My dog is suddenly very flatulent

 I would put her on a high quality probiotic. It sounds like she is having trouble digesting her food. Antibiotics kill the good bacteria in the gut with the bad. Probiotics would probably clear her right up. You can get powdered probiotics in the refrigerator section at your local health food store. Give her double a human dose, twice a day. Dogs have stronger stomach acid than humans, so you want to give her enough that they make it through, to her intestines, where they're needed.

your dog may benefit in the future if you try the remedies posted under ( my dogs ears.) You can avoid the infection by drying the ears with boric acid. You can get it at petco it is called ear powder there but it just boric acid. It creates a acid effect in the ears that wont let bacteria grow. You need to apply every time the dog gets his ears wet. I put it in my hounds ears after baths and then about once a month. The remedy I posted in My dogs ears is for after the ears are already infected. The prescriptions the vet gives upset the digestion and suppress the immune system. Plain unsweetened yogurt added to the food helps replace the enzymes back in the stomach.

Something you might want to consider in the future for ear problems is the Blue Power Ear Treatment.  That might help you avoid antibiotics. 

CAUTION:  Gentian Violet stains, so use it outside!!

http://www.itsfortheanimals.com/Adobe/Blue%20Power%20Ear%20Treatment.pdf

Dawnben

You can avoid the infection by drying the ears with boric acid. You can get it at petco it is called ear powder there but it just boric acid. It creates a acid effect in the ears that wont let bacteria grow. You need to apply every time the dog gets his ears wet.

Be really careful here -- yes, I've  used tons of boric acid in my day (it's part of the "Blue Power Ear" recipe that I use regularly to clean my dog's ears. 

The infection may predate the treatment.  It is VERY difficult to even *Know* that there is a bacterial infection -- because it doesn't cause the head-shaking the yeast infections will.  Often there is just some soreness and you may never even KNOW it. 

 But boric acid is not going to treat pseudomonas, Dawnben - be careful there.  Pseudomonas is a really virulent bacteria that is ultra hard to kill (and often has survived for quite some time in the ears).  The Blue Power Ear solution (among other natural or alternative remedies) can be super helpful -- but a bacterial infection can not only cost a dog their hearing, it can cost them their **LIFE**. 

 A bacterial infection not treated properly (and a culture and sensitivity test may be needed so the **right** antibiotic gets used to KILL the particular bacteria)  can abscess and explode in the brain.  The dog will die -- BADLY. 

There is a time (much of the time, in fact) to try to 'prevent' bacteria or yeast ... but there's also the time when antibiotics need to be used.  They DO have their place.

THAT SAID --

A good quality probiotic from a health store is an awesome addition when a dog has had antibiotics.  Just be sure to use it a couple of hours before *or* after the antibiotic (or else the antibiotic will just "kill" the probiotic). 

Baytril is a pretty broad-spectrum antibiotic -- so it DOES kill all the "friendly bacteria" in the gut.  You'll probably need to give probitoics for 2-3 weeks to restore gut balance. 

 

My post was to keep the ears healthy and prevent the ears from getting infected. My point was if you keep the ears acidic they wont grow any kind of bacteria and the antibiotics wont be necessary.

Unfortunately that's not always true -- and I use boric acid regularly (on the dogs AND me to be honest) -- but if you have a dog prone to allergies and the ear canals are inflamed because of that -- they can get infected despite your best efforts.  The body uses the ears as an "outlet" for heat and inflammation and some bacteria will thrive no matter the PH balance.  It helps but there's no guarantee at all.  You can over do anything like that -- and my concern is that people think that's just such a simple "fix" and something deep is otherwise ignored.

My foxhound is prone to ear infections and i have tried for 5 years to get it under control. More than on vet told me it was common and that we would just have to live with it. I did the antibiotics and otomax over the years and never really got them under control. I used the boric acid and pellitol ointment treatment about 3 month ago and it cured him . I did it for 2 weeks and the infection is gone and has not returned so I am a believer. That has never been the case with the treatment from the vet. This was a treatment from a holistic vet that said that after using the vets cure the dogs become immune to the treatment. I believe it because it never really healed my dog. Within a couple weeks of the end of the treatment he would always start shaking his head again and that terrible smell would return. So I wanted to pass it along to anyone that has a dog that the vets can not cure. This stuff really works.

Dawnben -- you *do* I hope realioze that there is a HUGE difference between a yeasty ear infection and a **bacterial** ear infection?

Yeast often recurs -- and you have to find out what is **causing** the yeast to start with.  Vets will surely hand you tube after tube after tube of Otomax and the like.  If there are allergies (which is different than just a floppy eared dogs whose ears traps moisture and therefore then gets yeasty) you have to treat the allergies (and there are many herbal and alternative methods to try ).

 But a bacterial infection is **COMPLETELY** different.  My first cocker had yeasty ear infections constantly -- he had all sorts of immune-issues as well, but I had him to the vet MANY times and always wound up with just Otomax or something similar. 

**I DID TRY** boric acid and the Blue Power Ear solution (which has boric acid in it) and I have, upon occasion since, seen it help some bacterial infections.

But eventually I found a BETTER vet who did a culture and sensitivity -- he had ecoli, pseudomonas and strep ALL in his ears.  They figured that the bacteria had been growing for years -- since before I had him. Muffin had really severe allergies -- and it was like clockwork -- when spring/summer allergies would hit here in Florida his ears would get worse. 

But the problem is -- when a **bacterial infection** (not just yeast) goes completely undiagnosed it can actually cause the yeasty ear infections on top of it -- and often it's only those that get treated.

The BIGGER problem is -- bacterial infections **DO NOT SMELL** -- there's no head shaking, there's no yeasty discharge or black gunk.  But - there can still be severe infection deep in the ear.  It can go on undetected until the ear canals themselves ossify and turn to bone.

At that point even antibiotics won't work.  Because the blood vessels get kinked off and the antibiotics don't get TO the infection to clear it. 

Ultimately -- because I'd had so many bad vets who had never suggested doing an actual analyzed culture - his ears were so severe and the canals so ossified and swollen shut that we had to have the ears removed.  Under his ear flaps he just looked like a stuffed toy.  No 'ear' at all.

He because 100% healthier then than he'd ever been -- we discovered that the deep-rooted bacterial infections were what had caused MANY of his other problems (including life-long demodex).

Dawn - I'm not the enemy here - you often are so anti-vet sounding but you have to remember as a point of responsibility you have to let people get this diagnosed by a *good* vet.  A good vet isn't just going to hand you tube after tube of gunk.  And a good vet should offer other solutions like the boric acid or something like Zymox enzymatic cleaner (which is awesome for allergy ears).

Had I simply assumed that because the yeast and smell went away that it was "ok" he would have died soon.  Because the bacterial infection will abscess and then rupture and go to the brain.  That's a sad and painful way to lose a dog.

There are surely MANY times for helpful hints -- just please don't suggest that someone not use a vet.  CHANGE vets?  yes.  Even seek a good holistic vet (and that can be tricky).  But be careful -- because some of your information is a bit flawed.  And I've "been there done THAT" with ears with too many dogs.  Assuming it's "ok" because you can't smell yeast is dangerous.