What can I do about my dog’s severe ear infection – I can’t clean the ears

Our question this week was:

Hi Doc, My dog is been having an infection in his ears for the last 2 years. We used to put ear drops and the vet used to come to our place since then to treat him. He gets all crazy when we take him out so we used to take him for short walks in the evenings alone.

Four days back I noticed there is puss coming from his ear and when I tried to go near it , he freaked out. I was out of town for two days and my dad and mom did not notice it.

When I came back I saw my dog soaked with puss on his neck and full of flies on it. I went and cleaned him up to see that he has a hole with white worms in it. I went to a doc and got a spray, which she said would kill the worms and two tablets too.

He was improving but his entire ear and neck is warm and wet. He does not let me clean it. I know he is in pain. I suspect he has an ABCESS.

Please suggest something, which I can do at home myself. Especially the cleaning as I don’t think he is strong enough to take high doses of antibiotic… Please save my dying dog. Looking forward to hear from you. Thanks Beena

Beena S.

Answer

Hi – thanks for your email Beena. You wrote that your dog has an ear infection that has progressed. From what you wrote – it sounds like the neck is wet and flies and white worms are around the area. Your dog sounds like he is in pain and you cannot clean the area.

Without being able to see your dog, I suspect that he had an ear infection that may have progressed to a local hot spot (acute moist dermatitis) and subsequently he got maggots.

This can be very painful and severe. I’d recommend that you take him back to your vet. Most likely the area needs the hair to be clipped and cleaned well. You probably need both antibiotics and pain medications. The maggots need to be removed. This is a bad situation.

You need to keep your dog inside away from the flies. You need to be able to clean the draining and treat the ear. If you cannot – maybe you can leave him in the vet hospital for a few days where they can treat him.

A couple articles that might be helpful to you are Ear Infections in Dogs and Myiasis (Maggots) in Dogs.

Best of luck!

Dr. Debra

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