Most of you know my dog Sam, some of you don’t. He’s part Rhodesian Ridgeback and part something else, possibly multiple else's. He is very much more than a dog to me, he is part of my life path and gives me so much pleasure and company that is just amazing.
Normal Sam
He’s hurting today, and that makes me hurt. He’s got an ear infection and it has affected his whole being. He can’t really shake his head, and he’s holding his head off level. It’s just killing me.
How do I know it’s an infection? It stinks like hell. Literally, the smell and taste of an infection is like hell to me. It’s evil when I have it, it’s possibly even worse with Sam having it. I can tell when I have a nasal infection by the taste. I’ve had a couple of teeth abscess that I had to treat myself because I was a long ways from noplace. It’s not good.
Sam on a happier day
Go to the vet, right? Well, we went to the vet at the end of March for his rabies and parvo shots. That may seriously be where his problems came from. As awful as that is to say.
He also has a problem with his butt. I’ve wormed him, and checked for open sores. Next step is to massage his anal glands to see if that is the problem. Not a pleasant task for either one of us.
There are a couple of possibilities. It could be food allergies, but he’s eaten exactly the same thing for the 16 months I’ve had him. Not impossible, but not too likely in my mind. My best guess right now is that he’s picked up a serious infection and we need to treat that. I KNOW his ear is infected.
Yesterday morning I noticed he had a tender ear. I looked at it and saw an (smallish) wound on the outer edge of his ear flap. I thought it most likely that it was self inflicted from scratching. I cleaned it, rubbed Aloe on it, and didn’t think much more about it until this morning. His whole ear is inflamed and tender.
Investigative Sam
So. Will I take him to the Vet? Not right away at least. You see, this is the Tao of Sam, being with me he walks my path, for better or worse. Antibiotics are expensive and have limited value at best for most infections. For me or Sam. Any Vet around here will prescribe them immediately.
In this case, I am currently treating his ear with a mixture of olive oil and vitamin E. I will probably buy some aloe based oil to use as the medium and to slow the topical pain. I have gel based Aloe and it’s not so good in his ear canal.
I’ll talk to Erv (Sam’s other Dad. It’s complicated) this morning and map out a treatment plan. Not only is he a PHD biologist and botanist but his eldest daughter is a Vet Technician and has been for over 25 years. Bethany will KNOW.
Sam today. It's the other ear!
Thus is the Tao of Sam. I hate to even tell Erv because his wife will go crazy. She loves Sam completely and is a (semi) retired RN who now works with Hospice, which should tell you everything you need to know. The Tao of Tom is that I feel like the shittiest dog owner in Yuma County today. I know I’m not (they still FIGHT dogs in certain places) but I certainly feel like the path is not straight and not right.
So Sam and I have some adjustment to the Tao. I’ll let you know.
All words and photographs in this post are mine. For better or worse
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