[Dailydrool] Bugsey Ear Update

[Jennifer Martin]

I am running a little bit behind.  Who knew that losing power for a week
could screw up your life so bad?!  Anyway, I think we are almost back on
track.  The morning we lost power, Bugsey went to the vet for his every
other week ear check and Beauford got his monthly laser treatment.  I
almost fell to the ground in shock when we looked in Bugsey's ears.  They
looked totally normal!  In case you are confused, let me explain.  My vet
has a deep auroscope with a camera on the end and it projects onto a tv
screen.  I love it because I see what he sees and we can argue about
whether there is progress or not.  The vet then types in what ear cleaner
we are using, what meds we are using and if there has been a food change
and he saves these.

I guess about a month ago we (the vet and I) were both feeling pretty
bummed about the lack of progress on Bugsey's ear.  It wasn't looking
terrible, but we just couldn't clear up the final bit of infection. Keep in
mind we have been treating his ears for 2 years. Yes, Bugsey has gone to
the veet every other week for 2 years. I faithfully follow whatever routine
is prescribed for the next two weeks and then we repeat.  We have done 4
ear flushes on the poor guy. We have done cultures.  We have sent off
cultures. We have allergy tested him 2 times and he gets allergy shots.
Anyway, we were feeling bummed and we decided to look through all his
pictures and I kept a tally of what ear cleaners and meds he was on that
made his ears look better or not worse and what made them worse.  I got
home and pulled out all the meds and cleaners and read the ingredients and
found out a few things.  First of all, Bugsey is decidedly allergic to
miconazole.  That is an anti-yeast medication.  Then I discovered that
alcohol, EDTA, and propylene glycol showed up in the other stack of stuff
that made his ears worse and wasn't in any of the stuff that made his ears
better or neutral.  We also discovered that he has developed an allergy to
lamb since his last tests.  We put him on Z/D with disasterou results and
now we have him on a sweet potato and salmon food.  Anyway, armed with this
information I went looking for a new cleaner and found one.  The medication
we were using was fine.  Within a month of changing ear cleaners and food
and continuing to use the same medication, his ear cleared up!  I can't
begin to tell you how happy I am!  I am sure Bugsey is happy as well.  It
took him several days of waiting for me to treat his ears and me telling
him we don't have to for him to catch on.

Note: I did not tell you what Bugsey was allergic to so you can assume your
dog is allergic to the same things!  I am just showing how we had to do a
lot of detective work and get a cleaner that was non-irriatating and
hypoallergenic to Bugsey combined with a medication that was the same
combined with a food before we were able to reach success.

Another side note and I promise to end this: When Bugsey was eating lamb
and rice, he was the last dog to finish eating.  Now that he is on very
stinky sweet potato and salmon, he is finished first.  He LOVES his food
that he is not allergic to.

Jennifer, momslave to Beauford, Bugsey, and Browyn
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