[Dailydrool] Other people's bassets and total ear canal ablations

[dpmcquade at verizon.net]

Last night, the three hounds and I walked by our tomato bushes, which are not far from our dog ramp. I have been nurturing a number of tiny green tomatoes, looking forward to the day when the crop ripened. Two tomatoes are just starting to turn red. But happily, they are farther back than the plum tomatoes.

Holly, who has been ignoring the crop for some time now, plowed her way past some of my herbs, into the 'maters, and grabbed some fully green plum 'maters. Argh!

Other people's bassets do not do this. They at least wait until the 'maters are red. (Of course she didn't want the green ones at the end of the season, when I had tons of them and had to pick them because frost was coming.) Even Dex and Horton were not interested in these green globes. But I am sure that in a short time she will have trained Hortie to do the same thing. Basset fashion, he readily picks up the other dogs' bad habits.

Dexter is next door to perfect. I hope he doesn't start with the 'mater craze. I could not bear three dogs stealing all the tomatoes. And even though he's blind, he can find anything he pleases with that great nose of his.

On a more grim note, we have been through a total ear canal ablation (TECA). Alexis had no other option, when her one ear got too painful. I believe that the eardrum had punctured. I could no longer put any medications in her ear, because everything hurt so much.

A TECA is a very painful surgery for a hound. But the pain is short term and the problem is taken care of. Lex felt so much better after her ear healed (and the wonderful surgeon who did this did a terrific job on her ear). I cannot say I was sorry that Tri-State, for whom we were fostering Alexis, had it done. It ended a very long battle with pseudomonas. The only problem with the surgery is that it does take almost all hearing with it. If she was lying so that her bad ear was toward me, I had to stomp on the floor to get her attention. I guess the hearing in the other ear, which was also affected but not as bad, wasn't all that keen.

The best way to get rid of pseudomonas is to treat it religiously when it first turns up. Do not miss treatments. Missing doses allows the bugs to build up resistance to the drugs. But many of us take in rescues and have no choice. We deal with what's already not been done to the dog.

If the dog is in pain, I would advocate doing the TECA. It is the kindest thing to do. Treat the remaining ear with Blue Power Ear Treatment as often as every day, if necessary, and you may be able to save at least some of the hearing in that ear, if Holly is any example. I know that the directions for the BPET do not say to use it this often--but we were desperate and didn't have another choice. It worked. But do not use it on a dog with a punctured eardrum; that's a TECA situation, and putting in the BPET will be very painful.
 
Pseudomonas is nothing to fool around with. It is terrible to deal with. But when it's already won completely, the best thing is to end the pain. 
Pam, food slave to the thieving Dashing Basset