for each meal?
Amy and Sophia
Audrey gets 13 oz per day
divided into 2 meals. Roughly 1oz of that is organs. We give the whole oz of organ in the am. Lately the organ has been chicken livers, hearts, gizzards. We found beef kidney once, and need to hunt it down again. Look at the pics I posted below of Audrey's Food bin. That is not 100% accurate as far as the precise ratio of boneless meat vs organ vs bone-in meat, but it is really close. For her necessary bone requirement, and YES it is an absolute necessity, she gets chicken chopped with a meat cleaver. She only has 4 teeth, so she can't deal with whole bone pieces, but your Millie will have no problems with it. I was actually thinking more of Millie than Sophia when I was talking about the skin and allergy issues. Audrey gets whatever kind of meat is on sale. Sometimes it's whole chickens, sometimes leg quarters, sometimes split breasts. It is always chopped into bite sized pieces. Think about it for a second, if my husband can very easily chop the chicken bones, a dog with a much stronger bite psi will not have any problems at all with them. The majority of what she eats is boneless meat. Pork tenderloin, roasts, shoulder, ribs, London broil, chuck, steak(rarely-it has to be a GOOD sale!) and 90% lean ground beef. (I gave her the 'special' angus that my husband had in the freezer once- he was so mad!-oops!).She also gets eggs but very infrequently because her egg farts are just WRONG. I don't have any special measurement for the boneless vs bone in meat. If she has really white poops I cut back on the bone, if she has runny poops I give her more bone. That will really vary from dog to dog, you just have to individualize it. When first starting my old ladies on raw, I only gave them about 40% of what they should get, and gradually increased it. They did awesome on it! I would definitley contact the people in the link Judy gave above, to see about going in with people to get it in bulk. It does NOT need to be very expensive, and I really think you can end up spending about the same as you do now on premium kibble. And I bet your vet bills will go down!
Cathy and Audrey
Poor Sophia
No good advice to give except to go with what your vet says. Just wanted to give Sophia a cyberhug and let her know we hope she's feeling better soon!
Thanks guys!
Sophie will be better soon:-)
Amy and Sophia
Amy, do you remember the
Zymox?
That worked for Kofi when she had hers before.
Yes, I couldn't remember the name though!
Thanks Carol!
Amy and Sophia
It is the one without
hydrocortisone. It contains all natural enzymes.
I ordered it online.
Okey Dokey!
I will look it up. I THOUGHT I had ordered it online when I used it before. the post below about talking with the vet about it threw me off!
Amy and Sophia
+++ Zymox
Works quite well. Mometamax didn't touch Matilda's recent ear infection. There are two versions of Zymox, one with cortisone and one without. I had to fight with my vet about the cortisone issue.
I guess you can use the non-cortisone one for maintenance (cleaning) as well.
So which one did you use?
The one with or without Cortisone? I remember trying Zymox before in another one of my guys and it worked well. I will give it a try.
Amy and Sophia
both
We used the high-test (the cortisone) the first time because I didn't know that there were two. Then I read online that you could use the other version on a cotton ball to keep things nice and fresh.
Thanks! I ordered one of each to be sure.
Thanks for the info.
Amy and Sophia