Kiki's ear is really bad. :(

[dragondawg]

your's and your friend- get another Vet. It's their job to provide a solution for the problem, not for you to just deal with it.

In general dogs with long ears or ones which lay flat with very little chance to get a good circulation of air for drying have the most problems per ear infections as a result of swimming. The classic example are the Labs. The characteristics of the typical infection are:

1. Excessive scratching, heading shaking by the dog.
2. Inflamed skin towards the top of the inner ear.
3. Sometimes small amounts of secretions can be seen down in the ear, or sometimes smelled.

The fact you are seeing goop or excessive secretions indicates a severe infection, and as in humans this can spread to the inner ear. Your dog is a candidate for treatment with Clavamox to treat any internal bacterial infection. Unclear what you are using to clean the ears, but you can obtain precription cleaning and drying agents for the ear from a Vet. Once cleaned a few drops of Ottomax should be dropped in and the ear massaged gently. The Ottomax is a precription salve that contains antibiotics effective again bacteria and yeast. Usually just a few days of morning and night applications will get the ear back to normal. But again due to the copious amounts of secretion you are describing, Clavamox to treat any inner ear infection should be given. No swimming for puppy until the ears are cleared up!

Once a dog's ear has under gone a severe infection the natural ecosystem of the ear never seems to return to normal. Add in a pond or other water with a high yeast/bacteria content in the middle of high summer temperatures, and reoccurrant ear infections are likely to occur. You can help short circuit reoccuring problems by swabing the ears with a barely moistened cotton ball after swimming where you moisten it with a 1 part white vinegar + 2 parts distilled water solution. In fact you should probably dry the ears first before applying the diluted vinegar solution. The vinegar drops the pH in the ear which hinders the growth of yeast, and some bacteria. The trick is to remember to do it! For my previous dog as long as I remembered the vinegar swabing she didn't have any problems. But when I forgot and an infection occured, I always had a tube of Ottomax on hand.

[.sarah]

I know you said you tried everything but I'm still going to ask ...

Have you done a food trial to see if she's allergic to wheat, corn, soy, or meat in the food she's eating? Mandy and Nova both have food allergies and get chronic ear infections with meat and Nova also gets rashes on her belly.

IF you have done this then you may want to flush her ears, instead of just clean them. It will get further down in there than just cleaning them.