Tommy’s ear and skin problem
Tommy is an extremely handsome one year old Golden Retriever. He has had and ear infection before, but this time it is different.
Tommy’s Right ear is not inflamed. The ear canal is wide open and the skin on the ear is a healthy white-pink colour. This looks like a very healthy ear.
Tommy’s Left ear has a narrowed red canal and the ear flap if pink. This is a common presentation with an ear infection. Smears were taken of both left and right ears. The Left ear was very normal. The Right ear had many inflammatory cells but very few organisms. This was unusual for an average ear infection.
Skin samples were then taken from the ear flap using our sticky tape technique. It was expected that Tommy had a superficial skin infection caused bacteria, but under the microscope was a large number of yeast organisms. The yeast are peanut shaped and much larger than bacteria.
So how do we treat Tommy’s problem? This skin infection is very likely to become significantly worse without treatment. They start to itch and scratch the infected skin area and the infection can quickly double and triple in size.
Tommy’s sore ear was gentled clipped and cleaned. Ear drops were placed down his ear canal once daily, and an antifungal cream placed on the sore skin twice daily. Most importantly, he was given a Cytopoint injection to very quickly decrease the skin inflammation. The Cytopoint will hopefully keep his skin settled for over a month.
Tommy is very quickly on the mend but we will have to monitor the ear and skin very carefully. Tommy will be washed weekly in an antifungal shampoo and his owner will make sure his bedding is washed regularly to decrease the numbers of yeast in his environment.
