Stubborn ear problem...

[Dilly's Piggies]

Unfortunately Harriet's right ear still hasn't healed, we're now thinking she has a perforated ear drum caused by her previous surgery.

For those unfamiliar with Harriet's ear problem, 1 month ago she got a piece of hay stuck deep in her ear canal, we took her to the vet immediately as she was in great pain and had a head tilt.

The vet tried to remove the hay then but Harriet was in too much distress, so they had to sedate her and try to remove it under anaesthesia. Unfortunately the surgeon didn't have tools small enough to remove it so we resorted to flushing the ear daily to try and dislodge the hay.

We took her back after 7 days and the vet said it looked like the hay had gone now which was great news. However over the past 3 weeks she has still been having problems, she was still in pain when touched, would shake her head a lot, and had an intermittent head tilt.

We took her back to the vet 5 days ago and they looked in her ear and found it was infected with lots of pus and debris. We were given antibiotic ear drops and pain medication to use for 5 days.

Today she went back for a check up and the vet couldn't see the ear canal due to a big ball of wax stuck in the way. Harriet is still in pain when touched and the ear is quite wet indicating the eardrum is very possibly perforated and the ear flushing and ear drops have irritated it even more. It's actually possible the flushing didn't remove the hay, but pushed it even further into the canal and that could have perforated the eardrum!

Now she has oral antibiotics, probiotics, pain meds and saline to flush the ear daily. She will go back in 7 days for another check. However it's only day 1 of the dreaded Baytril (yes I did demand probiotics also, Fibreplex) and she has dropped 20g overnight, her ear is even more irritated today and her head tilting is even more frequent.

Now I just thought that flushing the ear doesn't sound like a logical thing to do with an ear infection and possible perforated ear drum, bacteria thrive in a moist environment and keeping the ear wet just sounds illogical to me. We as humans shouldn't get our ears wet when we have an infection so why is it any different for piggies? Plus I've experienced a perforated eardrum and drops myself, it stings like hell so I can imagine what this is like for poor Harriet.

My gut instinct is telling me to go against the vets advice and stop flushing the ear, and also switch her anitbiotic from Baytril onto Sulfatrim which Harriet has had before and did fine on. We've paid hundreds of pounds on this one ongoing problem and it's still not fixed after over a month, I seriously hope she will not have any permanent damage from this.

What do you all make of this?

(NO my vet is not an exotic vet, just a regular cat/dog vet. There are no exotic vets in my area and I cannot travel, therefore it's a regular vet or no vet at all, personally I'd rather see somebody than nobody.)

 

[sport_billy]

@furryfriends (TEAS) @helen105281 @Jaycey @Freela @Pound Shilling & Pig

 

[Abi_nurse]

Sulfatrim is probably not an ideal antibiotic for ear infections, baytril will be better. I would be looking at advanced imaging such as CT for this to look at the ear and find out exactly what is going on. You could also do with your vet taking a swab from the ear canal to culture the bugs to ensure she's on the righ antibiotics. I would personally have your piggie on much stronger pain relief as ear infections are very painful. Ask your vet about gabapentin, tramadol or buprenorphine or even all three as she will be sore. All the signs she's showing are normal for ear infections. Flushing the ear even with a perforated ear drum is not likely to make things much worse as the bugs are already in there but I probably wouldn't. I would ask to be referred to an exotics vet, she may need surgery on the ear canal to sort this. Try animates vets in bourne if you can, they have an exotics specialist referral service.

 

[furryfriends (TEAS)]

We generally use Zithromax for infections like this. The improvement is usually quite rapid.

 

[Dilly's Piggies]

Sulfatrim is probably not an ideal antibiotic for ear infections, baytril will be better. I would be looking at advanced imaging such as CT for this to look at the ear and find out exactly what is going on. You could also do with your vet taking a swab from the ear canal to culture the bugs to ensure she's on the righ antibiotics. I would personally have your piggie on much stronger pain relief as ear infections are very painful. Ask your vet about gabapentin, tramadol or buprenorphine or even all three as she will be sore. All the signs she's showing are normal for ear infections. Flushing the ear even with a perforated ear drum is not likely to make things much worse as the bugs are already in there but I probably wouldn't. I would ask to be referred to an exotics vet, she may need surgery on the ear canal to sort this. Try animates vets in bourne if you can, they have an exotics specialist referral service.

Thank you so much! I'll carry on with the vets plan then and ask about having those further investigations done if she is no better... Her pain is actually less today but nonetheless it's still bothering her, for now anyway. She's still fine, I gave her critical care yesterday as I was worried about the baytril and her gut with the overnight weight loss, I have her on fibreplex, critical care and pro-c probiotic and vitamins for support, it looks to be working.

 

[Merab]

Can’t offer advice - just wanted to offer support to you and Harriet

 

[Flutterby]

Same, just sending lots of healing vibes!