Yeasty ear infections

Hello vets 👋 Back story: My 3 year old boy (mixed breed -Labrador, border collie, foxhound and Beagle) has suffered with allergies from the moment we adopted him at 12 weeks old, it presented itself with itchy, dry skin, foot chewing, poor bowel health and ear infections. An elimination diet helped me figure the foods that caused a flare up and he's pretty good now apart from his ears that I just can't get on top of. He's currently having Canaural ear drops twice daily to try and get on top of his current ear infection (they're always fungal yeast infections). The vet also gave him a Cytopoint jab. My question is - what am I missing? Why is he always having ear infections and how can I keep them at bay? I try to keep his ears clean but it feels like I'm fighting a losing battle. I appreciate any help 🙏

Hello and I'm sorry to hear that your boy is struggling with his skin and ears.  The two go together; ears are simply skin down a hole, with specialised cells that produce so-called "wax" when they get inflamed.  The excess of wax occasionally serves as food for colonies of bacteria or yeast leading to infections.  Microscopy can be important to tell infection from inflammation -and if infection, to identify the bacteria responsible and therefore choose the right antibiotics.    However even when secondary infection happens it can sometimes be helpful to think of inflammation as an underlying cause.  In this case, your vet appears to have identified allergy as the cause of the inflammation and offered a diet without the main allergens to try and control it.  Unfortunately it is quite common for allergy to 'broaden' over time, becoming reactive to more and more allergens.  A lot of dogs end up needing ongoing medication to help control allergic inflammation.  Allergy is a lifelong - 'chronic' - disease, which can be controlled but not 'made better.'  Long-term drugs to control the inflammation are frequently a consideration.  Your vet may also want to rule out underlying hypothyroidism.  Certain anatomical changes to the ears are more likely to be affected.  The main take-home from all of this is that the ear problems may be liable to recur on a lifelong basis.  Treatment may be to control not to cure so it makes sense to talk to your vet about possible long-term strategies.

(please note, to avoid confusion, I have talked about bacterial infections here; rereading, your dogs' main problem may be secondary yeast rather than bacteria and these require anti-yeast not antibiotic.  Canaural treats various kids of yeast and bacteria).