Ears!

[Lintel]

GSD is prone to yeast infections in his ears however we tend to keep his ears very clean and he has only required canaural once.
The cause of the infection I'm quite sure is him putting his head under water in the river so we do try and limit this activity!

Last week I noticed his classic signs, itchier ear, a bit smelly so started treating it as we do with saline, washing the ear out. He is still a bit itchy this week so I phoned the vets in the hope of getting some canaural prescribed over the phone however the want to video call... I cannot see what this is going to achieve as they cannot see his ears? So I said no thanks I'll keep going with the saline at the moment, he is undistressed and I'm worried I just thought a couple of days of canaural would solve the issue.

However apparently canaural has been discontinued does anyone know what is replacing it? Or have any ideas of something else we could try?

Here are the said ears in question!

 

[CorvusCorax]

Surolan initially and then Epiotic ear wash.

Take photos and videos of his ears and send them to vet.
It might be the water, it might not, I've had dogs that are just prone to yeast infections.

 

[Clodagh]

I was prescribed canaural a few days ago, well not prescribed my vets know I need it so I can just get it as and when. The bottles stay usable for ages, it takes me about two years to get through a bottle. It was prescribed originally though.
I can't see making the ear very wet with saline will fix anything? If you don't want to speak to a vet why don't you try something like stinky stuff ear drops, they get good reviews.

 

[Lintel]

Surolan initially and then Epiotic ear wash.

Take photos and videos of his ears and send them to vet.
It might be the water, it might not, I've had dogs that are just prone to yeast infections.

Have had a look at Surolan, that might just be the ticket!

 

[IngramsRoughDiamond]

Surolan is brilliant, however otodex ears drops work wonders for more boy who gets a very itchy waxy ear a few times a year.

 

[Aru]

Most vet's wont prescribe anything without checking and having an idea if it's mites/ fungal or bacterial infection that's the likely underlying cause. Especially if it's been a long time since the last infection treated at the vets. Things change. We like to know what we are treating.

It's frowned upon to be giving out prescription medications that have steroids and antibiotics in them without examining the animal or preferably swabbing the ear to see what your dealing with..lots of reasons but..building multi drug resistant ear infections being the main one...
I have two dogs seperate families that currently multidrug resistant to 8 plus types of Antibiotics. With one after 7 months of trying to clear her infection she is going to need surgery to remove the entire ear canal at this point or euthanasia due to the pain. Pretty much all non surgical options no longer work.
The other is growing tumours in her bad ear from chronic yeast infections and is now older and to unwell due to other issues to survive another anaesthetic for mass removal..she is on daily medication to manage her ears( which are now leaking pus)and control the pain and will stay on them until she dies.
Both have had on and off yeast infections since a young age. Now they have bacterial issues and chronic ear infection issues.
Multi drug resistance is not a fun thing to deal with.

I would get a proper ear cleaner(scrap the saline your doing more harm then good with it in most cases) and deep clean daily to remove all discharge for a few days.But tbh your better just get it checked and sorted.
But if that's a bacterial infection it's not going to improve that easily..but a cleaner can help with mild yeast/fungal infections and to remove mites.

Adding saline to an infected ear makes pretty much all causes of ear inflammation worse.ears need less not more moisture. Moisture actively encourages fungal infections.

Waiting until it's inflamed usually a sign of a deep seated infection thats affecting the canal and causing ulceration and pain is a good way to end up with chronic ear issues. Chronic ear issues are grim.

Long essay reply short. Go to your vet and stop messing with ears if you can. Prevention cleans are one thing. Signs of infections like discharge and smell are a warning.You want to shut infections down sooner rather then later especially in a prone to issue dog or your potentially going to have horrible issues when your dogs older. Ears remodel internally from chronic infections. Its not a good thing.

Vets have the most horrible worse case scenario stories from things that we have seen and tried to treat.
Prevention is always a better idea.