Ears again
I see I made myself an Absurdly Large Ears tag last year, but then forgot about it.
Theo's ears are playing him up again. He has had a mildly itchy right ear most of the summer, which produced yeasty-smelling dark wax - but the left ear was fine. But today the left ear suddenly was very sore, and running with a liquid brown wax. He didn't really want it touched but he did let me wipe it with the soothing wipes I've been using to help the right ear.
I've also been giving him Piriton and probiotics. I tried removing chicken from his diet, but none of these measures seem to have entirely sorted out the situation.
I've now ordered some ear stuff from Stinky Stuff. It's nigella seed oil with olive and coconut oil. I'm a bit dubious about it being snake oil, but there does seem to be some support for nigella seed being effective against minor ear issues in dogs. And it's well reviewed, though really one cannot tell at all any more if online reviews are posted by actual customers or bots. And for that matter, the evidence of actual customers is pretty shaky.
If the problem were worse I'd have him back to the vet, of course. But I know that he's not going to let the vet put the otoscope even in the less-sore ear, and when I had him in to the vet in the spring (May, I think) the vet was quite unhappy about prescribing antibiotic drops without using the otoscope first. I'd quite like them to take samples and check them to see what the problem actually is, if it gets worse, too. I bet that they won't be happy with me taking samples, so again that will involve knocking him out.
So going back to the vet again about this is probably going to involve full sedation, and so I'm trying all the options to see if we can sort it without that.