Ok – first off, DON’T GET ON MY A$$ TO TAKE MY DOG TO THE VET! I’m in the stage where I’m trying to see if it clears up on it’s own first. THe moment I start coughing, I don’t scurry over to my Doctors, so the fact that my dog’s ear has a bit of wax doesn’t mean I have to scurry right over to the vet. So if all you’re going to write is “take your dog to the vet”, then find a new question to answer. I have my finger on the “pulse of the situation”, so I am prepared to go to the vet shortly if it doesn’t clear up.
Anywho, my dog is a mutt – part shepherd, part lab, part retreiver. He has got these big, cute, floppy ears. A week ago, I saw him “tilting” his head and scratching his ear. I look in the right ear, and it was totally normal. I looked in his left ear, and it had a fair amount of brown wax built up, and it was a little red (inflamed). We’ve had dogs our whole life – and had a dog with BAD ear mites nearly a decade ago. I know what that looked like, and I didn’t see the little white mites in the light when I examined his wax. So I picked up a wax cleaner with aloe that kept it really clean and was soothing. It has since cleared up..the wax in that ear is gone and the skin in his ear is back to it’s grey/white color, not red – and no longer inflamed.
However, now his right ear is a bit red. Since I’ve been on top of it a lot more closer, the wax barely built up at all, but his right ear is still a tad red. He doesn’t scratch his ear, it doesn’t bother him…it doesn’t smell too bad at all. It’s not mites…it’s likely not an infection since it cleared up in one ear and went to the other. The discharge isn’t yellow, so its not a yeast infection. I have it pinned down to allergies, since he gets a little more eye gunk than he had in the winter. Is this possible? THat seasonal allergies could make his ears a tad goofy? I wouldn’t have ruled out food allergies, but we haven’t changed his food since we’ve had him in January.
Any thoughts you guys have OTHER than saying “go to the vet” would be appreciated! If this other ear doesn’t clear up by next week, we’ll go to the vet. But I’m not going to be a helpless moron that drops hundreds of dollars at the vet for him/her to tell me stuff that I already know. I love it when they tell you to “keep an eye on it, and keep doing what you’re doing…if it gets worse in a few days, bring him back in…oh by the way, you owe us $150″. Like I said, when I get the flu or a cold, I don’t break down and fly to the vet. I watch it closely and give the body a chance to fight it itself. I’m not going to treat my dog any different…and one ear already cleared up.
Anne B – I understand how a vet works. I can 100% afford to take my dog there. But on the other hand, I don’t like to waste money. I’m not going to pay a guy in a white smock to tell me what I already know. I live with my dog, I’m watching him like a hawk. It’s as if people assume that I would intentionally harm my dog – like if he got worse I wouldn’t take him to the vet – which is absolutely ridiculous. As long as it is in the realm of things that I can handle, I will continue to do so. If a certain amount of time elapses w/o improvement, or if the situation gets worse, then we’re on the way to the vet. It’s common sense. However, that has not happened yet – and people who scream at other people for not going to the vet right away for non-major problems just never seem to understand that, or even consider it. Apparently we’re all just ignorant people who know nothing about animals if we don’t drop everything and go right to the vet.
And this question is not a means to re-diagnose and re-treat my dog. It’s basically a way for me to kill some time and field some new ideas while I wait for my treatment to set in. I’m keeping his ears clean, and letting them air out and do their own thing. Its not going to clear up instantly…it takes days. Its that very impulse that drives ppl to go to the vet – the feeling that nothing’s being done. Well I realize that our bodies and our pet’s bodies need time to heel themselves. How many times have you gone to the doctor or vet, and waited for a test result to aid in the diagnosis to come in, only to have the problem go away between the initial visit/test and the test results? So I’ll keep em’ clean, let him rest, and give it a few days. No improvement, and we’ll be at the vet, so people need to relax! Don’t assume that we won’t go there!
