Hi all, me again!

One of my rotties has been having ear trouble on and off for quite a while now and he gets very stressed and upset when his ears are looked at so unfortunately not the most co-operative at the vets. He has been seen briefly and has been treated with various treatments, canaural, ab's and now steroids. They always clear up but it always recurs. This time round one ear wont clear up and after three of us holding him at home it looks very much to me like he has some sort of tumor which blocks up his whole ear canal and i am now thinking this has been his problem all along and that as the tumor has now got to a size where it fills the ear canal the ear can not breathe so this is why this time it isnt clearing up. The inflammation has settled down (which we were hoping thats what the growth was, just inflammation) but can now see that this growth isnt changing even though everything else looks alot better.

Spoke to my vet again today who wants him in on monday morning and he will knock him out to examine the ear fully to determine exactly what is going on.

I am so worried now that my boy has a tumour and if he does if this is removable. Has anyone had tumors removed from the ear canal or any other ear canal surgery (removal of ear canal) that has been successful. My boy is only 5 and after my recent weeks i just can bear the thought of losing another one.

Hi Mandy my first cocker had a procedure to widen his ear canal when he was 8 for repeated infections. It was about an hour long op and though his face and neck were very swollen, he made a speedy recovery and never had another ear infection til he died at almost 14. I think it was called a zeps operation but not a clue how to spell it.

Sorry to hear that you are still going through such anguish.  As if you haven't had enough already!

Haven't had the problem, so can't give advice.  I agree that your boy needs to be knocked out, and give your vet chance to assess things properly.  I know that you trust your vet, and have a good relationshiop with him, so I am hoping that he can get to the bottom of things for you.

Hopefully, someone will come on that can give you advice based on their experience.

I have my fingers crossed for you Mandy.

Jean

Sometimes when there has been inflammation/infection the tissue of the ear canal swells to such a size that it blocks the whole of the canal and  causes more problems because as you say the ear is unable to breathe - hope that is what your boy has.  When he is under anaesthetic your vet will be able to inspect the ear properly.   One of ours had to have his ears cleaned under anaesthesia and we were surprised at the amount of debri that came out, he went on to have no more troubles.  

Hope that all goes well on Monday.

I had a rescue cocker that was so badly infected when he came to me he had to have both ear canals removed immediately. It looked horrible with stitches down both sides of his little face and his long ears stitched together on top of his head, but he quickly healed and had no more infections, the scars did not show once the hair grew back and he had a good life from then on. (My memory is of spending 2 weeks sleeping on the kitchen floor in a sleeping bag to be close to this very scared little dog ) It was well worth the op to give him a quality of life.

My Sussex Spaniel, Winnie, has had both ear canals removed (separate ops) following ear infection after ear infection that just wouldn't get better (various drops, ABs, flushes under GA). You'd never know she'd had them done now and she can still hear pretty well (when she wants to!). It was pretty awful at the time to look at, but she coped very well and was a real trooper.

I hope all goes well at the Vets tomorrow, you really don't need any more heartache.

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_lateral_ear_resection.html

I don't think the ear canals are removed they are opened up/re-routed.

From the same link is what Winnie had done (http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_total_ear_canal_ablation.html), where the canals are totally removed (TECA [Total Ear Canal Ablation] surgery).

I always wonder why ear infections in dogs aren't treated as seriously as in humans.  In humans they are swabbed straight away by an ENT surgeon, given certain drops to hopefully clear it, which I would think it does in most cases.

I presume that dogs can get cholesteatoma's as we can?  A previous dog used to frequently get ear infections but never once was he swabbed to find out what was causing them.

Yep Pedlee, thats the one. My cocker also had the droopy face on one side after the op and food and water would just fall out, so gentle hand feeding was necessary. But this improved gradually until things were back to normal. But still well worth the op even though awful at the time.

Winnie had to have 'artificial tears' for over a month on the first side she had done as she suffered facial paralysis and couldn't blink. It did go back to normal eventually and, as I said previously, now you'd never know she'd had anything done.

My old AffieX had awful trouble with his ears, it got so bad Vet wanted to do the ear ablation op :(  on a long-coated dog :(    As he had to have a tooth out they were going to do the ablation at the same time.  I asked the vet to have a really good look in his ear first under anaesthetic as I wasn't convinced it was infection.   It turned out to be a polyp on a long stalk, which had been growing and irritating him, they couldn't see it under normal circumstances as the ear was too painful and it looked as if the ear canal was swollen/blocked.  It was snipped off and removed and he never had trouble again :-D 

If you think you can see something, maybe you can.  But it isn't necessarily a tumour ;)

Keeping fingers crossed for you.

Thanks everyone for all your info, i am really hoping that the growth i can see is a polyp and can be removed and that will sort his problem. My poor boy is not comfortable so something has to be done.

Fingers crossed for tommorrow and thanks again

Please let us know how you get on tomorrow, we are all thinking of you.

Thank you very much, and i will post on here when i get back home tommorrow

Sorry i didnt reply yesterday, had a bit of a day of it!!!! Long story.

Chester doesnt have any tumour in the ear and my vet wants to continue treatment with canaural as he said it is a very nasty infection and may take some time to clear up. So it is wait and see how he goes, i have some pain relief to help make him more comfortable until the infection eases. Had a good clean and got plenty of drops in his ears yesterday while he was out cold!

Fingers crossed it will settle down, though he is likely to suffer on and off with them now so it is a case of trying to maintain them.

Thanks everyone for all your help

Just picked this up Im so pleased it wasnt a tumour I think you have been through enough!

Oh that's excellent news. Hope Chester starts to feel more like his old self soon.

T

Did the take a swab to ensure they are using the correct drops?

So pleased to hear that he does not have a tumour in his ear, and do hope that with a longer course of treatment the condition clears.

Wonderful news, thought about you both yesterday