[Dailydrool] Ear canal surgery

[Elizabeth Lindsey]

> Our Daisy Duke had terrible ear infections.  We are fortunate to live
> less than 2 hours from Cornell University and they tested both ears  
> and
> found two different bacterias - one for each ear!

Our late, great Jane Basset suffered chronic and increasingly painful  
ear infections for six months until we finally realized our state's  
vet school was an option and asked our regular vet for a referral to  
Purdue. Our regular vet, who kept reassuring us that "all long-eared  
dogs always have ear infections," seemed unconcerned by Jane's  
growing reluctance to eat hard food. Yet we we disturbed by Jane's  
weight loss, muscle atrophy on the ear-infection side of her face,  
and constant drooling on that side.

The veterinary dermatologist at Purdue discovered that Jane had two  
different infections going on in the same ear, caused by two entirely  
different bacteria. Why did our pleasant but less-than-proactive  
regular vet miss this? Because a dog's ear canal has a 90-degree bend  
about halfway through and the otiscope that regular vets use to look  
inside a dog's ear can't see around that bend. So our regular vet  
could see and culture only the infection before the bend, not the  
infection past it. The antibiotic that seemed to work for the first  
infection wasn't the right one for the type of bacteria that was  
causing the second.

The specialist at Purdue, however, had a flexible endoscope that  
allowed her to see beyond the bend, and what she saw was an infection  
that had been allowed to fester undetected for so long that it looked  
like green cottage cheese. It was eating its way through Jane's  
skull, and I can only imagine the tremendous pain she had inexcusably  
been allowed to be in for so long because our regular vet didn't  
offer us a referral to a specialist and because we had no idea a  
veterinary specialist was even an option. By this point, the  
infection had destroyed Jane's ear and she needed extensive,  
expensive, and painful surgery to have it removed, a TECA (total ear  
canal aclusion).

Our regular vet seemed content to keep treating Jane's ear  
infections, but Jane's specialist said the ear infections were a  
symptom of a larger problem. We needed to diagnose and treat the  
larger problem, not just keep throwing antibiotics at the symptoms.  
So we had Jane tested for food and environmental allergies, and it  
turned out she was highly allergic to weeds, trees, molds, pollens,  
cats, and feathers.

Jane's dermatologist said that when dogs have allergies they don't  
sniffle and drip like we do, they itch and scratch. When they  
scratch, they transfer bacteria from their toenails and tongue into  
the tiny openings their scratching creates in their skin. Hence the  
ear infections Jane kept getting. Once we got her allergies under  
control with shots, antihistamines, and fatty acid supplements, the  
ear infections stopped completely.

We will never again let a dog's ear infection get so out of control.  
We now know better, and if our regular vet can't clear it up after a  
culture and several rounds of antibiotics, we will insist on going to  
a veterinary dermatologist or allergist. We now know we can't count  
on a regular vet knowing when he/she has reached his/her limits of  
knowledge/experience and equipment. We now know that even the nicest  
of vets can make mistakes and overestimate his/her abilities, and  
it's up to us to make sure our dogs have the medical care they need  
when they need it.

Elizabeth