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My dog went deaf from Tri-Otic ear medication. What can I do?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed | Male | neutered | 13 years and 6 months old | 21 lbs

my 13 year old minpoodle was given tri-otic for a bacteria in his ear. he went totally deaf.right away.what can i do besides a neuorologist

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Jennifer Summerfield, DVM CPDT-KA

Veterinarian, Certified Dog Trainer

Published on July 21st, 2018

Poor Dusty! I'm sorry to hear that this happened. Unfortunately, deafness can rarely be seen as a side effect of ear medications that contain gentamicin, which Tri-Otic does. The best thing you can do is to stop using the medication immediately as soon as the hearing loss is noted. Hearing returns in some dogs with this problem, while in others the deafness is permanent. There is no treatment that has been shown to help, so all you can really do is wait and see.

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    Answered By C. Rathjens, DVM

    Veterinarian

    Published on November 4th, 2018

    Deafness is a very rare side effect of some ear medications. Deafness can also, more commonly, be caused by repeat ear infections and hearing also naturally declines with age. So, it's hard to know exactly what's going on here. The good news, is that if it was related to the medication, rather than other causes, than the hearing may return over time. The bad news is there really isn't anything to do but wait. I hope Jac is back to normal soon.

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