If you're searching for what I posted you'll find it under "Blue Power Ear Solution". I've posted it about half a million times altho not as briefly as Micksmom has put it (*grin* cos everbuddy knows Callie is NEVER brief LOL)
HOWEVER --
I'm going to tell you to stop right here. You say something that really worries me!!
gibby411
He keeps getting yeast infections
THAT IS NOT GOOD.
If you get recurrent ear infections there has to be a reason -- sometimes it's allergies (inflamed because of the allergies -- *then* you will get recurring yeast infections - heat + trapped moisture under the ear flap + inflamed skin = breeding ground for yeast.
BUT -- are you aware???
There are TWO types of ear infections. Yeast is only one kind. Yes, yeast is very common. But when you get **recurring** ear infections you play with fire because when the ear canal is inflamed over and over that ear canal actually begins to "ossify" -- that means that eventually the ear canal will harden and turn to bone!!
But before I go on I want you to understand there is a **second** type of infection. You can also have a bacterial infection in the ears. You can have that WITH a yeast ear infection and the bacterial infection can literally go completely undetected. But it often winds up **causing** more and more yeasty ear infections.
So please -- BEFORE you try the blue power ear solution do yourself a HUGE favor. Go to the vet and **ASK** for a "culture and sensitivity test" on the ears.
This isn't cheap -- it's about **however** it literally could save your dog's life.
Getting a bacterial ear infection DIAGNOSED is huge. Many many vets will just hand you tube after tube after tube of Otomax or various yeast ear creams. Yeast is "easy to diagnose" -- you get that yucky discharge, it smells like yeast, and the dog is shaking his head so often it may sound like a helicopter landing.
But the bacterial infection is SILENT. You won't see it, you won't hear head shaking you won't know it's even there -- it's painful tho. Very very much so. But it can be *under* a yeast infection, and only the yeast infection gets treated.
But because you get these "yeast ear infections" time after time -- and especially IF there is an underlying bacterial infection -- you have these ear canals that are essentially always inflamed. This is when the ear canals may "ossify" and become ... quite literally .. bone. No bendability -- that means that the blood supply gets kinked off. At that point you can't even get antibiotics INTO the ear.
When that happens, the blood vessels can't carry blood thru to the ear, and essentially the interior of the ear will putrefy and die. That resulting internal infection not only will cost them their hearing BUT it can ultimately be fatal. Because if there is that bacterial infection hiding in there, then that can abscess and literally rupture into the brain and kill the dog.
How do I know all this? i'm not a vet. But I loved a cocker who had bad ears. IN fact, when we rescued him he had awful ears. We ran to the vet constantly (literally like every other week) and the vet gave me tube after tube of anti-yeast cream -- which also usually has a little bit of antibiotic in it.
But he never went the next step to find the bacterial infection in there. It never got treated (and I had this dog to the vet literally every other week!!). Eventually his ears swelled shut.
Finally I realized this vet was not doing his job -- and I found a better vet who looked at me, shook his head and said "Probably he will have to have his ears removed".
WHAT????
Eventually thats' exactly what happened -- We had to have Muffin's ears removed in a procedure called a 'bi-lateral ear ablation' -- they literally cut the inner/middle/outer ear right out -- they wash out the inside of their head where the ear was with antiibiotics and they sew the head shut. The ear flaps are still there but lift them up and he looked like he was from FAO Schwartz (the toy store??)
We had to have both of Muffin's ears removed - but he was quite the survivor and simply learned sign language.
But it was a darned shame because had I ONLY KNOWN then ... I would have forced the vet to find out WHAT sort of infection was underneath causing the recurring infections.
The culture & sensitivity is done by a vet. They take a swab and go DEEP in the ear (if your dog has a tough time at the vet, the vet may need to sedate him to go that deep, but not usually) -- they put that gunk in a test tube and send it off to a lab. There they first identify the stuff in the ear -- if it's bacteria or whatever.
IF if it bacteria -- they literally divide up the specimen and treat it with several different antibiotics to see WHICH antibiotics work and which don't. And which of the ones that do are *best*.
That information all goes back to the vet so he can truly treat the ear.
The blue power ear recipe is SUPERB. I use it all the time (even on my own ears!) But it's mostly prevention -- it's NOT intended for treating bacterial infections. It will treat small ones, but not anything at all difficult.
If you just said your dog had "occasional ear infections" i'd tell you to use the Blue Power first and if it didn't work, then go to the vet to check. But since you said "keeps getting yeast infections" -- I'm going to tell you to find out FIRST if there is bacteria in there.
Vets don't look for it if they SEE yeast. Or if they feel comfortable you'll pay a bit extra for a test. But so often vets are trying to not be expensive -- they really hate to suggest anything more. But truly -- DON'T just assume it is just yeast.
Had we treated Muffin's earlier he never would have lost his ears. I honestly just trusted the vet when I should have yelled.
I have seen awesome results with the Blue Power once you get RID of the bacteria. When we adopted Billy (another cocker) his ears were so sore no one could touch them. But there was a bacterial infection there and once we got rid of that, THEN I used the Blue Power stuff, and got his problem ears completely cleaned up. never to trouble him again!! I used the Blue Power as maintenance.
Now I'm going to copy in here MY version of the Blue Power Ear solution. It's just a bit different but it also contains the full instructions -- because you don't just drip this in the ears. You have to massage it in and really WORK it or it won't help.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Try
the Blue Power Ear Solution for two weeks and if that doesn't totally elminate
the problem then get the culture and
The Blue Power Ear Solution was first
circulated on the AOL Cocker Spaniel Board.
This is a home-made recipe and if all you are dealing with is yeast ear
infections it will really help them. I
gave it to my vets and they refer it all the time. It's actually safer than the purply/blue
stuff that the vet sells you and it's way cheaper because once you have this
you can keep making new batches of it. I
often take bottles to folks I know do rescue.
DOWNSIDE - this stuff stains. You ***Must*** put it in their ears outside
so they can shake and not stain everything because gentian violet is just like
ink!!!
16 oz.
bottle isoprophyl alcohol (just a cheap bottle)
4 tablespoons boric acid (use human boric acid - it's not a dog thing)
17
drops gentian violet (1 or 2% , but the 1% is MUCH cheaper and is fine)
medicine
dropper to use to measure the gentian violet
Add the
boric acid and gentian violet to the alcohol (Yep, it will all fit in that
brand new bottle of alcohol -- surprising but true). Shake well.
Transfer some into a squirt bottle (an old
shampoo bottle or a hair dye bottle -- anything with a squirt top on it). The boric acid never dissolves til it hits
the skin so you have to shake constantly.
The boric acid soothes. The
gentian violet deals with the yeast. It STAINS. So do it outside, not in your kitchen! Even 15 drops of this in a whole bottle of
alcohol *does* stain. But it sure works.
Gentian violet is the stuff that they give
human babies with "thrush" (oral yeast infection).
If the ear is inflamed use this twice a day
for 2 weeks -- just squirt in and massage behind the ear. The first day don't worry about massaging,
but thereafter massage for a minute EACH EAR.
Yes, I'm serious -- COUNT.
They'll discover this does NOT hurt, but rather it soothes, and after
you are done massaging, they will shake their head violently and all sorts of
yuck and junk will fling out. THAT IS
GOOD. After 2 weeks of twice a day, then
do a week at least of once a day, then just put it on maintenance once a week.