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.
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.
