Poor Dog Suffering From Ear Infection

RachRubyD

Hello another pet issue that I need advise on. This isn't my dog but my partners family dog. She is a labrador and 6 years old. She suffers constantly from ear infections. The vet has given her Phenergan at the moment and takes 2 a day.

She is on the PDSA so medicine and so on isn't an issue. It just never seems to be resolved. It comes and goes but mainly she has it all the time. We heard from a few other lab owners that the breed suffer from ear infections quite alot.

At the moment its really bad she crying and rubbing her ear on the floor and trying to itch and shaking her head. Horrible to see her look so miserable. Put some sudocream on her ear, seems to soothe the pain but she still in some discomfort. There is like some scabs and cuts in the ear, probably from where she been scratching it.

Anyone experienced this with their dog and found a cure ? Its been going on for years the poor thing. My dog keeps annoying her as well sniffing her ear.

krlyr

An allergy or intolerance can often be a cause of chronic ear infections, especially dietary. What is she fed on? Might be worth discussing an exclusion/elimination diet with your vet
http://dogtorj.tripod.com/id37.html
http://communityvet.net/2010/03/diy-elimination-diet-for-the-dog-an-cat/

RachRubyD

She is fed on ASDA Hero Wet Food. I will tell my partners parents to ask when they visit the vets in the next few days. Would she need a blood test then to see if she has an intolerance. Not sure if its free on the PDSA and they really tight for money at the moment.

krlyr

Allergy testing isn't completely effective so might be worth trying the exclusion diet first anyway. Often you can get false results on an allergy test if the dog is constantly exposed to thing it's allergic/intolerant to as the constant "assault" on the body makes them more sensitive to other things. I've heard quite a few cases where the tests have shown the dog allergic to 20 or so different things, but once the main trigger was removed from the diet/environment, the other 19 weren't a problem.

I can't find an ingredients list online (do you have them on the side of the packaging?) but I imagine the cereals in the ASDA food could well be the culprit, they're a common cause of intolerances or allergies, especially if there's maize in there.
Personally I would suggest the elimation diet for several weeks, and if that clears it up, try to introduce a different food. I am guessing you're on a limited budget but something like Autarky salmon & rice would avoid the common grains like maize and wheat (it uses rice and oats instead). It may seem a lot to splurge £25 on a bag of food (though they sell 2.5kg bags for £7.50 - but big bags are more econominal) but dry food generally is better value for money than wet food, and really cheap supermarket foods tend to be poor value anyway as they are bulked out with poorly digested ingredients, requiring you to feed a higher volume than of a slightly better food.

rev229

My dog seem to get lots of ear infections. She has one at the moment and on her second lot of treatment. In fact today she seems worse. she has had all sorts of ear treatment and eventually the infection clears. Cost a small fortune! So far just under £100.00 and still needs another check up next week!!

krlyr

Found these ingredients for the tins of Hero (beef in jelly)

Ingredients


Meat and Animal Derivatives (minimum 4.0% Beef) , Cereals , Vegetable Protein Extracts , Minerals , Oils and Fats (minimum 0.35% Fish Oil) , Various Sugars , Derivatives of Vegetable Origin (minimum 0.1% Chicory) .

Not great ingredients, just a quick run down.
Meat and Animal Derivatives - by not specifying which meat (you know it's 4% beef but not what the rest is or how much), they can use whatever meats are cheapest. Chances are, they use the bare minimum of beef (and probably poor, fatty cuts) and then bulk out with cheaper meats. Another problem is - what if your dog was allergic to chicken? You're buying a beef flavoured tin so you're not expecting chicken, but how would you know if the ingredients only state "meat"? Batches 1001-1029 could contain no chicken at all, because it wasn't all that cheap at the time of production, but if they suddenly got a haul of cheap chicken/chicken derivatives, batches 1030-1050 could be more chicken than beef. They're entirely within their rights to chop and change the recipe as they've not pinpointed what meats they use, but your dog's tummy does not care about Trading Standards regulations - if it's allergic to chicken then once you finish the tin from batch 1029, and feed from batch 1030, you may well have all these allergy symptoms flare up.
Derivatives are "bumholes and lips" - the feet, beaks, feathers, hooves, etc. left over once meat is removed from an animal, they're not bad in themselves (mine eat whole raw rabbit, chicken, etc. so eat them too) but in cheap foods, the proportion of derivatives to actual meat is going to be out of whack, far more of the cheap derivatives than meat.

Cereals - again, not specified so this could be any combination in constantly changing quantities. Likely to be the cheaper cereals like wheat, maize (corn) and so on. These tend to be poorly digested by the dog but they bulk out a food on the cheap. Maize is often linked to dietary allergies.

Vegetable Protein Extracts - and again - what vegetables? Carrots, brocolli, peas. The mention of vegetables brings to mind lovely fresh veg, but when you read the technical definition, it doesn't sound quite so appealing! "All products of vegetable origin in which the proteins have been concentrated by an adequate process to contain at least 50% crude protein, as related to the dry matter, and which may be restructured or textured."

Then there's unspecified oils, fats and sugars - dogs use fat as an energy source so it's not a terrible thing in itself, but bear in mind that cheaper foods will use excessive oil, fats and sugars to make their poor quality food appealing to the dog. It's like commercial cereals for us - you'd probably find plain wheat quite boring, but add in sugars and so on and shredded wheat becomes quite tasty! But it's the old marketing trick of focusing on the healthy ingredient and forgetting to mention the unhealthy additives to it that make it an unhealthy meal afterall.
Also, again with the unknown quantity. Is it vegetable oil? From meat? Beef fats? Chicken fats? Another potential issue with a dietary allergy because you don't know exactly what you're feeding.

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=badingredients

Mayflower10cat

Not as knowlegeable as krlyr's excellent advice, just wanted to say, when you said your poor dog had almost constant ear infections and was on Phenergan, I said out loud - 'Phenergan's an antihistamine...!' So your vet is treating for an allergy, rather than an infection. And discovering, and removing, the allergen surely has to be the way forward.

I started buying the cereal free James Wellbeloved dry for our cats a few months ago. It was on special offer, so I gave it a go. (They eat wet food and homecooked meat, too.) In just a few weeks, the coat on my black cat in particular has improved noticeably and her tummy is more settled (she was a 'found' ex-farm kitten with various health problems, mainly due to poor diet and being taken from her mum too early).
I really hope you can find a food that helps your poor dog to recover.

pulliptears

My Westie used to have constant ear infections, I switched his food from Bakers to Arden Grange which pretty much solved the problem overnight.

He still gets occasional infections, mostly because he has flopped ears unlike most Westies. I find keeping them clean with a little olive oil and plucking the hairs out with tweezers helps immensely to control infection.

RachRubyD

Well I found a 15kg bag on that Autarky Adult its chicken dinner with rice and vegetables on special offer for £17 not bad at all, free delievery as well.

At the moment they get Hero's Tins and thats 12x400g for £5, so thats 4.8kg. So you would have to buy 3 lots to equal to 15kg (just under actually) and that would cost £15 anyway. Worth the extra £2 for a healthy diet for your dog.

My own dog is feed on ceasers now and again but thats £5 for 9x150g wet food. James Wellbeloved is £6 for 10x150g Wet Food from Pets at home. Going to buy some this afternooon. My dog won't eat biscuits at all, very hard pressed to even get her to eat wet food. I feed her a diet of different meats I cook, one night may be chicken and other is lamb etc and she has fresh fish, salmon and sardines in sunflower oil a few times a week. Then mix in brown pasta or porridge oats and some fresh vegetables. I like to know whats going in my dogs food and it works out cheaper sometimes than buying the wet food. I mean she really is spoilt rotten, gets the best chicken and so on no cheap cuts for her.

Whilst am on topic of food my mum has a cat (she my cat as well but my mum is her proper owner) anyway she is fed on whiskers/felix. I recently heard that they are both awful. I actually think it would be better if she had just dry food. My mum leaves a bowl of Purine One down for her all the time, she snacks on it when she has no wet food. Only issue is that she turns her nose up at the wet food and then leaves it for ages so its dry and not edible then cries for food. I just leave her and let her eat her biscuits but my mum soft and gives her another fresh tin of wet food. So Felix/Whiskers are around £3 for 12x100g=1.2kg this is bought every week. Then every month she buys Purine One 800g for £5. So monthly she spends £17 for 5.6kg mixture of dry/wet food. Can anyone suggest a good dry food for cats that around the £17-18 mark for the same amount of kg. Also the cat is 7 years old should we be thinking of starting her on senior food or is this just a marketing ploy?

krlyr

The Autarky chicken variety contains maize I think - it's the salmon one that would be better in terms of avoiding cereals

RachRubyD

The cheapest I can find the salmon one is for £21 delievered. Thats £6 more than they normally pay for 15kg.

I know there is an offer on that if you buy 2 packs its only £37 and free delievery . Do you know if Autarky offer free samples to see if the dog likes it first, imagine buying 30kg and dog doesn't even like it.

I was going to buy my dog James Wellbeloved but after searching on this website I decided to go with Wainwright wet food. Just bought 2 seperate trays from Pets At Home to try and WOW. My dog barely eats dog food, she hasn't ate her ceasers for 3 days in a row now. She had a free sample of James Wellbeloved and turned her nose up. Thought she be the same with the Wainwright but no straight away tucked in and cleared her plate and wanted more. Never seen he do this before with anything but proper meat.

They are doing a special offer on the trays where u buy 2 boxes (12x350g trays) for £15. She only needs 1/2 a tray a day for her weight as well so actually saving money as ceasers works out more. So happy found this food, and 70% meat compared to 4% .

Anyway am going to send the owner the information you all wrote, especially krlyr you having be a great help. I think all pet owners should be educated into what goes into dog foods and the effect it has on their pets. Vets just try and push whatever brand they sell but don't offer real advice I feel.

Going to email a few companies people spoke of around here especially Autarky and ask for a sample.