Expert: Dr. Louis N. Gotthelf - 11/25/2005

Question
My dog has a terrible smell coming from his ears and he shakes them all the time.  He was on an antibotic for a while and that seemed to work for a while but not anymore.  Also his ears are cleaned regularly but when he itches them it sounds like they are full of water.  We had a similar problem with my other dog and the vet gave us some ear drop and that cleared up her problem, but yet the same ear drops did nothing for this dog.  Any solutions?

Answer
When there is liquid in the ear canal, it is trouble.  Either there is a severe ear infection with pus and serum  in the ear or it is a ruptured eardrum filling the ear canal with pus and mucus.  Most often this is from a bacteria called pseudomonas, which is very hard to kill. You need to take the dog to the vet for a deep ear cleaning and examination to see just what this is.