My 11-year-old dog has bad ear infections. Is he too old for surgery?

Poor Paris! Medical procedures can safely be performed on older dogs. Age isn't necessarily a deterrent to medical procedures. If her vet feels it's safe, I'd have it done. You don't want this infection to continue.

Hello, The surgical procedure to cure chronic ear infections in dogs is called a TECABO, which is a bit different than the tube placements they use in people. If you're interested in pursuing this, a consult with a soft tissue veterinary surgeon would be the next step. Here is a link to learn more: https://veterinarypartner.vin.com/default.aspx?pid=19239&id=4952082 I hope this helps! Thanks for using PetCoach.

Usually surgery is reserved to chronic very severe and untreatable ear infections. That must be the reason for it. 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.

Hi there and thank you for using pet coach to address your concern. I am sorry to hear that Bronte has such a bad ear infection. If her ear is as inflamed as the vet says it is, then an ear canal ablation sounds like it would be the most appropriate next step. I am surprised to hear that it is $5000. That seems quite high for this type of surgery. I would call around and ask for prices on a total ear canal ablation and see what you can come up with. I generally end up charging about $1600-2000 at our clinic. If the ear is not bad enough to the point where the ear canal is calcified, a lateral ear resection may be appropriate and should be a cheaper surgery than completely removing the ear canal. As far as medications are concerned, I would probably use pain medications, antibiotics, anti inflammatories and antifungal drugs along with topical therapy. 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.

If this is related to an ear infection, then yes, treatments can help. If this is related to Mitchell's age, then unfortunately, there is not treatment available. If you are unsure if there is an infection, I recommend to have him examined by the veterinarian. I hope this helps and please feel free to post any additional questions.

You can ask your vet to try some other additional antibiotic courses before deciding to go through the surgery, some antibiotics i tend to use for this type of infection include: Marbocyl, Baytril, Metronidazole and TMS.

Poor pup! No, I don't think that this looks likely to fall off on its own. In fact, since it has doubled in size and is also open and oozing now, I would consider it even more important to have it surgically removed. It would also be best to have this mass sent off for histopathology to find out if it is cancerous or not, especially given its recent rapid growth.