Look Beyond the Ears for Cause of Infections

Dear Dr. Fox:

I have a soon-to-be 12-year-old female golden retriever. In these last few years, she has been experiencing ear infections, sometimes every few months. Prior to this, she never had a single one. Is this something related to age? She has been on the same food, Iams.

The vet usually gives her Otomax, which does clear it up; and twice she has had Animax. She had both for the current infection, and it still looks red. This is the first time it seems not to have worked. To keep taking her back for the same thing every other month does not seem logical. She just had full blood work done, and everything seems normal.

What else can I do for her? I hate to see her constantly uncomfortable.

A.M.

Staten Island, N.Y.

I receive many letters like yours and scores of letters affirming how a change in diet is all that was needed to make the pet well.

Don't ever believe that being "on the same food" means that diet has nothing to do with an animal's health problem. The notion that, since the diet has always been the same brand and type (dry/kibble or moist/canned), there's nothing to worry about needs to be dispelled. Ear problems and food allergies are closely linked in many instances.

Each batch of pet food under the same label is different because ingredients are never identical in quality and even in kind. The safety and nutritional values of each batch of manufactured food are never fully determined.