Hello

Our black Lab is 4 years old and has had to have her ears cleaned under general approximately once or twice a year. The vet says that eventually the pet insurance will tire of our claims and refuse so maybe we should go for an operation that (from what I could gather) would remove the outer canal and reroute her ear to the inner canal which is less likely to infect. This seems a very serious procedure, although he assures me he has done loads and is adept at it. The trouble is he cant guarantee it will prevent and I am not sure about putting her under the knife if there is some doubt. Anybody heard of this op? or had it done? Has it worked?

Allergy has been suggested as a cause of the ear infection and she constantly chews her feet and rubs her chin on the floor which might support that view, but we tried a wheat free, gluten free organic diet for 8 weeks and she still got infected.

Have just tried again with drops to get rid of the latest infection but cant seem to shift it and therefore she'll have to be cleaned again

Thanks in advance

Liz

Hi Liz,

Have not had cause to use it on my dogs yet (fingers crossed!), but many Champdoggers swear by Thornit as a virtual miracle cure - have a look here. It's very cheap, so I'd definitely give it a try before doing anything drastic.

Marina

If anyone has their bottle of Thornit to hand (mines gone walk about 2nd bottle too!) could they please e-mail me with the details of the lady who makes it.
Thank you.
Bec

Are her details not given on the website linked above?

M.

No just champion pets who supply it. I think the lady's name is Betts and is in Norfolk or sufolk!
Bec

Bec - have mailed you the details

Pam n the boys

This is a major operation and very traumatic for the dog I believe they have to cut all accross the head the thing about insurance I think is not correct if you have insurance which covers 'for life' they cannot refuse to cover it Im almost certain on that.
Please try thornit its the best you can get IMHO we have used it on some very bad cases in rescue where all else has failed so please try it the postage is very good on it order it today and you nearly always get it tomorow.
good luck.

Sounds very much like my first Labrador. I went backwards and forwards to the vet for a couple of years or more and tried all sorts of Canker drops all to no avail! One day I was back in there and saw a young lad fresh out of vet college who gave me a "Shampoo" to dilute 10 to 1 and squirt in the ear with an eye dropper. I user to do it at around three weeks to a month intervals and never had trouble again. I threw the last of the bottle away when she died at 13 years old!

Sorry I cannot tell you what it was but that was 30 years ago now!!! I think the answer was not so much what it was as the fact that I was flushing the ear out so often that nothing had time to get a hold in there. Just a thought but have you tried regular ear washes? It might just work.

Regards, John

Different breed, but we have a similar problem with Charlie. Lhasa's tend to have very hairy ears which need regular plucking and flushing, but Charlies problem is compounded by the fact that his ear canals are the wrong shape. From when we got him at 12 weeks, until three weeks ago (he's now touching 7 months) we had to see the vet every week to try and get a grip fo the re-occuring infections, and he has already had to GA's to completely pluck his ears and remove the debris that was building up from all the ear drops. Same as John, we were given an ear shampoo by the brand new vet at the practice following his second GA. We used it twice weekly at first, but have now gone down to once a week, and he's never looked back since. Gone is the constant scratching and head shaking, gone are the bleeding ears, adn the secondary infections getting in the scratches, and he is just generally a much happier dog!! :)

Thank you all

I have just ordered the Thornit from their website - fingers crossed !

Also I will do the cleaning

And I wont be subjecting her to the chop

Lizzie R

Hi there Lizzie. One of my labs has problems with her ears, used to rub her head along the floor and violently shake her head. Having been back and forth to the vets for about 3 years, I then heard about Thornit and have not looked back since trying it. Her ears are clear and she no longer scratches and rubs. I also clean her ears occasionally with calendula oil. My younger lab has never had any ear problems, but I use Thornit on her about once a fortnight as a preventative. Good luck with trying it.
Lorna

Hi Liz. If the operation that your Vet mentioned is an aural resection, then he would make a new ear hole about an inch below the natural one. This bypasses the narrow ear hole, which is the bit that tends to cause the problem. If carried out by an experinced surgeon, who has done this operation before, then it can make miraculous improvements. It's complicated for the surgeon but the dog just seems to feel relief!

thanks for the thornit idea.my vet had recommended an aural resection for my lab poppy but as a last resort i got some thornit, and i can't believe the difference.no more head shaking and scratching and clean smelling ears.its a miracle.thanks everyone!!

Ear infections are usually caused by ear mites. Try putting Stronghold (made byPfizer) spot on the neck, this not only kills fleas etc, it also stops ear mites