Raw Diet & Ear Infections

Q: My 2 year old golden retriever is on a raw diet. Since she was a baby, she's been getting chronic ear infections - and we've tried everything our vet recommended, and we clean her ears regularly. The vet now thinks the ear infections are due to a food allergy, and wants us to put her on a hypoallergenic kibble - at least for the next few months - but I'm really uncomfortable with changing her food. What else can we try?

A: Dr. Susan Krakauer, the Roving Vet, responds: Although I am a great proponent of a raw diet, and in many dogs this alone will solve allergy problems, unfortunately there are some dogs out there who will still have allergies and over reactive immune systems. Chronic ear infections are a pretty typical immune system disorder in dogs these days and it is unlikely that the underlying cause is a food allergy. We often like to pin allergies on food in dogs because it is something that we can control and change - unlike the other varied environmental allergens floating around in the air - and sometimes a change in food will cause a temporary improvement. I highly doubt that going from a good, nutritious raw food diet to a hypoallergenic processed food full of chemicals and additives is going to solve your dog's problem.



The other approach of conventional veterinary medicine is to use steroids and antibiotics to suppress the problem. As you have probably already discovered, this is effective for the first few infections, but as they recur, the medications don't work as well or last as long. As things get worse and worse and we start with stronger and stronger drugs, or even surgery, from a holistic perspective, all we are doing is driving the disease deeper into the body. From a holistic perspective if the ear infections keep coming back, that's a good thing. If they don't we might wonder where the immune imbalance will show up next and it will be much worse if it's in the guts, joints, or deeper organs.



As far as solutions to your pup's problem, unfortunately ear infections can be stubborn and difficult to treat, but I would recommend seeing a veterinary homeopath, putting your dog on some strong omega oil supplements and antioxidants and possibly changing the protein of the food you're feeding (ie, eliminating beef, or switching from chicken to turkey) for a month or so. I feel that in these cases the homeopathy is necessary to rebalance the immune system and deal with the underlying allergy.