Diarrhoea with AURIZON and TrisEDTA

Good evening, so our poor golden retriever has an ear infection with the bacteria pseudomonas, the vet has prescribed him with Aurizon and we are also using Trizaural ear cleaner. We have used this for 10 days now and his stools have got worse and worse, to the point now that they’re runny. I notified my vet about this but he said it will be unrelated and to provide him with prebiotics and probiotics, will this be enough? I’m worried that the vet is overlooking something because they didn’t even check his temperature. He has a grain allergy so I don’t want to provide him with white rice to help. Could the two things be connected or am I fighting 2 separate battles here? Thank you

Hello there and thank you for this interesting question.  How was  psuedomonas diagnosed in this case?  I remember a time when vets would suggest psuedomonas from looking at (or smelling) a particularly 'manky' ear - but only sometimes would they be correct.  In recent years, relying on the smell and appearance has been shown to be an unreliable way of diagnosing psuedomonas, because similar states of ear can occur when different bacteria are predominating, or even when the only bacteria in the ear are the ones that would usually live there.  Thus, one step to treating a sore and painful ear, would be to culture a sample or take a swab in order to check whether a bacterial infection is indeed present, and to what antibiotics the bacteria are sensitive.  Runny stools are not usually a sign of an ear infection but they can be a sign of other underlying problems, for example allergy (which also happens to be a major cause of ear problems) or stress (which is a contributing factor to allergy).  There may also be some endocrine conditions that can cause both.

Again, inflammation of the ear causes pain and stress so a high temperature - unless very high with systemic signs - does not really confirm or rule out an infection.  Assuming that your vet has cultured the ear and diagnosed correctly a type of Psudomonas that is only responsive to such a strong antibiotic.....  they will probably also have treated your dog's pain and inflammation to break the scratch-itch cycle and hopefully be looking critically at the underlying causes.  It may help to ask; "Why has my dog got this infection?  Could an underlying issue, for example hypothyroidism, be present?"  Hypothyroidism is common in golden retreivers and can cause both ear disease and diarrhoea, so it's a helpful disease to rule out.

Finally, when given a drug by your vets, its always a good idea to check the peice of paper covered in dense text known as the data sheet, which should be provided alongside the medication.  There may be age or breed restrictions on the use of such antibiotics and while I cannot currently a see a copy of this for the drug that you mention, and know nothing of your dog, their age or diagnosis, the general guidelines for the use and anticipated side effects of the drug should be on there.  If you have any concerns, always consult with your vet (or their emergency cover) directly.

Hi Liz, They took a couple of swabs of his ear and it got sent off to a lab to be tested, the lab results confirmed pseudomonas. he has none of the common symptoms of hyperthyroidism. he is a 4year old rescue from Romania, we only received him 8 weeks ago. It could be allergy-related but he’s now on a bland dry-food diet and drinks plenty of water. His first poo of the day is always fine, it’s the poos after that which become mushy and then runny. I will check the packaging tonight