Expert: Dr. Louis N. Gotthelf - 3/24/2006

Question
Dr. Gotthelf,

I have a 9 month old yellow lab.  In the fall, I noticed that both ears seemed to have a lot of brown gunk in them.  This appeared after he had his first bath.  The gunk did not seem to bother him at all, so I just kept an eye on it and cleaned his ears once a week or so.  The left ear cleared up.  The right ear continues to have quite a bit of gunk and sometimes a bad odor, which seems to go away for a while when the ear is cleaned.  I figured if the ear started to bother him, I would take him to the vet.  The other morning, he started scratching the ear and shaking his head.  I noticed a big glob of the brown gunk in his ear and when I cleaned that out, the shaking and scratching pretty much stopped.  I went ahead and took him to the vet. Our vet put a scope in his ear and was able to view the ear on a tv screen.  There was a buildup of the brown gunk in the horizontal part of the ear canal.  There was no bacterial infection, but there was a yeast infection.  He was given a vetalog injection and DVMax ointment.  Our vet is pretty convinced already  that this is an allergy that started in the fall and has been brewing all winter, and is now getting worse with spring approaching.  (we live in Michigan and have had only a few days a couple weeks ago  where the weather has been warmer than 40ish).  The vet is already talking about antihistimines and allergy treatments. He has also said that if we just continue to clean the ear and not treat it as long as it does not bother the dog, there could be a constant low grade infection that could damage the ear canal and our dog may end up needing surgery to remove the ear canal.   I would like another opinion.  I feel like this is very soon to be assuming allergies.  I have always heard that labs are prone to yeast infections as well as bacterial infections because of their drop ears and love of water.  Do you feel that this is most likely an allergy?  

Answer
Labs are so prone to allergies, but you may be thinking of pollen allergies.  Many young labs with yeast infections actually are allergic to something in their food. Ask your vet to do a diet trial for 8 weeks with your dog to see if that will soothe the skin and ear.  In the mean time, keep cleaning the ear canal once or twice a week with an acidifying safe at home ear cleaner.

It is true that some dogs that have ear infections their whole life often need surgery.  Chronic infections lead to permanent, irreversible changes in the skin and cartilage in the ear canal.