[julemsmarie]

My parents have a dog who has been battling ear infections for 2-3 years. She has been seeing her vet this entire time and he has been treating her with antibiotics, ear cleanings, etc. But the infection is just not going away.
The vet is indicating surgery maybe the next step. He would remove a part of her inner ear because the infection has spread to the bone. Next place the infection would spread to is her brain or enter her bloodstream without the surgery.

Has anyone's dog experienced this problem and/or surgery and what was the outcome? What were the treatments? What were the treatments?

My parents adore this vet and he has treated my parents and their dog very kindly. However, maybe there is another treatment their vet may not have been aware of??? I would like for them to get one more opinion just in case. Their dog has other health problems and some of the possible side effects from the surgery sound pretty bad. We are leaving the surgery as the last resort.

TIA

 

[Xie]

Have they tried a food elimination diet? Ear infections like that are usually related to some sort of allergy, generally food.

I personally like Wellness Allergy food (google for a seller near you) and would try that for 4-6 weeks and see what happens. It is incredibly important that while testing the food your parent's pug eats NOTHING else. No treats, no table scraps, nothing but the food! If she eats anything else it could be an allergen and you would never know if the new food was working or not.

There are some cases where it is not a food related allergy but just an enviromental allergy. If the food doesn't help after 4-6 weeks you can ask the vet about doing Heska testing (they are the only lab in the country that tests for allergies in dogs and cats). Depending on what it comes back as Heska can make up allergy shots that can help. The allergy shots aren't always 100% though and sometimes the surgery is still necessary.

As to the surgery itself, the cases I've seen have all been pretty successful. It's not to bad of a recovery and the dog seems to bounce back pretty well. It's much more comfortable for the dog in the long run to have part of the ear removed then to have a constant painful ear infection.

 

[HORSEandHOUND]

Get that dog off wheat, corn and soy NOW!!!! Do not do surgery until you have tried dietary change.
I helped a cocker that had the same issue. they went thru the surgery and STILL had problems. got the dog off the allergens and voila! no more ear problems!