Can anyone give me advice on my dog's ears?

When your Vet says, "Leave her Ears alone"

just do it,

Once you get a degree in biology and veterinary what-ever.

Then you can say that.

Seriously, your vet knows best

I have a bassett hound who has very similar problems. She's constantly getting ear infections and the ointment isnt really doing the trick. She gets hot spots as well. The vet said my dog had allergies and there are some mild over the counter allergy medications that are safe for your dog. I would ask about that. Also, you can take some cotton and gently rub the inside of her ear to get some of the excess wax off which might be itching/bothering her. The vet also recommended getting a surgery that would clean the wax from around her ear drum, but it was very costly. Hope your pooch feels better :)

This may sound gross, but smell your dogs ear. If there is an odor, she has an ear infection. Ear wax is sterile and shouldn't have any smell. Usually the culprit of an ear infection is yeast. If you have a dog that has floppy ears, they are prone to ear infections. If you continually use ointment, you may be creating antibiotic-resistant organisms that will be hard to cure when she does have an infection.

Your dog may also have allergies. Try to change her food to a hyper-allergenic dog food. The best ones are at specialty pet food stores and may actually save you money in the long run. Make sure they don't have a lot of fillers in it. The more products in the food, the higher chance of your dog reacting to it.

I have a prescription for an antihistamine that my vet gave me in a large supply. It is called Atarax and works like a charm.

It seems your dog does not have an ear infection but that you are obsessed with cleaning her ears. You can actually damage her ears by what you are doing. Leave them alone. Rather than "ear cleaning" being the problem, as you mention a hot spot also, it seems that your dog is having trouble with yeast. You need to change your dog's diet. Start feeding her a raw food diet or at least a very high quality kibble like Orijen, Evo, and the like. Look up 6 star dog foods at www.dogfoodanalysis.com . Grain free is the way to go if you want to avoid the yeast infections. Most likely your dog's problems are due to allergies.

With persistent ear problems (assuming the presence of mites has been ruled out?) which don't improve with treatment, it's best to get your vet to take a swab from inside the ear, and get it cultured. This way the correct antibiotic (the one the bug reacts best to) can be identified. Otherwise it's 'try this, try that' which is counterproductive, and costly.

You might find it worth switching her feed to a lower protein one, especially during the hot weather. It sounds as if her system is overheating and this might help. There is a slow-release steroid injection that can be given which should cover her for up to 4 months - I've had this done, in desperation with one of my older Bassets who went into this itching/scratching/hot spots thing during the summer months. It worked.

Sulfadex (which you can buy at Walgreens in the pet aisle) for the hotspot.

And I'd check out a second opinion on the ears ... it sounds like an infection to me. There should NOT be brown smelly stuff in the ear canal. The Vet may have been trying to tell you that the ointment you are using is doing more harm than good.

PS - A dog's ear canal is shaped like the letter 'L' so you wouldn't be ABLE to go too far into the canal. Sounds like maybe you're not getting the swab in deep enough because you are afraid to dig deep!!!

I would try some peroxide in her ears for cleaning, it should boil any infection she has in her ears out and it is gentle. Also some mineral oil for any spots that look really irritated.