My Lab has a stinky ear yeast infection. What can I do before the vet?

I would not recommend starting it without diagnosis from a vet and confirmation of the correct dosage. Bacterial infections are more common in dogs, so it may not be yeast. If you're seeing vaginal discharge, that is definitely not a yeast infection and you need to see her vet right away.

Hello and thank you for your post! I have used Fluconazole multiple times for yeast infections and 200mg twice daily is within the dosing range. I would discuss this with your prescribing veterinarian first before switching as different drugs are used in different circumstances. In my experience, Fluconazole has less side effects than Ketoconazole and I prefer Fluconazole. I do not know what concentration your amoxicillin syrup is, but if it is just a yeast infection, an antibiotic like amoxicillin is not going to help. Levofenil is a human product and has not been tested for use in animals, so I would avoid using this solution for treating Milo. I would recommend bathing Milo twice weekly with Duoxo Chlorhexidine PS combination shampoo until resolved. This shampoo will treat bacterial and fungal skin infections and it does so quite well. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns! I am also available via consultation if needed.

No, unfortunately, there is is nothing you can give Sissy until she sees a vet. That's because it's never safe to self treat your animal, as you may accidentally do harm to her. In addition, ear infections in dogs can be caused by bacteria, yeast, and ear mites, so in order to treat it properly, the cause of the ear infection needs to be diagnosed. I would take Sissy into the vet as soon as you can because it's very important to treat ear infections promptly. Leaving them untreated can lead to hearing loss.

I would not recommend doing that purely because most ear infections are fungal rather than bacterial and are treated topically and not systematically. you should take Gunner to the vet in order to get an anti fungal prescription ear drops.

I would recommend starting an oral anti-fungal therapy as well as treatment with Apoquel for allergies which is most likely the primary cause of this problem, both medications are prescription only that you can get from your vet.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. You could try Zymox, which you can find online quite easily. However, the concern with just starting an ear medication without examining the ear canals is that you may be administering ear medications in an ear with a ruptured ear drum. I would recommend having a veterinarian examine Luna so that the most appropriate diagnostic and treatment recommendations can be made. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

Yeast infections are especially itchy, crusty, and smelly. Often a dog starts with a rash or with simple itching but the skin thickens to an “elephant” skin appearance. The itch is extreme and the odor can be especially troublesome. Parts of the body or the entire body can be affected. Malassezia overgrowth is particularly problematic where there are skin folds ("armpits," eyelids, facial folds, lip folds, throat latch, and especially between the toes). Treatment can be topical, oral, or both. Topical treatment is best used for localized spots of infection while oral medication would be better applied to larger infected areas. If the yeast infection is recurrent or if one wishes to supplement oral medication, topical and oral treatment can be combined. Oral medications are available through your vet. Shampoos such as Chlorhexiderm Max® or Malaseb® shampoo both strip skin oil and kill yeast; however, other anti-yeast products include Selsun Blue®, Miconazole® shampoo, Nizoral® shampoo, Douxo® shampoo and more. The pet must be bathed twice a week to start and the shampoo requires a 15 minute contact time (meaning do not rinse the lather for 15 minutes). It is important to realize that yeast overgrowth occurs in response to a primary problem be it allergy, seborrhea or something else. If the underlying problem is not controlled, yeast dermatitis is likely to periodically recur. It is common for allergic dogs to require some kind of periodic if not on-going anti-yeast therapy.