[pyrnet] Convalescing Pyr - long

[kdbooth@mindspring.com]

Hi All,

I've posted before about my boy Badger having ear problems.  A month or two ago he went to the vet and had his ears flushed and was put on some heavy-duty antibiotics.  Two weeks later, his ears were just as bad as they had been before the flushing.  The vet talked to us about possibly doing a Zepp's, or even an ablation at some point.  We put it on hold and in the meantime diligently cleaned his ears every day.  Last week I decided to take him to a new vet who specializes in allergies for a second opinion.  It was obvious that his ears were getting worse.  This vet was much more informative and spent quite a bit of time explaining the situation to me and going over my options.  We made an appointment for Badger to see the surgeon.  At the very least he would have a Bulla osteotomy and a flushing, followed by a course of antibiotics spread over 6 -8 weeks.  Then we'd work to get to the source of the problem.  Worst case scenario would be complete ablation.  Well, Badger had hi!
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s surgery yesterday and it turned out to be fairly serious, not quite an ablation but a bit more than just a Zepp's.  The surgeon found that the juncture of the vertical and horizontal canals had become ossified.  There were also bleeding ulcers in both ears that had to be removed.  Quite a bit of diseased tissue was removed as well as the vertical canals.  Badger now has horizontal canals only.  I haven't seen him yet but I've been warned that he has quite a few stitches.  The good news is that his ear drums are intact and he'll have no hearing loss at all.  The stuff that came out of his ears has been sent to a lab for culturing.  He also had blood work to screen for things like a thyroid condition.  From this point on we'll be dealing with the causes of his problems and trying to manage that.

Hopefully Badger will come home tonight.  We've already been instructed on how to care for him and Bill and I will work half-days, one of us taking the morning shift, one the afternoon, so that he's got someone at home attending him all day.

I fully expect that some subscribers will be disapproving of our decision to go ahead with surgery instead of investigating all other avenues first.  The bottom line was that Badger (Badgie-Boo-Boo) was suffering and nothing we were doing seemed to help.  Chronic infection had caused permanent damage.  True, he's going to be very uncomfortable for a week or two, but we hope that it pays off in the long run.  It was not an easy decision to make but we made it with love.  Being sick with ear infections that never clear up is no way to live.

I'll post updates from time to time and will probably put some pictures up on my website for anyone who may be experiencing these same problems but are hesitant about surgery.  Of course no two dogs are the same but it helps to know all the risks and possibilities.

Kim