I've been waging war with something in Chouette's left ear since September. Right before we left for France I noticed that it had a strong unpleasant odor and a dark substance in the canal and outer ear. I cleaned it out and told the dog sitter about it, and she said she'd treat it with a preparation she uses for her beagles. When we picked Chou up on our return she smelled awful, and I realized it was that ear. So I cleaned it out again with peroxide. Taking her to be groomed at Petsmart didn't resolve the problem and when she went to be spayed the vet just cleaned her ears out and sent her home with some prednisone.
Recently a friend who's a retired veterinarian got a look at her and said she had mites. Before he saw her he had assumed it was a fungal infection and advised me to swab her ears out with alcohol three or four times over a period of a week or so. According to Ernie, alcohol kills the majority of the fungi which attack dogs' ears. If that didn't take care of it he recommended the use of vinegar, since that kills those fungi that aren't affected by alcohol. But nothing worked and poor Chouette started trying to hide when she saw the cotton balls appear.
Finally I picked up a pyrethrin-based treatment at Petsmart and for the first time we seemed to be getting somewhere. Chouette's ears smelled fine for longer and longer intervals. Still, I hated to use pyrethrin on my puppy!
When I took her to for her haircut on Tuesday the groomer suggested using a preparation with boric acid for ear mites. She doesn't like pyrethrins either. So I found one at the feed store which had presoaked wipes, but I wasn't sure that this would do the trick. Once I got home I did a google search for "boric acid ear mites." This is what I came up with:
http://www.liquidvitaminstop.com/pp/Earasil.htm
and from http://www.backwoodshome.com/forum/yabb ... 1163507186
Any of you experiencing ear problems might want to try this course of action: you can do the alcohol and vinegar trials and then the boric acid if they don't do the trick.
Sure wish I'd seen that months ago!
Leslie
Recently a friend who's a retired veterinarian got a look at her and said she had mites. Before he saw her he had assumed it was a fungal infection and advised me to swab her ears out with alcohol three or four times over a period of a week or so. According to Ernie, alcohol kills the majority of the fungi which attack dogs' ears. If that didn't take care of it he recommended the use of vinegar, since that kills those fungi that aren't affected by alcohol. But nothing worked and poor Chouette started trying to hide when she saw the cotton balls appear.
Finally I picked up a pyrethrin-based treatment at Petsmart and for the first time we seemed to be getting somewhere. Chouette's ears smelled fine for longer and longer intervals. Still, I hated to use pyrethrin on my puppy!
When I took her to for her haircut on Tuesday the groomer suggested using a preparation with boric acid for ear mites. She doesn't like pyrethrins either. So I found one at the feed store which had presoaked wipes, but I wasn't sure that this would do the trick. Once I got home I did a google search for "boric acid ear mites." This is what I came up with:
http://www.liquidvitaminstop.com/pp/Earasil.htm
and from http://www.backwoodshome.com/forum/yabb ... 1163507186
Reading the rest of the comments on that page, it sounds like a great solution and avoids toxins, to boot!
Any of you experiencing ear problems might want to try this course of action: you can do the alcohol and vinegar trials and then the boric acid if they don't do the trick.
Sure wish I'd seen that months ago!
Leslie