Ear infection in Westies

cinzano

We have a 6yr old westie who up until 3 months was a healthy dog. He then developed an ear infection and was given antibiotics and ear drops from the vet he made no improvements and had his ears flushed and a further supply of antibiotics. By this time he had also started to chew his feet and was given Piriton for this. I have today visited the vets again and they have started him on steriods and said if I want to know the underlying problem it will cost me £450 for a blood test as we have no insurance. The vet has also advised that the steriods will not cure the infection but will make him feel better. As anyone had any similar experience and is there anything further we can do.

splishsplash

Our Westie is now eight, and coincidentally, when she was six, she developed atopic dermatitis. She started scratching at her ears, and constantly licking her paws, and over a few weeks, her skin started to get very pink under her hair, and her ears drove her completely nuts. She also developed rusty looking patches on her rump and beard, and was generally scratching and uncomfortable.

Atopic dermatitis is very common in Westies, so try asking your vet if it's a possibility. It usually occurs when the dog becomes hypersensitive to dust mites, fleas or food, and shows this as an allergic reaction. There is no definitive blood test or any other test to diagnose this, btw, so I don't know what your vet wants to test for?

Steroids won't cure the condition. Regular bathing (every two or three days) and thorough drying each time will help, as will rigorous de-fleaing, a hypo-allergenic diet (we used and still use Burns) and a dust-free environment (i.e. indoors on regularly washed bedding).

We ended up putting our Westie on Atopica for a few months also, which really helped. She had a particularly bad case, though, it may not always be necessary . The tablets were mighty expensive, but undoubtedly cleared the skin right up.

Hope your little guy feels better soon... not nice to see them unhappy. (I'm happy to report our little girl is back to her bouncy, happy, mad little self ever since, with no recurrence of any symptoms).

Glad

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