Monday, December 03, 2007

Mite We Be Stuck With These Forever?

Mites. Ear mites. I hate them. They are like sins, they make me feel like a failure. Natey has earmites . . . again. He had them when we brought him home from the shelter. Unknown to us, he also had terrible allergies. Lately the allergies have flared up, and yesterday we noticed that his ears were cruddy. So I talked to my best friend who knows everything (and is VERY modest about it), and surfed the Internet. I determined that one of his ears was so bad it was very swollen, the other was having some problems, but not too bad. I didn't think he could wait until even Monday for the vet, and I can't afford emergency vet care, so after some research, I put together my own concoctions.

They worked!!! Today the ear is no longer red and swollen, and the junk from the mites is finally coming out. He's still itching them, but not shaking his head as bad, and he started acting more like himself. Here's what I used:

First an earwash of green tea. I used the kind with some chamomile in it. I brewed it a little strong, and just squirted it in the ear with a syringe and then cleaned the ear out with cotton balls and q-tips (but very carefully with the q-tips so I didn't push anything further in or stick them in far enough to damage inner ear parts).
I followed that by rubbing fresh aloe in the ear, with a cotton swab as far down as I dared go, and all around the outer ear with my fingers. After this, I left him alone a while so he could shake all the wash out.

Later I mixed Purell hand sanitizer with aloe and Vitamin E oil (squeezed from capsules) at about a 2:8 ratio. I mixed it then squirted it in the ear with a syringe and rubbed some all around the outer ear.

Yesterday I completed one full treatment, and I have done two today. I read about other ways to treat it, but some of them were a little too "chemical" for me, and some I just didn't completely trust. I had planned on using garlic oil, but read that garlic oil is too strong for dogs' ears, and I also was careful because I read that dogs' ear cannals go much deeper than humans' or cats', so you must be careful.

My biggest concern with him is that he's acting like a shelter dog again--all skittish and nervous and doesn't want to come even when I offer him food. I don't know how to assure him that I'm not trying to torture him, I just need to make him better. Poor guy. I feel badly that I let it get this far. Needless to say, he's still going to the vet this week, and I'll be getting him some medicine for the rest of his itchies.

I've realized that I have an AKC registerd Shepherd who cost us all of $200 (yes, we got a deal), but even if she had cost more, she's been in perfect health and that's all she'd have cost. The "free" cat, and the "cheap" shelter dog have already needed a fortune in medical care and time. Fortunately they're worth it, and I hope the kids will learn that when living things cost you a lot, you don't just abandon them.

1 comment:

evab said...

Ummm . . .you are THE best dog owner.