Dog has fly bites on ears

[tropicalfish]

Can anyone help me out here. I have an outside dog that has flies all over his ears and his ears are bleeding. They look horrible. We have been putting Flies-Off on his ears, but now they are bleeding and look like they've been chewed on. I can't put anymore Flies-Off on him when his ears are bleeding so much.
Is there an herbal remedy to heal his pathetic ears and one to keep the flies off of him?

 

[goatlady2]

You can try some comfrey salve, very healing and soothing, but why are the flies attacking his ears? Something going on there.

 

[horse and hammer]

You could try zinc oxide ointment like desitin. The bugs don't like to injest it and it is ok to use on open sores. My vet recommended this treatment for flies on my horses' ears.

 

[tropicalfish]

You can try some comfrey salve, very healing and soothing, but why are the flies attacking his ears? Something going on there.

I had thought about using comfrey, but I thought you weren't suppose to use it on open sores. Do you think it would be okay? It is very common in our area for dogs and horses to have this problem. I've just never seen it this bad on a dog before.

You could try zinc oxide ointment like desitin. The bugs don't like to injest it and it is ok to use on open sores. My vet recommended this treatment for flies on my horses' ears.

Thanks, I'll check into that. Takes care of the bugs and the sores with one med.

 

[auntnuts]

We were camping on Lake Erie once during black fly season....we had no idea there was such a thing.anyway, my dobermans were bitten so badly by the flies their ears were all chewed up looking. Since we were out in the middle of no where, I put heavy amounts of anti bacterial cream on them........neo sporin or something similar. It apparantly soothed the bites and the flies could not get thru the ointment.

 

[goatlady2]

I use comfrey on cuts, etc. on the goats and dogs and cats and myself. Never have had any problems. Why wouldn't you use it? It's properties are healing and cell regeneration.

 

[summerthyme]

Comfrey certainly will help. But what you also need is to get some "SWAT" ointment- it's a fly repellent ointment which can be used directly on wounds and sores. It's made for horses, but I've used it on dogs before. I don't like to use it on their legs or a spot on their body which they cal lick easily, but ears... no problem.

Don't worry about the warnings about comfrey's toxicity. If you FEED it to the dog by the pound, after several weeks (like he'd eat it!) he might have some severe liver problems. The *only* proven case of liver failure due to comfrey EVER recorded (due solely to comfrey ingestion) was a young man who was a "binge eater"... habitually ate a single food for days or weeks. Three weeks of eating only comfrey killed him. Sheesh!

There ARE liver-toxic compounds in comfrey- and coltsfoot- and other herbs. They're called pyrizolidine alkaloids and enough of them will cause something called venous occlusive liver disease. It's not going to happen from the occasional cup of tea, and most certainly not from topical application.

Aha! I wonder... were you thinking of ARNICA? That is an herb which works wonderfully on sprains and bruises but shouldn't be used on open sores or cuts....

One other idea if the dog is really being tormented... make him a bonnet out of tulle or mosquito netting! I know- he'll look silly, but he'll feel a lot better. Those fly masks are wonderful on my horses and they really seem to understand that they help. You might be able to convince your dog to leave one on.

Summerthyme

 

[tropicalfish]

What would I do without you? Thank you so much for setting me straight on the comfrey. I read it in one of my herb books plus, a friend had also told me to never use comfrey on open wounds. The reasoning behind it was because the wound would heal rapidly from the outside and leave the infection on the inside.

My friend allowed me to harvest some of her comfrey. I brought it home and let it dry. Does dried comfrey work as well on wounds as fresh?

Summerthyme, I'll check at our local Tractor Supply and see if they carry SWAT. I'm sure they would, they have everything else. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[goatlady2]

Seems to me if the wound is clean, and you did say the dog's ears were bleeding which is a cleansing action, and there is no infection present to start with, the comfrey salve would work quite well. It seems to me to be difficult to make a good salve with a dried herb, but you might want to "rehydrate" the comfrey by soaking in warm oil, strain and then use that infused oil in your salve formula or even just use the oil on the ears. You can use dried herb in a poltice but I don't think that would work for dog's ears! LOL I had a flash of the poor dog with his ears wrapped in bulky bandages to keep the poltice on. IIRC, it is puncture wounds that one has to be really careful about, they are sometimes very hard to clean, and bacteria have a tendancy to be at the very bottom of the puncture just from the nature of the wound, so yes, those must heal from the inside out, but we're talking deep tissue, muscle wounds like stepping on a nail or a gunshot wound or knife wound, or deep ulcers i.e. bed sores and the like.