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My dog's hearing improved on steroids. Does he have an ear infection?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Boxer | Male | unneutered | 79 lbs

Further to my last email, my question was; Does the fact he is regaining some hearing on the steroids mean that he has some kind of ear/canal infection/issue making him deaf?

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Dr. Strydom, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on July 16th, 2019

Yes, that would be the assumption. Steroids are very potent anti-inflammatories. So he likely has/had some inflammation in/near the inner ear canal that was causing his hearing loss. It is not something your vet would know just by looking in the ear with an otoscope. This inflammation would be behind the ear drum and a CT scan would have been needed to find it. Hopefully this course of steroids will resolve the issue completely. If you wean him off the steroids and the hearing loss returns then there is something else going on in there, at which point, a CT scan would be recommended.

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