Just had my GSD in for his 3 year rabies vac and because of a chronic ear infection problem. Vet took a culture for testing and prescribed antibiotics and prednisone for now.

It slipped my mind to ask the vet about it while we were there, but I was wondering if there were any concerns about putting him on an immune suppressant like prednisone immediately after receiving the rabies vaccine. I know the vaccine can be hard on their systems...

Am I correct in being concerned here?

 Quote: Kevin Thomas

Just had my GSD in for his 3 year rabies vac and because of a chronic ear infection problem. Vet took a culture for testing and prescribed antibiotics and prednisone for now.

It slipped my mind to ask the vet about it while we were there, but I was wondering if there were any concerns about putting him on an immune suppressant like prednisone immediately after receiving the rabies vaccine. I know the vaccine can be hard on their systems...

Am I correct in being concerned here?

I would be concerned too!

But can you give more details about the ear infections? Does the dog appear to have atopic dermatitis (allergies) that the ear infections are secondary to? Was the Pred given for itching?

Is the ear infection strictly bacteria or combined yeast and bacteria? (Or were past ones?)

Connie: We are having cultures done now to determine if it is bacteria or yeast or both. The vet also wants to test his thyroid function. There does seem to be an allergy issue also, as he will sometimes chew his feet and back.

When it first started two years ago (he is 4 now), he was given oral antibiotics, Animax cream, and Novalsan for general ear cleaning. This cleared it up, but not permanently. It has come and gone in varying degrees since then.

About four months ago we suddenly had a persistent flea problem (first in many years), that took a while to get under control. Neither Frontline nor Advantix had any real effect on these buggers. During that time he had a serious allergic reaction to the flea bites, and his ears got really bad.

We have eliminated the fleas and two months ago switched his food to Wellness fish & sweet potato to see if this would have an effect. He was previously fed either Innova, Solid Gold or Nature's Recipe. He also gets human-grade fish oil added to his food once a day.

Definite improvement in his coat and itchiness since the food change, but I don't know if that is really due to the food or recovery from the flea allergies.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the allergies may not be food related.

I really wish I had known the vet was going to prescribe prednisone, as I would have just put off his rabies vac. At this point, I plan on holding off the prednisone and just giving the antibiotics. I will discuss with the vet tomorrow, but I am always leery of what vets say regarding vaccines.

I would be MORE concerned that you took your dog in for a chronic medical problem and he vaccinated him!!!!!

Unbelievable, this vet needs to read the insert in the vaccine before he administers it!! It clearly states "for use in HEALTHY ANIMALS ONLY".. a dog with a chronic ear infection is not healthy.

The prednisone is a whole other issue.

I'd be looking for a new vet.

Read this link http://leerburg.com/vaccinosis.htm

 Quote: Cindy Easton Rhodes

I'd be looking for a new vet.

Unfortunately, I have yet to find a vet in my area that I am comfortable with 100%. This is not our regular vet. Our regular vet only does home visits and is great for routine stuff, but does not send cultures for testing or do anything particularly involved.

I blame myself 100% for allowing the vet to administer the vaccination during the visit. I knew better, but it didn't even occur to me until afterwards that we should have waited. At least I didn't let the vet also give the DHLPP-C vac that she wanted to along with the rabies...

You shouldn't blame yourself, call and blame and question the vet on what he did. Pet owners have been put in the position of having to know more than the vet about vaccines (and especially vaccinating while a dog's immune system is compromised! Good grief!). That's absurd if you think about it, that we should have to do all this research and learning all this info, when that's THEIR job.

So call the vet and ask him why he vaccinated while the dog had an ear infection. When he gives you the inevitable answer that it won't hurt him to vaccinate when the dog is not healthy, ask him if that's what it says on the vaccine insert. Then see what he says. Vets need to start accounting for some of the things that they do to OUR dogs.

This kind of stuff makes me sick, having to watch vets like a hawk.

My first thought would be that chronic ear infections could be a result of allergies, as well. You see that all the time, even in human infants. Chronic ear infections is one of the first sign of a milk allergy in children.

Have you checked to see if your dog has some kind of grain allergy? If so, that allergy would continue even on the better quality kibble. Could you look up the ingredients of every food you have fed and see if there's a common denominator?

Be very careful about the prednisone. I have a dog with an auto-immune disorder and his symptoms got so bad that he was put on steroids for a few weeks and it was AWFUL. They did the trick and got rid of the symptoms, but it turned my dog into a miserable, depressed, fat animal that couldn't even hold his bladder. And this was a two year old dog!

I know steroids can have their place in treatment, but I would personally avoid using them until every other option is exhausted, and even then I would insist on the lowest possible dose. I'm NEVER doing that to my dog again, even if it means he has to be put to sleep. The experience was terrible.