Otitis

This is one of the most common diseases the vets working with pet animals face up. It affects especially the external ear conduct.

One of the aspects of this disease is great pain in the animal’s ear, as a consequence it doesn’t stop scratching itself and shaking its head, besides, the inner part of the ear gets hot, exudates and smells bad.

There are some races predisposed to otitis, especially those with hanging ears and abundant hair inside of them, like cocker, poodle or Ihasa apsos, although this disease is very common in all the cats and dogs races. There are also another predisposing or accelerating factors for otitis to come such as stress or any other circumstance that reduces the immunity system, as well as the excess of humidity (due to baths, for instance) inside the organ.

Otitis is usually a very painful process that needs the immediate veterinarian assistance. Besides, it is very important to prevent the chronic state of this process, because if this is so, the bacteria causing this infection become more resistant making an important damage in the ear conduct, that might be almost closed as a consequence of the inflammation. In this case, the treatment is very difficult.

The animal must be taken into the veterinarian clinic when the first symptoms arise, and medication with products for humans must be avoided. The first thing the professional will do is to find out if this is an otitis or not, since the presence of strange bodies inside the ear conduct or certain allergic reactions may usually cause similar symptoms. Once the otitis is diagnosed, we must look for the cause. Generally, this is an infection caused by bacteria, fungus and yeast, although is very common to find parasite otitis caused by acarus, especially in cats. The nature of the infection can be usually given by the aspect of the secretion, although it is common to do extensions, cultures and anti-biograms in order to know exactly which is the cause and which is the most efficient treatment. The most important thing to bear in mind is to avoid this disease becomes chronic, because in spite of being a minor condition, it is really disturbing for the animal, and as we said, very difficult to be healed when chronic. Only strong surgery and a long treatment finish with this problem.