Quote: susan tuck

Also have the vet do a blood test to check thyroid levels, many dogs with chronic ear infections have low or borderline thyroid.

Good catch, Sue.

I've been dealing with a chronic ear infection dog for a little under a year now. She's a lab but I have noticed a few things that certainly help these infections along. I'm generally of the opinion that these bacteria live in the ear canal all the time and the drops, medications, etc just keep the little bastards at bay. My solutions generally involve a routine of making the ear less habitable for the bacteria, nuking the little buggars as often as needed (depends on the dog), and addressing any allergies.

Humidity - if your dog has a ear that flops over, or you live in a climate that is very wet (I live in western washington), you allow wet activities without drying such as water retrieves, or your dog has alot of fluctuations between temperatures (such as inside/outside. It creates moisture in the ear canal for the little beasties to breed in at a great temperature. There are a few solutions here which can include a dehumidifier,cotton balls in the ears before going outside, etc etc.

Diet - Allergies can be a factor. Sounds like you're exploring this already. Sometimes a benedryl a 1/2 hour before dinner works wonders. Why wait until your dog is in the full swing of a reaction if you can prevent one altogether? I use this strategy for myself as well as I have miserable life threatening allergies to my general enviroment.

Cleaning- http://www.woodhavenlabs.com/ears.html I use this recipe for cleaning the dogs ears and it has been very successful. I haven't had a vet worthy visit outside of the first week I had her.

I do feel for you. For the first few weeks I had my lab it was a miserable experience of her being in agony and me trying to figure out what the issue was. Turned out it was the general humidity in the air combined with a mild grass allergy. The solution for me was a benedryl in the morning and a ear cleaning once a week.

I also want to say that this book:
http://www.leerburg.com/971.htm
is well worth ordering.

I just got it myself a year ago, and I found that he knows what he's talking about. Things that I had learned by miserable trial and error and KNEW were true -- these are steps he recommends.

Also, I picked up new "tricks" from him: Cleaning the paws and undercarriage on the way inside with a grass-allergy dog (very common) after every trip off the concrete .... I really took that one to heart, and saw IMMEDIATE improvement in seasonal atopy with one of mine. The point is not contact allergy (rare in dogs), but rather not dragging in the pollen and other allergens to coat the dog's bed and your carpet. I keep the dog's bed laundered, and I vacuum a lot..... no point having outdoor allergens indoors where the dog has to breathe them 24/7.

I also found that he was correct abour frequent baths. He said that the benefits far outweighed the "dry skin" thing, and that even a plain-water rinsing is good. He's right. Get the pollen and stuff off the dog's fur.... good idea.

He recommended trials of the best human antihistamines (starting with hydroxyzine and then chlorpheniramine).

I would caution the use of long term benedryl for the dog. A co-worker just lost her dog a couple of months ago. The poor thing suffered with skin allergy and the owner wouldn't listen to me about at least going with a grain free diet, salmon oil & vit E. Anyway, she had been giving the dog benedryl twice a day for a couple of years and the dog died.

 Quote: PeggyBayer

I would caution the use of long term benedryl for the dog. A co-worker just lost her dog a couple of months ago. The poor thing suffered with skin allergy and the owner wouldn't listen to me about at least going with a grain free diet, salmon oil & vit E. Anyway, she had been giving the dog benedryl twice a day for a couple of years and the dog died.

Fresh food, fish oil, and vitamin E are big steps in the right direction.

I'm not one to advocate long-term use of any meds unless it's really necessary. For example, I believe that way too many vets just prescribe steroids (like Pred) and refill it over and over for years. Steroids have major short- and long-term side effects, and I think of Pred as a brief cycle-interruptor. It can indeed be a magic bullet when the itch-scratch-infection cycle seems permanent. But I believe that way too many dog owners do not fully understand the long-term risks.

But antihistamines...... Can you tell us what the exact cause of death was, Peggy?

While Benadryl is low on the success list for canine atopy, death is not one of the side effects to expect. Dry mouth and maybe some sedation are the common side effects.

No, she had taken the dog to several vets over the past few years and all agreed that the skin problem was allergy and of course recommended preds. The owner quite frankly didn't have the money to continue treatments with any vet and near as I could tell took it upon herself to start using benedryl. I don't know the strenghs of the pill she was giving, just that she had been giving it twice per day for several years.

The dog had been examined by my vet and another treatment was prescribed, the owner couldn't afford the other meds so continued with the benedryl. The dog went down hill fast, and his organs were shutting down.

I can't say for sure if benedryl had anything to do with his death, but it was the only drug they had been giving the dog and did so without the benefit of a vet overseeing the treatment.

Long term use of benedryl either in dogs or people can do liver damage but then again what doesn't do liver damage that is a medication? Twice a day is alot for most mild allergies for a dog which makes me suspect that either the person was dosing too often,dosing too much for the weight of the dog, or it was not a mild allergy. Allergies can evolve over time and disappear, or become more severe and the kind of allergies that cause shock and death. It's possible alot of things killed this dog. Best treatment for allergies is avoidance which sometimes is not feasable in the case of grass pollen, dust, dust mites, tree pollen,and all the other enviromental issues that can cause issues with people and dogs.

 Quote: Melissa Thom

Long term use of benedryl either in dogs or people can do liver damage but then again what doesn't do liver damage that is a medication? Twice a day is alot for most mild allergies for a dog which makes me suspect that either the person was dosing too often,dosing too much for the weight of the dog, or it was not a mild allergy. Best treatment for allergies is avoidance which sometimes is not feasable in the case of grass pollen, dust, dust mites, tree pollen,and all the other enviromental issues that can cause issues with people and dogs.

Well, yes..... eliminating the allergen is certainly the best course, if possible. Often the allergen(s) cannot even be identified without the gold standard of canine allergen IDing (the scratch tests).... and in fact even that's only 75% accurate. And it's the best, so far. And it does NOT give accurate results for food allergies. There is only one way to ID food allergies, and that's the strict elimination diet.

Yes, even antihistamines can affect the liver long-term, and even antihistamines should be used with vet supervision.

They do not compare to steroids in bad side effects, but they are still a med.

But the 30% or so of allergic dogs who get relief from antihistamines, and even more when antihistamines are paired with long-chain Omega 3s (fish oil) and as much avoidance as possible, make antihistamines worth a try, IMO, WITH A VET'S GUIDANCE.

Something I think is worthwhile is to get baseline kidney and liver values at the beginning of a possibly-long-term drug regimen and then to periodically re-check. It's a good thing to do with NSAIDs, too.

 Quote: Melissa Thom

Long term use of benedryl either in dogs or people can do liver damage but then again what doesn't do liver damage that is a medication? Twice a day is alot for most mild allergies for a dog which makes me suspect that either the person was dosing too often,dosing too much for the weight of the dog, or it was not a mild allergy. Allergies can evolve over time and disappear, or become more severe and the kind of allergies that cause shock and death. It's possible alot of things killed this dog. Best treatment for allergies is avoidance which sometimes is not feasable in the case of grass pollen, dust, dust mites, tree pollen,and all the other enviromental issues that can cause issues with people and dogs.

I'd say that this pretty much sums up what was going on with this dog. His allergies were so severe that he had lost all his hair long ago.

 Quote: PeggyBayer

I'd say that this pretty much sums up what was going on with this dog. His allergies were so severe that he had lost all his hair long ago.

The poor dog.

This brings home the havoc that allergies can wreak.

The research so far is pretty clear that overvaccinating and grain-heavy commercial foods are the biggies behind the canine allergy explosion of the last few decades.

JMO.