My dog strains to poop and ear infection won't clear. What's next?

Oh my. Poor girl. IF there is still swelling of the foot with no improvement while on 2 different antibiotics, then I would highly consider getting a culture done to determine what antibiotic will be effective here. A topical antibiotic cream may also be needed here, such as Silver Sulfadiazene. If she won't eat, then that worries me that perhaps the infection is now in her bloodstream (bacteremia), which can get bad enough where pets require hospitalization and fluid therapy. Please take her back in soon to have her temperature checked and a cbc (complete blood cell count) to check her white blood cell count. At the very least she likely needs to go on a probiotic now since she is on hard core antibiotics that have likely disrupted her GI flora. Colitis causes pets to strain as you have described for Marbles. You can get her started on over the counter Culturelle or Fortiflora until you can get her back in to your vet for a rechk. Try also offering her some boiled plain chicken and rice or lean ground turkey and white rice to try and entice her to eat. I do hope that your fur baby Marbles feels better soon! Best of luck and take care. : )

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! The medication has an antibiotic and an antifungal in it. If it didn’t help the infection, she may have a bacteria that is resistant to the antibiotic. I recommend taking her back to the vet for a culture of the bacteria in her ear to determine what medication will treat it. Good luck and kisses to Bailey!

The main reason infections do not clear is they are not treated for long enough or it may have not been the best medicine to treat it due to resistance. Ideally she needs to be rechecked to see if a culture is needed or oral medicine help. You can try to get an ear cleaner to help keep it clean. IF the ear persistently itch then you may want to consider a food allergy

Poor girl. If the preliminary medications from your vet didn’t improve her condition, then it’s time to consider getting Xena a culture done of her ear to determine what medicaiton can clear things up. This is a specific test that will determine what medicaiton combination is needed to get rid of he infection. I also am not sure if your vet has tried Posatex ear medication yet, but this is strong ear medicaiton that can help with resistant infections. Also pain medicaiton (steroids work well for ears when they are really inflamed) can also be prescribed by your vet to help with Xena’s discomfort. Discuss with your vet about the above recommendations. Best wishes moving forward with Xena and her ears. Take care.

You can try an OTC ear infection medication from a pet store, but if Mia is already digging at the ear and causing trauma, it would be best treated by a vet to avoid it getting mistreated for a few days. She should also wear an e-collar until the itch is controlled to avoid further self-trauma.

It's likely that the ear infection and diarrhea are unrelated. Regarding the diarrhea, it could be caused by a sudden diet change, ingestion of human food or garbage, or parasites. Canned pumpkin can be helpful to add fiber to the diet. You may also want to try a bland diet (white rice and lowfat boiled chicken). If this does not resole the diarrhea, I would recommend seeing a vet who can perform a fecal test to rule out parasites and prescribe an anti-diarrhea medication. If the ear infection does not resolve with vinegar and water, it may be caused by a bacteria or yeast. Usually prescription ear medications are required to completely resolve these type of infections. Best of luck and I hope she feels better soon!

Even though Mia is not scratching her ears I think it’s possible that she has an ear infection. I think you should see a veterinarian so they can examine her ear canals. The dandruff could be related to an allergy or other skin disease or may simply be normal for her if she doesn’t seem itchy.