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ORIGINAL MESSAGE:
by Michelle

My maltese puppy had a bacterial infection 1 mos. ago and was treated with antibiotics. Now for the past 2 days her ears were getting itchy again. I started putting the antibiotic drops in again and then noticed a dark brown discharge in them last night. Ear mites? I read that they are hard to eliminate?

DISCUSSION:

Ear mites are not hard to treat, but I would first take her back to the vet to be sure this is the problem. He will give you the medication to rid her of them, use it as directed, and they will go away. She could get them again though, so you just have to keep watch on those ears.
-Marsha A.

Hopefully you are also keeping the hair removed from inside her ears....
-Diane

Michelle, My Miss T has a terrable time with her ears, it's like a ongoing problem with her. She was put under to the vet could clean them out and took her back in 10 days and it was starting again. In her case Dr says has never seen a dogs ears wax up as fast as hers do and gave me Solvaprep to use once a week. Between that and putting Collidal Silver in ears we seem to be licking the problem. Good luck!
-Carol A

Because of the way the Maltese ears fold down yeast infections are common with them. The brown discharge could just be a combination of the ear drops and cerumen but it is better to check it out with your vet. Make sure that ears are dry inside and out after bathing - that should at least help with the yeast.
-Debbie

My dog had the same thing and my vet gave me something for his ears and he temporarily lost his hearing, which the vet said doesn't happen very often, but does happen -- a reaction of some sort. I stopped the meds but had another vet look at him. It was all brown/dirty looking inside. It turned out to be a yeast infection. The new medicine helped.
-laurie

I had a Bischon that had chronic ear problems most of his life. I would take the dog back to the vet and make sure it is not ear mites. They told me that my dog had ear mites and they treated him for years but I never got rid of them. So if it is a possibility of ear mites, I would take him back and have him checked again. By the way, his ears also had brown stuff coming out of them and it had an odor.
-Terri