Possible ear infection

xpierced_goddessx · 01-21-2008, 12:32 PM

Daytona has been scratching at his ears and shaking his head lately, I didnt think anything of it. Last night I was in bed and scratching his ear and felt something hard in his ear. I turned on the lights, he had a very thick buildup of black stuff in his ear, like right in the canal. I cleaned it all out, and its the consistence of wax but looks like dog poo and when I press against the base of his ear it makes the sound like theres water in there, like wet.
Could it just be a wax buildup or infection? Could a wax buildup cause an infection? Im gonna take him to the vet on Thursday. How much would it usually cost for meds to clear it up?

briteday · 01-21-2008, 01:41 PM

I wouldn't wait until Thursday. You will probably be charged for an exam (~$40 where I live) and meds, maybe ~$10-20.

Ear infections are nothing to mess around with, especially is your dog is in distress. A simple infection caused by one organism (bacteria, yeast...) can morph into something much more complicated to treat by allowing secondary infections to form.

xpierced_goddessx · 01-21-2008, 01:53 PM

I just made an appointment for tomorrow at 10:15AM. Im hoping its nothing too bad.

xpierced_goddessx · 01-22-2008, 10:15 AM

Ok so 110 dollars later, everything is good lol.
The vet had to pull "dead hair" out of his ear with plier type thingies, and used long Q Tips to clean the gunk out. I didnt know he had that much crap in there! Then he gave me a bottle of medication to give him twice a day. I think this was Daytona's first vet visit where he didnt like the vet lol, he really cried when he was pulling his ear hair and cleaning his ears.
This might be hell trying to put the medication in myself lol

scintillady · 01-22-2008, 12:39 PM

Ruby had infections in both ears when I got her from the shelter.The ointment she was on didn't help at all. When I took her to the vet I spent $150.00 and came away with ear cleaner (Every day to throughly clean the ears), a $9.00 roll of cotton, oral anibiotics, and antibiotic ear drops. The right ear improved, but the left one was even worse. Another vet visit, different stuff for cleaning every day, and finally a culture and sensitivity, to the tune of $153.00. There's a pattern here! Anyway, it was worth waiting to prescribe the antibiotics which I have to go pick up today (better not be $150.00!) because the culture grew a very resistant strain of Pseudomonas, which was only sensitive to one antibiotic, and not a common one. So I could have been trying all of the other antibiotics one by one and not getting the correct one. The culture and sensitivity was expensive, but probably saved money, not to mention time and pain, in the long run.