AverageGuy wrote:Vet confirmed my dog has a yeast infection in his ears. He had been shaking his head and pawing at them when in the house. Treated it but like to avoid more in the future.
What ear maintenance program are any of you using for dogs that get a lot of water work? What product and how often? Thank you in advance.
Side note, his retrieve handling training had been off several days in a row last week including that Sat training day I posted. Started pulling his normally clean lines in the water to the right consistently (only one ear was infected) and less accurate responses to handling. I think the two were related. Any thoughts on that as well?
AG, I'll give your thoughts on handling issues arising from yeasties a, 'very likely' , rating.
I've fought the yeasts with my two prior pups as well the current lass, probably the worst being the last one. Dot only has a problem in her right ear, her left has never had the problem. Rather odd, but looking in hers, the 'topography' of her right is wildly rugged with lots of nooks and crannies . If I keep ahead of it with cleaning, Epi-Otic there's not a handling problem. If it gets a bit of a load built up she will be sensitive to a little water in it, head shaking, holding that right ear lower .. obviously distracting the heck out of her. Seems to be a strong interference, something on the order of having a couple of ticked off bees inside your bee veil.
Trimming hair on the neck below / around the ear to improve air flow helps, as well gets a little better cooling for the pup in general.
Do pay attention to the reaction of the pup. I got some off the shelf wash for Dot on a roadtrip once that didn't go well at all. Cleaned up okay, along with the normal 'shake and rub the ground', but where she normally settles down in a couple minutes, she was reacting more... adding in some whining. Another look showed hot red skin in there. Washed out with soap and water and then just rinsed like mad. Got back to normal pretty quickly after that.
G'luck with Mr. Potato ..