Ear infections

My 2 basset hounds have constant ear infections. I have spent hundreds of dollars at the vet, and nothing seems to help. they will clear up for a  day or two, but them the awful smell comes back, and all of the dark brown smelly stuff too. I am a t my wits end, I must have used every treatment there was out ther. Any suggestions on how to clear these up. I know the dogs are miserable too.

[bnajbert]

I have 2 German Shepherds but only one suffers from this same problem. I've been told by a vet that it's an allergic reaction and not an infection. He said he thinks it's from the food being made of beef. A allergy to beef or some other food would explain why one dog has it and the other doesn't.

You could try changing the food to something vegetable based or chicken, just a thought.

[bnajbert]

Sounds like ear mites. Very common, and easy enough to get rid of. If not mites, it could be a yeast infection. Is there a sour smell coming from the ear? Is it both ears or just one? Ear mites don't look like little bugs. They actually look like a ton of brown/black ear wax. Go to 1800 pet meds and look under ear medications. Look for tresaderm. This will treat the mites. If it does have a foul smell to it, there is medication available on that site as well. However, you can treat it yourself with peroxide and alchohal. (if you have the stomach for it, that is). In the morning, poor peroxide into the ear. Hold the ear shut so it bubbles up inside. Then start removing the icky stuff out with a cotten ball. Then use q tips. You can go all the way down the ear canal and not worry about puncturing the ear drum. It's an L shaped ear canel, not like ours. Dig all that stuff out as much as you can. In the evening use alchohal and do the same thing. Just keep doing this every day until the infection starts to clear. Maybe a week, maybe a month. It really depends on how good of a job you do when removing the infection, and how bad the infection is. If the ears start bleeding in spots, don't be suprised. It happens. Just hold a cold wet paper towel on it for a few minutes to relieve the burn of it. Or, see your vet. More then likely, its ear mites. If it is, clean the ears good with peroxide, then put in the tresederm. Like I said, check out 1800 pet meds.com Good luck
Source(s):
dog groomer/vet tech for 20 years.

I copied this from another site

[ainttoshabby]

another possibility is its a yeast infection, use some canestion in their ears, like in their ears, and try to put there ears up for a couple days to let air get at em