# Yeasty ears in dogs



## jennifer (May 14, 2013)

A friend of mine took her dog to the vet for a wound.. It was on strong antibiotics and has a nasty yeasty ear proem now. She is very homeopathic and would like to refrain on taking the dog In for more antibiotics.. Any suggestions? Thanks y'all!


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## kessy09 (Jun 16, 2013)

jennifer said:


> A friend of mine took her dog to the vet for a wound.. It was on strong antibiotics and has a nasty yeasty ear proem now. She is very homeopathic and would like to refrain on taking the dog In for more antibiotics.. Any suggestions? Thanks y'all!


Yeast usually starts building up in warm, moist and dark places-a dog's ears are the perfect spot for these such problems. Especially floppy eared dogs. Antibiotics can kill off a lot of the good bacteria and suppress the immune system at the same time they're supposed to making you feel better. Breastfeeding mothers that go on antibiotics often develop "thrush" which is a yeast that starts in the baby's mouth (the child becomes susceptible because of the antibiotics he is getting through the mothers milk) and passes it along to the mom. In those situations we recommend probiotics as one preventative. Bad yeast infections in the ears need to be flushed out and then dried out. Using a warm water ear flush, then cleaning the excess gunk out with a very gentle ear cleaner, then applying a gentle petroleum based ointment twice a day for ten days to form a barrier might work. However if the yeast is very very bad, she'll just need to use the ear drops. They are anti fungal/anti yeast (so not more antibiotics-unless the ears have gotten so yeasty that the scratching and shaking has caused a secondary infection). Tell her to NOT use an alcohol based ear cleaner. Those are very good for prevention, but when the ear is already inflamed and red it will sting a lot. I like the ear cleaner "Douxo Micellular Solution." It's very gentle and formulated to promote the growth of new, healthy skin cells. The ear drops are more like an ointment (Surolan). She might be able to just go to a pharmacy and buy the ointment there-it's just a Nystatin ointment. We can get it in Canada over the counter.


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## 7chicks (Jun 29, 2012)

Tea tree oil - it prevents growth of yeast. I have the same problem with a dog we adopted in January. She had it when we got her but the problem didn't show itself for a few months. By then she had quite the raging infection. I did take her in and they cleaned her ears out well then gave me a prescript ointment. After that cleared up, she was starting to get it back again. I found some ear wash for dogs at a nearby pet store. It has tea tree oil in it and has worked great. When Missy went back in a few weeks ago for her vaccination up-date (rabies), vet said her ears look great. News to my ears! And Missy's too.  You can also buy tea tree oil in the vitamin section of any general store, use a couple drops diluted with water, then use it to wash her ears out. Only wipe out from the outer part of the ear any junk that has worked its way out. Let the dog shake the water back out and let ears dry on their own.


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## ChickenAdmin (Jun 4, 2012)

I had a cocker spaniel that had those issues. Monostat works well.


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## moose123 (Aug 11, 2013)

Diet can be very import. If you want to try it naturally due a blood test that will examine your dogs sensitivity to food, plants, etc.. I have seen many dogs improve drastically with a hypoallergenic diet. If it is a good vet hospital they will know the test to run. It is expensive but I believe it's important because the infections will continue to occur without cleaning the ears regularly 2-3 times a week and this often does not work. I am a registered CVT at CSU


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## Apyl (Jun 20, 2012)

My moms dog has yeast infections in her ears from time to time. It ended up being the dog needed to be switched to food with lamb in it. I guess the chicken whatever mix that in typical dog foods was causing allergies.


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## kessy09 (Jun 16, 2013)

Dogs, when experiencing food allergies, it is 99% of the time to the protein. There is no blood test to tell you exactly what they are allergic to (at least not in Canada anyway). They can do skin prick testing and see if there are any spots that react to a certain allergen in the environment but that's not likely helpful as you can't easily remove the dog from what's the cause (usually grass, and trees). One couple I know did remove all the grass from his yard and made a rock garden but that isn't something anyone is prepared to do. When changing the food it's important to follow these steps exactly:
Find a protein your dog has never had before (ie: lamb, elk, kangaroo, soy, feathers etc). Make sure it's the only protein source.
Do not give ANY table scraps, treats or other sources of protein at all.
Feed only this for 8 weeks.

If it's a food allergy you will see a vast improvement. If no difference then it's either environmental or just bad ears/skin. 

If it works then every two weeks introduce one old protein until you see a flare up and there you have the source of the issue.

Yeast infections are usually due to moisture in the ears (after bathing/swimming, rubbing head in snow/wet grass, riding in car with head out the window etc). If he's doing any of these things you need to clean the ears out every single time with an ear cleaner that has a drying agent in it. Cleaning ears every two to three weeks isn't a bad idea as a preventative measure if your dog is prone to this problem.


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## moose123 (Aug 11, 2013)

There are many skin and blood testing options available in the states.


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## kessy09 (Jun 16, 2013)

moose123 said:


> There are many skin and blood testing options available in the states.


What's the name of the test that tells the exact food allergen? It would save a lot of owners time and trouble and money if they didn't have to go through the skin testing (which doesn't really tell us anything anyway) and do all the food trials. Even with the cost of shipping blood samples on ice to the states owners would get results a lot faster and have a definite answer rather than waiting 8 weeks for a food trial to *maybe* work. I've just never heard of this here and we start at least three new patients on food trials every single week. They think it's a gimmick to get them to buy the vet food but it truly is the only way we have to determine food allergies!


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## moose123 (Aug 11, 2013)

http://www.idexx.com//view/xhtml/en...laboratories/sah-greer-allergy.jsf?SSOTOKEN=0

http://www.heska.com/Products/ALLERCEPT/ALLERCEPT-Testing.aspx

These are the two companies we use. I prefer Heska.


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## kessy09 (Jun 16, 2013)

moose123 said:


> http://www.idexx.com//view/xhtml/en_us/smallanimal/reference-laboratories/sah-greer-allergy.jsf?SSOTOKEN=0 http://www.heska.com/Products/ALLERCEPT/ALLERCEPT-Testing.aspx These are the two companies we use. I prefer
> Heska.


Thanks for the links. The Greer testing doesn't seem to test for food allergens but it looks like Heska has a pretty substantial amount of allergens they look for. That is amazing. We send blood to Kansas all the time to test rabies titres so I'm sure the requirements to send blood to Heska would be similar.


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## moose123 (Aug 11, 2013)

No problem!


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## ChickenAdmin (Jun 4, 2012)

Any update on the ears?


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## jennifer (May 14, 2013)

Yes, she did a lot of homeopathic remedies.. She had to take him to the vet.. 144.00 dollars later!


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## 7chicks (Jun 29, 2012)

I had to do the same for Missy because the infection was just way too far along for me to be able to fix it for her. They were able to clean them more safely and better than I ever could have and then gave me ointment for her ears. I do use the tea tree oil ear wash for dogs though on her about once a month now. She lets you know when her ears are starting to bother her again. The ear wash has kept her ears in great condition since the original vet appointment. When she had her annual appointment for her rabies shot 6 months later, vet said her ears looked really good. That was sure music to my ears! Tea tree oil is a good preventative treatment for any yeast infection.


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