The Accidental Veterinarian by Philipp Schott

Author:Philipp Schott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ECW Press
Published: 2019-04-22T16:00:00+00:00

Bread and Ears

Whack, whack, whack — the metronome of Timmy’s tail kept striking the wall beside him, speeding up as I approached with the expected liver treat. You know how some dogs smile? Timmy definitely smiled. An ultra-wide, happy black Labrador retriever smile.

“He really loves those treats!” Mrs. Singh said.

“Timmy doesn’t just love these treats,” I thought, regarding his beer-keg-shaped torso. But he was a happy dog and a good patient, and we weren’t going to discuss his weight again today. Today we were going to discuss his ears again.

“So, his ears are bugging him again?” I asked as I crouched down to scratch Timmy’s neck and then carefully lift up his right ear flap. The tail metronome slowed down a little.

“Yes, he started shaking his head again yesterday, and I don’t have any drops for him anymore.”

Timmy’s right ear was bright red, and the ear canal was filled with a sharp-smelling black substance. I gently inserted the tip of my otoscope to look a little deeper down the canal. The whack, whack, whack of Timmy’s tail stopped entirely. He wasn’t smiling anymore either, but he stayed still and let me perform the examination. When I was done I straightened up, gave Timmy another treat and told Mrs. Singh, “I’m afraid it’s a yeast infection again.”

Often I will swab the ear and look under the microscope to make sure that I know what is growing in there, but in this case it was so characteristic, and it had happened so many times before, that it wasn’t necessary. Mrs. Singh was horrified the first time Timmy developed a yeast infection because she associated it with yeast infections in people, but it is a very different situation in dogs’ ears.

Yeast are normally resident on their skin and in their ears in low numbers. We all have a beneficial ecosystem of bacteria and yeast living on us in balance with our system. The yeast are, however, similar to baker’s yeast in that they will multiply rapidly in warm or moist conditions. If a dog’s ear canal becomes inflamed, it is like turning the oven on when you’re getting ready to bake bread. This is especially true for dogs with big ear flaps (closing the oven door!). Dogs with more erect ears do occasionally also get these sorts of infections, but they are much less common. As the yeast multiply, they create that strong, smelly, waxy discharge, and they further inflame the ear, creating a vicious circle of ever-worsening inflammation and yeast infection.

OK, you say, that makes sense — but why are the ears inflamed in the first place? In a word: allergies. While there are some other triggers, allergies account for the great majority of these inflammations. This sometimes surprises people because they were unaware that dogs could have allergies, and they are surprised that the allergies would only affect the ears. Regarding the first surprise, indeed dogs do have allergies. Do they ever! Allergies are in fact extremely common, especially in some breeds.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.