Hi My 5 year old Rottie, Dillon started with what we thought was a mild ear infection.
On going to our vets and perscribed antibiotics and drops we thought we were on the road to recovery. After a month or so the rpoblem rose its head again, back to the vets and they started with the flushing of the ears, more antis and drops.....I informed me insurance company and carried on with continuation form after continuation form.
Poor Dillon would sit with me for hours with me massaging and cleaning his ears gently, they were so sore from him trying to scratch/rub on whatever he could, head tilting,rubbing his face..etc etc.
They then did fairly intrusive, I thought, cleaning and another load of antis from the chemist.
They said they had carried out allergy tests and none were positive? so after £1,000 which I add my insurance company didnt pay!!!  he is still with the problem but I now have come to the conclusion this is definately either hayfever or allergy of somekind. I now give him antihistis and also gently cleanse his ears and also use aloe vera to sooth the outer ear.
Any advice from you all would be greatly appreciated...I am not taking my dog back to be poked and prodded around when they didnt even do anything..the money here is definately not an isssue my boys are my life but you expect them to be helped andmade comfortable.
Many thanks Suzi xxx

Your poor boy having to go through that and not be any better.

Seems like you firstly need a new vet or a referral to a specialist.  Often when they do allergy tests they only do a small selection.  I recommend going for a full spectrum allergy test which usually involves a large patch of hair being shaved on the back to do the test but the dog is not meant to be on any drugs for at least (cant remember if it is a week or a fortnight) before hand.  Friends dog has allergy to grass pollen so been through all of this with her.  He goes bald on his chest and belly from laying on the grass and sneezes.  He has to have 2 injections during the grass pollen season each year and you wouldn't know he had it.

I would also recommend a lampscade for his head to stop him scratching as he may be in a cycle of itching causing scratching causing more itching.

As for your insurance company not paying up, ring them up and ask why firstly and state you are taking your business elsewhere if they dont look at your case again.

Hope you get to the bottom of it.

Emma

My rescue dog (lab cross) started to suffer with the 1 ear very badly when he was about 7 yrs old, the vet would just always treat the ear and didn't seem interested in finding the cause (other than telling me it was dirty ears that caused it). I was convinced it was related to food, after a few months of trying different food i found that within 2 hours of him eating anything containing chicken, his ear would start to go red & itchy. Simply by stopping him having chicken he hasn't needed AB's for a bad ear in a few years now (it was happening every few weeks), he gets a bit itchy every now & then (lasting for a couple of hours) & I'm sure it's down to further food sensitivities so I just know not to feed him that food again. I am amazed at the effect a chicken-free diet has had (well, no chicken, turkey or pork), the poor thing would get so bad before that his head would be tilted on 1 side and there would be a huge fluid swellling under his ear & neck :(

Best of luck getting to the bottom of Dillons problem, it's horrible seeing them crying and rubbing thier ears all over the floor.

What are you feeding him on?

We had this too, after being recommended to use 'thornit' powder it seems to have sorted itself out....touch wood now....It was a slow expensive journey!
Anyway, it would be worth a go I use about once a week.

Karen :)

Mastifflover...

I am intrigued about what you have said about chicken..... I gave henry some fresh cooked chicken in his kong last week and since then he has been shaking his ears more and rubbing them along the carpet mainly at night....!

He is however on Burns Chicken and Rice food and his ears appear ok for the majority of time...

Do you think he could have an allergy to fresh chicken perhaps????

I wonder...........