My dog won't let me give ear drops. Are there oral meds for ear infections?

Antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medications can be given orally as well, but they will be indeed less effective and take longer to work. Please discuss with your local veterinarian this treatment option (as it has to be prescribed anyway). Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further. If this answer was helpful please let us know, this will be used to improve our service!

You are right that there are different causes of ear infections, typically yeast and bacteria (there are many types). Ear medications prescribed are based on which of these is the problem. It is also important for their ear drum to be assessed prior to starting medications. As well, some dogs need oral medications in addition to topical if the infection is severe. Being so young is also a consideration with certain drugs. The best plan is to have your vet perform an ear cytology and assess for an intact ear drum prior to picking the best medication that is safe for Nola. I hope this helps and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

Hello, thank you for using PetCoach. Oral medications (ie: antibiotics) do not work well for ear infections. Any medication to treat an ear infection should be used topically (inside the ear). Oral pain medication would probably be helpful but you would need to get those from your vet. In my opinion, if the ear is that painful you really should take him to your vet now for an examination so they can use the scope to look into the ear and also test the ear discharge to see what the infection is composed of (bacteria or yeast or both). They will also be able to see if the ear drum is intact. Some medications are contraindicated if the ear drum is ruptured. Cyclobenzaprine is NOT recommended for use in dogs. It has a very narrow margin of safety in dogs (and cats) and can cause significant central nervous system (CNS) and cardiovascular (CV) adverse effects. You should NOT use it. If you want to try to treat the ear at home, which I do not recommend, you can use this specific over the counter ear medication linked below. It is once a day and you do not have to clean the ear out first. It contains an anti-inflammatory (hydrocortisone) that should help with inflammation/pain. It is a small bottle so you will likely need at least 2 (if not 3) to do a full course of treatment. You must be sure to get the medication all the way down into the ear canal or it will not help much. If you chose to do this and there is no improvement in 4-5 days then you must take him to your vet for an exam. If he does seem to be improving then continue once daily for at least 14 days. ( https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/zymox-ear-solution-with-5-hydrocortisone-125-fl-oz-2399174 ) Hope this helps. Best wishes.

Poor Canelo! Ear infections can be very painful. I would recommend asking your veterinarian about one of the long lasting ear infection treatments that do not require you to medicate them at home. There are a few on the market now, but here is one of the them ( https://osurnia.com/ ). We certainly don't want to ruin your relationship with Canelo, so I would recommend having your vet do all treatments until this infection is resolved. Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using PetCoach.

Poor Sansa! How stressful for all of you. There are ear medications that can be administered at the vet's office, that work on their own for up to two weeks without you needing to do anything with the ears at home. We use them frequently at our clinic, because many dogs with sore, painful ears will not allow them to be handled at home! I would recommend calling your vet to let them know that you aren't able to adminster the meds at home, and asking about a long-acting option like Claro or BNT ointment. Even if they don't carry these meds normally, they may be able to order them for you, and you can bring her back to their office to have them apply the medication if needed.

Ear infections are usually treated with an antibiotic ointment that is placed directly in the ear and left in the ear to work in between cleanings. A typical schedule of cleanings include cleaning out the affected ear every twelve hours, placing the ointment in the ear, massaging and letting it set. This continues for a period of 7-10 days to completely clear the infection. There are some OTC ear infection ointments available but it is likely you will need to visit your vet for a prescription version. Amoxicillin is a general antibiotic and is more common in other infections such as skin or minor internal infections. It is best to check with your vet to see if it is appropriate for your dog's type of ear infection rather than just giving it. Giving the wrong medication or wrong dosage for the problem can actually make it worse, or even make your dog very ill.

Usually antibiotic ear drops should not interfere with oral antibiotics. However, most antibiotics that are given orally should also work for an ear infection. She may not have a bacterial ear infection, but may have ear mites or a fungal infection or allergies. In that case the antibiotic ear drops will not work. It is advisable to have your veterinarian examine her ears again to determine which type of infection she has, if any, (she may also have a foreign body in her ear canal, such as a blade of grass!). If your veterinarian said to go ahead with the drops, then you did nothing wrong. However if the drops do not help, you need to take Bella in for an exam.