Thanks for your reply :wave: has Parsley had any other type of scan or just X-rays? Is it not possible for infection to spread to the brain anyway? That is what I am most concerned about
will it spread if we just leave it? Has Parsley had a culture done or not? Is he on antibiotics? Sorry for all the questions, I just need to know as much as possible in order to come to a decision
:?
Parsley has had a CT scan which proved incredibly useful - I cannot over stress how useful it was. It showed us the extent of the infection, the exact placement, involvement of the ear drums and the bone etc and helped us decide the way forward.
He has a really serious inner/middle ear abscess/infection.
He has had it cultured several times and we have tried nearly all the abx one can try (with the exception at present of convenia which each of the referral vets hold a different position on so we are still discussing whether t try it or not). He have had Zithromax, rifampicin, penicillins, baytril, and more I cannot recall. Also ear flushes, etc
At present he is just in a 'holding' position on Baytril (double standard dose) and we clean the exces puss out twice a day.
He IS comfortable - we know this as if he has any other thing happen to him then he is quite wimpish with pain. We wonder if the fact that many of the nerves are atrophied has led the pain to lessen? He runs around , eats like mad, does happy bunny flops, etc etc and is the same as he was before the abscess.
He has had this for at least 2.5 years to our knowledge - which is when his face suddenly 'lifted' as the nerves along the face atrophied after attack by the infection.
We have not gone for an op for the reasons stated in my last post.
It would be possible for infection to spread anyway - in fact my vet assummed it would do say quite rapidly when she saw the scale of the infection on the CT scan - but she feels that with the amount of infection and pus flying around the op would be very risky and perhaps abscess would just come back. On the two occasions that the abscess has formed a smaller off-shoot that has shown as a lump just below his ear the vet has opened that and drained pus and washed through the whole thing very successfully.
As I say this is just ONE approach to inner and middle ear infection . . others take a different route.
Hope that all helps:wave: