Ear/Face Issues
 

Hi all! It has been a while since I last posted on here, but I have been having some issues with Hepburn and I wanted to get the YorkieTalk community take on it. You all have been so good about helping and supporting in the past in much worse situations (just as a refresher, Hepburn was bit very badly in April and went into allergic shock after being vaccinated in May), so I hoping you can help out now.

This all started (at least I think) in July when I had a friend visiting. Hepburn wandered into the kitchen and then came bolting into the family room with his head cocked to one side looking like he was hurt. I was frantic for about 2 hours trying to console him and figure out what was wrong, but he had no redness, no bumps, no itching, just weird behavior. I called my parents and my dad suggested that I unplug some of my electronics and see if it got better. Lo and behold after unplugging almost everything, including lights, he perked back up like magic and all was good. We then thought that one of the electronics was making a high pitched sound and it was hurting his ears.

From 9/30 to 10/3 I needed to go away for a choir conference so I left Hepburn with come very good friends who were delighted to have him. He came back happy, healthy, albeit maybe bathed too many times (they bathed him once a day!) I quickly thanked them, asked them not to bathe him so much in the future and went on my way.

Starting this past sunday, he has been scratching at his one ear, the same one that was causing the sudden issue in July. Sometimes when I am petting his head, he will suddenly squeal and run off like I hurt him. Occasionally when we are playing he drops his toy and squeals. He has been shaking his head a lot and seemed today even more off than he was when this started, but his ear is not red at all and again there are no bumps, scrapes, lumps or anything. He eats, sleeps, poops etc no issue. He is less playful and more tired during the day, but it has been raining and that makes him stressed.

I took him to the vet today thinking it is an ear infection or something with his teeth on that side, but everything checked out normal. She said minor redness in both ears, but it is probably from me trying to look in them all the time to see if anything is wrong. She sent me home with a cleaning solution to use for a week twice a day and said if he doesn't get better or if he has the symptoms again in the next 3 months, she wants to take blood work.

Tonight he has had his ears cleaned once and he hated it. He is still very sensitive on that one side, although she said both ears are equally irritated. He is not very playful and doesn't want to be rubbed except gently on the one ear, nowhere else. He keeps rubbing his head on me to get me to massage his ear and face on that side.

What do you all think could be going on here? What signs should I be looking out for that could, combined with this, mean something else? Should I give it time, like another week or so, or should this be looked at again tomorrow or friday? Any ideas??

It could be yeast and not an actual ear infection per se. Did your vet analyze a swab? One of mine has yeasty ears and it is exactly as you describe. Baytril and short term steroids clears it up. I am also very careful to never get water in her ear...cause that starts the cycle.

Does he have erect or floppy ears? If they are floppy, turn them inside out so they can air out. I do that will my Lily and it seems to help her. Could there be something in his ear? My Lily was acting like that once and it turned out that there was a bean inside her ear. (We have NO idea how it go there as we have no kids.)

@bchgirl I really do think the bathing at the pet sitter had something to do with this. Next time I am not even giving them shampoo, well except that he tends to get so dirty when he plays in their yard. I live in an apartment so he doesn't get a lot of time in nature except once a week at the park. He tends to go a bit overboard with rolling and digging and they don't like him making a mess in the house... My vet did not analyze a swab, would she be able to see yeast by looking in his ear?? She gave me this cleaning stuff, Epibac? It has Chlorhexidin in it, which she said will bring all the wax out and clear the redness. He is still acting up today and last night at about 4am he screeched in his sleep and woke both of us up. I may have touched his ear with my foot in my sleep... I think maybe tonight he will sleep in his bed on the floor.

@LDMomma He has erect ears and the doctor did look in both of them and only saw redness yesterday at the vet. I was also wondering if something was lodged in his ear, like a bug (I had nightmares about it actually) but the vet said no when I asked.